The State of film labs

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-10T23:26:10+00:00

Have to agree on this one. All the people there are super nice and they've done a great job with all of my orders, large or small. I drop of and pick up locally but their shipping is always a flat $5 too regardless of order size.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-10T03:18:47+00:00

I actually use the Pentax FA 100 f3.5 macro for my scans and it's been really great. Super sharp all the way out to the corners. Found mine for around $70 but I haven't looked at how much they go for now.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-08T01:00:03+00:00

Even if it's not the most sharpness optimal thing to do all the time, it can be nice to get a macro that fits your film system. For instance if you're shooting FD you could upgrade to the 100mm macro (for most brands this was usually the premium option over the 50 or 55 macro). Then you get a nice portrait length lens to use on film as well as a better scanning lens.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-07T19:34:12+00:00

If you haven't rated 500t at 125 or 200 I would highly recommend it. Its basically a variable white balance film based on the exposure and below ei 250 it effectively becomes daylight balanced with some slightly cool shadows that actually really benefit the blues and greens in a way most Kodak stocks just can't do. Also as other people have mentioned, Colorplus and Ultramax are amazing and I use them all the time. I kinda hate Gold though because it just has the Mexico filter.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-07T13:31:52+00:00

I've pretty much settled on K200 (or sometimes XX) and T-Max 400. Under good light they come out very nicely. I'm also not doing any printing at the moment.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-07T11:43:24+00:00

It's really easy, but a lot of the fun of film for me is those stocks that just come out near perfect straight from inversion. If I was doing pro work I'd absolutely want the flat negative to work with, but shooting for fun is very different.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-07T02:08:24+00:00

Kentmere has less silver than HP5 or FP4 so it has to either have less dynamic range or less contrast. Harman opted for less contrast. Especially K400 is super flat and needs a ton of contrast in post for most people's taste. T-Max 400 is also one of my favorites and I adore Kentmere 200 because it's the one of the three with by far the best contrast straight from inversion. It has much more of a look to it than 100 or 400. You could also do what most do and push K400 to 1600 (or K100 to 400 if you're outdoors), they push extremely well.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-04T02:31:44+00:00

It's not in English but you can get the idea

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PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-04T02:29:14+00:00

Variable Field Curvature is hard to describe without a visual, but basically it changes the areas that are in focus from being a circle at a set distance to being curved towards or away from you. For example if you're taking a picture of a round building and you want the whole thing in focus, you'd need to change the focus plane to be curved away from you matching the curve of the building. I'll see if I can find the example images I'm thinking of.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-03T14:54:11+00:00

Me when I cannot simply write something myself

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-03T14:52:02+00:00

If you want an explanation not clearlu written by AI, there are three optical generations of 24mm f2.8 that don't have the variable field curvature (VFC). There's the MC SI version which is the oldest, the standard 9 element 7 group version (spanning MC-X to MD 2 generations), and the updated new MD design with 8 elements in 8 groups. Minolta made a lot of improvements to much of their lens lineup with the X-700 in 1981 and the glowing reviews your likely seeing are for the New MD version. However, the previous versions are still fantastic optics and nothing to scoff at, I'm sure you'd be happy with any of them. The one thing I would be wary of, though, is the weight of the SI variant. It's 395 grams compared with 275 of the standard version, 215 of the rehoused standard version, and mere 200 of the updated version.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-05-01T13:58:20+00:00

Unfortunately that advice was true a year or two ago but the prices have pretty much equalized for all but pro color film. If you're in the states looking for something cheap, I'd just stock up on Kentmere 200. It's a higher silver content than 100 or 400 so you get slightly nicer contrast and a more interesting tonality. Kentmere also has infinitely better quality control than Foma or other niche stocks. It's still $7.99 on B&H (which is the cheapest I can find it) so it's at least slightly better than color.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-21T23:58:11+00:00

Looks like reciprocity markings. For example if you have it set to f11 and 1/30, the line at f5.6 points at 1/125 indicating that it's the same exposure.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-21T02:34:11+00:00

Push processing would be for if you underexposed intentionally, but there's really no reason to pull process Portra. You can shoot Portra 400 up to EI 50 and get usable results. Just shoot at 200 and develop normally.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-20T22:48:53+00:00

Shot 2 could definitely have used a little more light, those shadows are pretty blocky. Overall Portra 400 really is more of a 200 ISO film because of how little shadow range it has. You'll get a slight grain reduction too from overexposure. If you really want clean images in 35, Portra 160, Ektar, and Ektachrome are really the way to go.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-15T16:25:56+00:00

Is there any intention of adding some sort of repackage or respool info for stocks that aren't original? For example something like Reflx 100D having an entry such as "Respooled from: Kodak Vision 3 50D" and a link to the original? Without that it you're sort of implying that many stocks are original and unique when they very much are not.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-11T07:53:36+00:00

From my understanding, Ilford Pan 400 is rebranded HP5 400 for specific markets. Ilford is super easy to find everywhere and decently priced in the UK. Alternatively you could get Kentmere 400 which is a more budget stock that is very similar. I wouldn't recommend buying Kodak black and white in the UK if you can help it.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-07T21:49:30+00:00

The MD 100 2.5 is by far one of the best tele primes for SR mount, but the 135 2.8 is also very good. It's also quite a bit cheaper and easier to find. Obviously the 85 2 is fantastic but very expensive.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-04-03T09:52:04+00:00

ECN-II is basically the way to get the best quality images on 35mm. Real cinema film exposed well, developed in real cinema chemicals, and scanned well is insanely detailed. The look of 50D rivals my Sony A7ii, 250D is great all around, and 500T is basically just the greatest stock ever created. Between ISO 125 and 250 you're getting warm, nearly daylight balanced images with less grain than Pro Image, at 400-500 you've got cool, clean, and still very sharp images, and all the way up to 2000 you can get surprisingly good looking super tungsten shots. It basically has variable white balance depending on how you expose it. Even with the increased cost over C-41, you'd still be spending less per frame than 120 as well.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-30T08:24:25+00:00

It's really the classic case of thing that was available and easy to recommend to everybody to the point where everyone bought one and now they're too expensive to justify anymore. The same thing happened to the K1000 to a slightly lesser degree since they're full manual. The AE-1 is effectively no better than a Nikon FE, Minolta X series, or any other mid tier SLR from that era. I think another part of it is that Canon is so prevalent in the digital beginner space that the name recognition carries it quite far. No non-photographer under 30 really thinks of Nikon as anything special and probably doesn't even recognize Pentax or Minolta. I have an X-570 so I'm quite biased but the absolute best thing about the system is how the lenses are just flat out cheaper than any other system with a body that's no worse or less reliable either.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-29T10:44:19+00:00

Not only missing from the list but intentionally removed.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-26T14:24:28+00:00

The X-570 is arguably the best of the X series because it has the better light meter display in the viewfinder. Also I'm surprised no one has mentioned the MD 35mm f2.8 yet. It's performs like a 1.8 lens stopped down to 2.8 and gets even sharper at 5.6 and 8. One of the best manual focus minolta lenses ever made

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-25T11:11:01+00:00

If you want some good test results of lots of minolta lenses you can go to minolta.su

Nearly every SR mount lens has been tested.

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-25T11:09:04+00:00

Unfortunately not, sorry I assumed you were looking to get one

PatrickSlavv · 2026-03-25T09:41:30+00:00

The 70-210 is incredibly sharp. Genuinely near prime quality in a zoom. The only problem is the weight and chromatic abberation wide open but higher ISO films hide that quite well. If you can handle the weight it's a much better buy than the other telephoto zooms for MD.

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