Can I take 35mm style photos with a digital camera?

Question

I absolutely love 35mm photography, everything from the focus, to the color and to the texture of its photos. I know how dreadfully expensive 35mm film is, so I am wondering if there's any way to take 35mm style photos with a digital camera (or if anyone knows any low-cost digital cameras that do this, or Photoshop techniques)

Here are some examples of what kind of picture I want to take:

http://www.zinkwazi.com/blog/images/807025269_crw_0714p.jpg

http://www.wireheadarts.com/cutiful-35mm.jpg

Answer 1

What is 35mm style? I'm not sure what you mean exactly. So I'll answer this from a few different angles and hopefully answer whatever it is you are asking.

1. (Focus and Deepth of Field)
Digital works exactly the same as film cameras in this regard. Your basic digital point and shoot camera gives you the same options as a film point and shoot. If you want to be able to manipulate the deepth of field you will need a digital SLR just like you would with film. They don't tend to be low cost though.

2. (Color & Texture)
35mm does not have set color characteristics or film grain. Those are determined by the type of film you use. For example T-Max or Velvia.

With digital color depends on the calibration of your camera and there is no film grain. However, there are photoshop plug-ins and maybe some for lightbox that allow you to mimic the characteristics of specific films.

3. (Prints and paper textures)

Okay, most people print out their images on a standard ink jet printer. There is nothing wrong with it and most people can't really tell the difference with the newer printers.

However, there are other (more expensive) options. Light jet printers are specialty printers that use light on regular photography paper instead of ink on paper. You can find a place or two in most major metropolitan areas that offers light jet printing.

Digital Negatives are negatives made from a digital image. They are really usefull when working with alternative process printing like platinum-palladium printing or tintypes.

Answer 2

Why not go for the real thing? I personally do not think that 35mm film is expensive. Go to Target and get Fuji Superia 400 for about $2 a roll (in packs of 4 rolls). Development and printing is about $6 or 7 per roll. If you buy a decent used 35mm camera and a couple of lenses, you would have to shoot one heck of a lot of 35mm film before the whole package costs what a comparable digital camera costs (D80, 30D, etc.) Look for Nikon FM2, Pentax K1000, Olympus OM2, etc. These cameras can be had for a bargain and the manual-focus lenses are readily available on Ebay.

But beyond that, it's not the camera that makes the picture, it is the photographer. And with digital, you can add saturation, add noise, blur the photograph, etc. using image editing software, and you can achieve some of the "film" effects in this manner.

Answer 3

The Fuji Finepix S5200 is not a DSLR, it is a fix lens advanced point and shoot. Fuji does make DSLRs(they take Nikon lenses and speedlights), which are the S series S1 through S5.

Things to note. Negative film has a 7 stop variance, slide film has a 5 stop variance, digital has a 5 stop variance. What does this mean? Negative film is a little more forgiving on wrong exposure as well as being able to handle a wider range of dark and light tones without blowing out the lights or making the darks too dark.

This can be overcome by a) getting your exposure spot on, b) using filters like a graduated ND filter, c) bracketing shots and bringing them together using a technique called HDR(high dynamic resolution). HDR takes multiple exposures and blends them together to get a more even distribution of lights and darks.

If you are looking for the film "look" as in grain styles...this too can be accomplished in Photoshop. There are various plug ins and settings that can be purchased used to mimic the look of 35mm film.

Opticverve makes a free plugin and there are other companies that sell theirs. See the June issue of Outdoor Photographer. They have an article that goes over some of these plugins.

Answer 4

it depends on exactly what you consider vintage. for me a vintage camera is a speed graphic or my mom's graflex which was a great camera to use. these cameras had bellows focus. i loved my Sony Mavica FD85 because it replicated using a vintage camera right down to changing the floppy disk instead of a film back. My Mavica even broke so that it displayed the image up-side-down on the LCD, making it just like in a "view camera"! if you decide on getting a used Mavica FD, you will also need to get a USB floppy drive. both are hard to come by. and at the end of the day, you will only get "email grade" photos. Which is why i traded mine in, to get a digital camera that could fully replace my Ricoh 35mm film camera.

Answer 5

I shoot strictly with film and I really don't find it that expensive...unless you're going to use a higher quality professional type film and that's not completely outrageous either. Standard Kodak or Fuji film is about $7-$10 dollars for 5 rolls of film...that's a $1.50-$2.00 a roll. Developing is only $4-$7 a roll for standard film at Wal-mart or Walgreen's. I think that digital is too easy...it takes away a lot of the "talent" to photography....but that's just my opinion...all you digital users out there.....don't take offense.

Answer 6

I was going to tell you there was no such thing as a low cost digital SLR, but then I went to my favorite spot to check out prices -- ebay -- and discovered there is a Fuji Finepix for under $250.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FUJI-FINEPIX-S5200-57x-ZOOM-DIGITAL-SLR-CAMERA-BUNDLE_W0QQitemZ140123412493QQihZ004QQcategoryZ50530QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

My brother has the Nikon D80 which costs $1000 or more depending on the package. He loves it and has been urging me to purchase it. (I am a trained photojournalist who doesn't work in the field anymore, but I still take thousands of photos with a variety of digital cameras. All my 35mm equipment is collecting dust!)

Another good place to check out cameras is amazon.com. There are many users who have written extensively about their experiences with cameras.

FYI: I was strictly a Nikon user with the 35mm. Now, I am a great fan of Fuji and have several of their cameras. I even gave one to my cousin to get her started.

Happy hunting!!!

Answer 7

yes digital is so much better though go to walmart and get the kodak it is awesome