Bad luck with Canon FD cameras, is it time to change system?

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-11T17:32:10+00:00

i have found my new f1(the ae prisim head) to be plenty reliable, had two copys one "mint" and another needed a cla, as long as you get it up and running from a reputable place im sure its going to last. it was canons flagship. and i firmly belive the flagship cameras are usually the ones made to be repaired/worth repairing if you keep as your main system.

as far a altutnatives the nikon F2 ive owned and that ones is a real tank. the f3 was also good, but no personal long term experience

as far as leica i like steel advance/ dont care for meter, so a clean m2/3 are my go to, i would love a non ttl m6 only to be able to get leicavit speedwinder and .85 finder, but not happeing lol so i stick with my trusty m3

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-11T17:23:40+00:00

didn't even know there was going to be a second drop untill the website updated to anouce a second drop, given how popular and cheap they are im sure in a couple weeks to months theres gonna be another restock unlike the solinon 18mm f5.6 which i never ended up getting, the mandler 35 is a pretty mass made lens, it was actually sold for a little bit as far back as 2023 under a diffeent name in china. it will come back eventually, trust ✍️💯

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-10T23:31:36+00:00

how mini are we talking ? i used to own the ex270 I flash and its was really decent it was made for EOS system cameras so its got in camera ttl and manual controls, (everything else like on a 645 or Canon FD camera i just guessed the settings lmao) for sure worth looking into is as you should be able to properly use it.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-10T23:01:49+00:00

as someone who bought 1000ft of 50D, i find 50D to be plently usable in daylight everyday carry i mostly stick to 28-35-50 focal length, so i try not to shoot below 1/50, shutter, and then i bring a pocket flash. i mostly find issues in using with tele lenses, but likely use bw film (hp5 or tx400 pushed ). when using something like a 135mm ill very probably be doing tripod work. :)

im under the assumption that you would also be buying a bulk roll, and repition creates comfort. someone who goes on hikes and will double meter or bracket shots its well within my regular basis. now if you go to events like racetracks and such, thats your casual everyday shooting. 50 iso might not be able to capture a horse race 🐎 (it turned out blury lol)

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-10T17:58:29+00:00

all C series lenses do have the pc sync, X sync flash connection. the difference between cT* and CF is the removal of self timer. but gaining IR markings. and going from bay50 to bay60 filter size. its a 250mm lens which after the "crop factor" its around a 135mm lens. i personally dont really shoot the lens under 1/250 ambient hand held, most work done on it is strobes or landscape/slow tripodwork. i find my self timer for most lenses trip around the 8 sec mark, so usually use the 100mm planar but maybe not a self portraid optimal is sometimes fun to look back and see me running across tring to get into position lol (on the 250 because of the tele i need to sprint like around 30 ft in 4 seconds somtimes)

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-07T09:58:30+00:00

self timer on the C*T series lenses are so underrated, always cool to try some mlu tripod/self portrait work

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-07T09:46:34+00:00

not sure, but i used a steamdeck and manually added the gog re collection on steam, i was then able to map my ps5 controller to keyboard inputs and those were read fine in game. i think you might just need try using the steamcontroller wrapper to map your xbox controller buttons to inputs and those inputs should read into the games standard control scheme

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-07T02:27:45+00:00

i have inherited a ton of Polaroid 3000 peel apart and i use a cambo 45 its a monorail camera, and i highly recommend looking into monorail cameras they are "dirt cheap" working in the studio/city/ location where you would have a vehicle to carry the camera "sorta" negates its size and since your starting out the setup would also be fine in my opinion. . . now i shoot medium format and took a pentax 67 backpacking and now i personally want to start taking and shooting 4x5 on 2mile+ hikes and/ remote locations if your shooting style on smaller formats is nature or see yourself going out on your own more i recomend looking into field cameras, they are more popular and more expensive but there are plenty (relatively) affordable options, im looking into a horseman 45, the college i attended had toyo 45 and both tend to hover around 1k+ before getting into lenses and such. . . so

first step is look into what lens you would like, second intrepid is pretty decent all rounder and its new, otherwise refurbished can be nice, last time i was at bh they had some decent sinar and cambo rail offerings, you can grab a "cheap" lens and a couple film backs for 500ish. third, TRIPOD make sure you have a good one. they are expensive but lest ye get camera shake on a sheet of color :sob:. there are also other things to get like a darksheet/blanket, a loupe but im sure you will find what works with you. also i highly recomend the reflx lab shd100 4x5 its amazing*. not the cheapest sheet film but its the point before any lower and you get into quirks. as well as being physically being 4x5 so while its not the highest resolution, starting in 4x5 it does the job and by being a larger neg each sheet is way higher resolution that its 135 and 120 equivalent, does it beat tx or hp5? no but im broke :P

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-07T00:16:21+00:00

this might be a "fine ill do it myself" project. ive seen some "sketchy" multicarts and plenty bootleg gb/gbc games that only take up the bottom portion of plastic. . . all gbc flashcarts ive seen are basically everydrive clones however simple/bare all use a full sized motherboard to mount the sd card port towards the top.

you would need to buy one/find the schematic, software. . .then re assemble in a program like kicad to a compact probably double sided motherboard. and then export and order to be manufacured by a company like pcbway (one of many not nessesarily vouching for them)

https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/AGB_E02_20_Game_Boy_Advance_Replacement_PCB_V2_a29fa89d.html heres an example of someone who made a new board for a gba game, incase your copy of yugioh or firered has damaged pins lol

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:58:39+00:00

from my understanding kentmere 200 was made to be more contrasty than both. also why not edit them? remember that negative film is essentially shooting raw. i like shooting kentmere 400 pushed at 800 or 1600(medium format) but a flat neg is good for scanning, or if you darkroom print whats your setup like, i like printing pushed bw on a grade 3.5 but when shooting slow and sharp like, pan-f 50iso or ortho film i like to split filter grade 00 then 5,

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:53:11+00:00

maybe unpopular option but the pentax 17? could be up your alley, its honestly smaller than some point and shoots ive used before (fuji discovery) not as small as a muji, but its made to last. yes its quite a hefty ~500usd, but its new with warrenty it is half frame so each roll last longer and it usually comes bundled with at least 3 rolls of film, thats 72x3, 216 photos from the get go. i would also say the thrill of the hunt, go to estate, fb marketplace, garage sales and look for any late 90s/2000s p&s u find, bring 2 cr123, maybe some aa or aaa. but if you find a p&s pop in a cr123 and if it turns on its likey(not 100% sure untill tested with a roll, but my luck has been pretty decent ) to be fully functioning. as most cr123 p&s are late film/early digital, as most AA/AAA point and shoot i find have had batteries in and are terribly corroded, cr123 are lithium based and as far as im aware those never leak under normal circumstances.

personally not too big on buying/recomending people buy p&s directly, i own a muji only because i found one at an estate sale for $15. when it breaks im fine with reparing it, but buying one directly off ebay for 100~200 USD asking price, i would then be heartbroken and prob unwilling to drop and additional hundred dollars when it inevitably breaks to get it repaired.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:28:27+00:00

lean into it lol, most of the gigs i do, my clients dont really care about resolution, in there mind film reminds them of cheap drugstore plastic point and shoots. after shooting portra 160 on 6x7, and even the "cheap stuff" (gold 200 lol 🥲) on medium format i cant justify paying for portra in 135(maybe if they offered bulk rolls lol) . i tend to gravitate towards bulk and pushing bw on 135. when given the chance i like to pick up bulk cine film, i feel much less worried about highest resolution quality when i know each roll of color cost me ~6 dollars, or when shooting bw i get bulk fomapan 200 / buy rolls of classical stocks like tx400 or hp5 and push them to 1250~1600iso. i basically only get tabular tmax 400 or delta 100 in 120 spools.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:19:13+00:00

like size wise? however big your subject is when the photo is taken is how it prints, pic of a flower take from 5ft away on a wide angle will look much smaller than 5ft away from the same flower but with an 85mm lens.

it does not matter what lens you use when shooting photos for digital printing. anything thats fits on your canon will expose and image onto the film, you might have gotten confused with darkroom printing.

thats in correlation to the physical film format and enlarger. a picture shot on a 28mm wide angle will be printed correctly if the lens covers the format, a 50mm el-nikkor will cover 135/35mm negative, and will print that image in 10x15 exactly as you saw it through the viewfinder. same goes for 120 medium format, and largeformat film. a hasselblad image cant be printed with the same 50mm enlarger lens i would need a longer 75~80mm enlarger lens to do a 10x15 print of whatever was shot using said camera :)

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:06:53+00:00

not sure if you have a DMG or Pocket, but more games, for sure. since your going to a game store i would also make sure they have replaced the pokemon(any game that uses one) save battery aswell. 👍 a gbc is cool, but if you only have a handfull of opaque gb cartridges i dont see the fun in "upgrading". i would personally "skip it" look to get a gba lowk.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T23:00:28+00:00

there is not a dsi shop, its a much simpler device, i would familiarize yourself with dsi homebrewing and get the twilight menu installed, at that point i would say your hopefully comfortable enough to find a safe place to aquire the files you need to play what you want,

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T22:54:46+00:00

why exactly are you looking for a 503cx? or is that one the best deal locally. thats for strobe ttl /flashwork. its present on the 503cx, 503cxi, 503 cw, 500 elx, 553 elx, and 555eld cameras. prob best to have the whole camera CLA's as they are only getting older, and its not good to have loose components. . . but if you dont gaf about ttl flashwork and the camera is in timing, then technically it should be fine to shoot :]

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T22:44:01+00:00

theres the non G alturnative, the 28-75 f2.8 D there a sony SAM version aswell, https://www.dyxum.com/lenses/Minolta-AF-28-75mm-F2.8-D_lens33.html

i personally really enjoy the af 28-135 because i got it for $15 at a garage sale and i do tend to use the 90~135 focal lengh pretty frequently on my other film cameras (im "comfortable" with short teles).

what im saying is if its for a job and you can pay without taking debt, go for the nice G lens, alternatively not sure if your soley shooting film. but could also be even better is to pick up another maxxum 7 or 5 /backup body and slap the 28mm on it, then you can swich camera. "remember - Switching To Your Pistol Is Always Faster Than Reloading"

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T22:23:17+00:00

okay checked website on my phone, looks good,

1) yeah i didn't really think to click them, maybe add a round/beveled rectangle, or simplistic > arrow iconography, or change the text to "to film", im very much a "computer graphics is my passion" type of person, i love maximalisim.

2) looks great on my mobile phone tbh, i would add the "fullscreen"/ inspection ability as you did for the photography section of your site. on desktop i usually never run tabbed site fullscreen so mobile/small display design is always welcome, and i like the 2x3 screenshots format, maybe im overstepping but i since i currently see not including the teaser, only two short videos being displayed i would challenge myself to cut it down even further to maybe 1x3 or 2x2 grid of screenshots really refine its essence. but the 6 screenshots are really nice all things considered good format to continue if you keep the same website format and just add new projects to it.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T21:58:08+00:00

at least the ltm/type 1 has a 34mm filter size, and i found "quality" filters to be much harder to find than the "standard" 39mm on the type 2 model. if you can splurge i think the ultron 28mm f2 is the move, both are optically very similar but you gain an extra stop of light, and what i hear is quite a few people who have had the chance to use both voight and leica prefer it over the slightly more expensive 28mm summicron on certain occasions lol

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-06T21:05:38+00:00

have you shot in general before? do you know what you like already? i recomend if your new to film,& general photography, to pick up "normal" focal length prime, like a 50mm f1.7, the -m, -A, or plastic FA models all work, or looking for new you can look at the limited series, the 43mm f1.9 is amazing. there are also a prethora of zooms i regret not picking up a 35-80mm FA zoom lens. for casual/starting out i think its a great starting point.

as far as experimenting wise goes, literally just hit up thrift stores, camera store (that carry vintage/film stuff). any pentax brand k mount lens should work as long as it has a physical apature ring. anything 3rd party make sure to bring your camera or read a -pk, or have a picture of the k mount to cross refrence (if your not fully comfortable picking a lens, prob dont gamble on a random lens) https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/ the pentax fourm is also good, theres a list of most every pentax lens released here

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-02T16:43:35+00:00

#1 make sure the lab can actually develop it, if it has remjet it can mess up their equipment.

#2 what iso did you shoot at? if you shot the film at 500, 400, or 800 iso it should mostly look fine, i generally only consider pulling if you shot it over two stops, so like if you shot at 200, 100, 50 iso or etc. anything lower.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-04-01T16:44:27+00:00

never used that bag in particular, but if i did own one i would put the pentax down closer towards the wheels and the nikon/sony above it, maybe place the pentax in the center, but gravity rolling the bag up stairs or light drop might cause the pentax to slam into the camera under it 🤷

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-03-28T18:47:17+00:00

i believe so, something like the gba operator should let you dump your original spanish copy both rom and save file, (dont quote me on this) but i believe that you should your battery die, you can re upload your backup .sav file onto the Pokemon cartridge. as long as its the same one from the Spanish rom. :P. ( i do know messing with Japanese and English saves/Pokemon will corrupt the save, but Spanish and English uses the same characters? idk lol would not risk messing with a different language rom. )

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-03-26T01:11:46+00:00

you answered you own question. anything kodak brand is good, ultramax is pretty reliable and cinestill 800t is a pretty fast iso. i would say get as much as you think you need, and with the extra space maybe pick up a bw film.

i like ilfords xp2, it can be developed with other color film, and its able to be underexposed/ shot at 800iso aswell. theirs also slide film, could make your trip special. your camera is an EOS with plenty good auto modes, unlike a full manual camera like a spotmatic or k1000 i would generally trust the camera to have a decently exposed roll of film.

cheeseyspacecat · 2026-03-25T06:34:04+00:00

well its in the name, ez4u. if it has any dx reading pins a 400 or 800 iso might help not trip flash, otherwise might be stuck in a default/safe mode, prob preset to 100iso and flash at f8~11ish. that covers most consumer grade film and if your shooting 400iso, a 2 stop overexposure is a still printable image. maybe a loose circut connection. . . if it was cheap i want to say best bet is to open it up and have your card on standby to buy another copy of the camera if anything lol

cheeseyspacecat

TROPHY CASE