How to Use Almost Any 35mm Film Camera
Look for some basic controls on the camera., Change your battery if your camera has one., Check that a film isn't already loaded., Load your film., Set the film speed.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Look for some basic controls on the camera.
Not all cameras will have all of these, and some might not even have any of them, so don't worry if you see something described that isn't on your camera.
We'll be referring to these later in the article, so it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with them now.
The shutter speed dial sets the shutter speed, i.e. the time for which the film is exposed to light.
More modern (1960s and onwards) cameras will show this in regular increments like 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, etc.
Older cameras use weird and seemingly arbitrary values.
The aperture ring (closest to the body), set to f/2.8.
The aperture ring controls the aperture, which is a small opening near the front of the lens.These are usually marked in standard increments, and nearly any lens will have settings of f/8 and f/11.
The aperture ring is usually on the lens itself, but not always; some later (1980s and onwards) SLRs will allow this to be controlled from the camera itself, for example.
Some systems (like Canon EOS) don't have aperture rings at all.
A larger aperture (smaller number, as the size of the aperture is expressed as a ratio against the focal length) means a shorter depth of field (i.e. less of your scene in focus), and more light being let onto the film.
A smaller aperture will let less light onto the film, and give more depth of field.
For example, with a 50mm focused to 8 feet (2.4 m), at an aperture of f/5.6, the portion of your scene from about
6.5 to 11 feet (2.0 to
3.4 m) would be in focus.
At an aperture of f/16, the portion from about
4.5 to 60 feet (1.4 to
18.3 m) would be in focus.
The ISO dial, which may be marked as ASA, tells the camera the speed of your film.
This may not be a dial at all; it might be a series of button presses.
Either way, this is necessary for cameras that have automatic exposure mechanisms, as different films will require a different exposure; ISO 50 film will require an exposure twice as long as an ISO 100 film, for example.
On some cameras, this is not necessary, and sometimes it's not even possible; many more recent cameras read the film speed from electrical contacts on the film cartridge itself.
If your camera has electrical contacts inside the film chamber, then it's a DX-capable camera.
This usually "just works"
so don't worry about this too much.
The typical Canon mode dial.
The mode dial sets various automatic exposure modes, if your camera has them available.
This is common on fully-automatic electronic SLRs from the late 80s onwards.
Sadly, all cameras call their modes different things; for example, Nikon call shutter-priority "S"
and Canon inexplicably call it "Tv".
We'll explore this later, but you want to keep it in "P" (meaning program automatic) most of the time.
The focusing ring focuses the lens to the distance to your subject.
This will usually have distances in both feet and meters, as well as an ∞ marking (for focusing an infinite distance away).
Some cameras (like the Olympus Trip 35) will, instead, have focusing zones, sometimes with cute little symbols marking what the zones are.
The rewind release button is usually on the underside of a camera.
The rewind release allows you to rewind your film.
Normally, while shooting the film is locked so that it can only move forwards and not backwards into the canister, for obvious reasons.
The rewind release simply unlocks this safety mechanism.
This is usually a small button located on the base of the camera, slightly recessed into the body, but some cameras are weird and have it elsewhere.
The rewind crank, usually on the left hand side of the camera.
Note flip-out lever.
The rewind crank lets you wind your film back into the canister.
It's usually on the left-hand-side, and more often than not has a little flip-out lever to make it easier to turn.
Some motorised cameras don't have this at all, and instead take care of rewinding your film all by itself, or have a switch to do it. -
Step 2: Change your battery if your camera has one.
Nearly all batteries for every 35mm camera ever made can be obtained very cheaply, since they don't use proprietary batteries like most digital cameras, and they last nearly forever; you can't afford to not change them.
A few older cameras will expect
1.35v PX-625 mercury batteries, which are very difficult to obtain now and have no voltage regulation circuits to cope with the widely-available
1.5v PX625 batteries.
You can get around this by either experiment (shoot a roll of film and see if your exposure is out, and compensate accordingly), or use a piece of wire to wedge a #675 cell into the battery compartment., It's an easy mistake to make: getting a hold of a camera, popping the back open, and finding a film already loaded (and, consequently, ruining a good part of the film).
Try winding the camera on; push the shutter button first if it refuses to.
If your camera has a rewind crank or knob on the left hand side, you will see it turning. (How to do this on motor-driven cameras without a rewind crank is left as an exercise for the reader.), Even though 35mm film cartridges are meant to be light-proof, it's still a bad idea to do this in direct sunlight.
Go indoors, or at least into the shade.
There are two kinds of cameras you'll have to worry about, and only one that you're likely to encounter:
Rear-loading cameras are the most common, and the most straightforward to load.
Rear-loading cameras are the easiest, and the most common; they have a hinged back which opens to expose the film chamber.
Sometimes (especially on SLR cameras), you do this by lifting the rewind crank upwards.
Other cameras will open by means of a designated lever.
Slot the film canister into its chamber (typically, on the left hand side) and pull the film leader out.
Sometimes you'll need to slide the leader into a slot in the take-up spool; on others, you simply pull the leader out until the tip lines up with a coloured mark.
After you have done this, close the back of the camera.
Some cameras will automatically wind on to the first frame; otherwise, take two or three shots of nothing in particular, wind the camera on.
If you have a frame counter that reads upwards from 0, then wind on until the frame counter reaches
0.
A few older cameras count down, and so will require that you set the frame counter manually to the number of exposures that your film has.
Use the steps given earlier to verify that the film is properly loaded.
An early bottom-loading FED camera.
Bottom-loading cameras, such as early Leica, Zorki, Fed and Zenit cameras, are somewhat less common, and also somewhat more difficult.
For one, you'll need to physically cut your film so that it has a longer, thinner leader.
Mark Tharp has an excellent web page describing the procedure., Usually, you should set it to the same as your film.
Some cameras will consistently over- or under-expose by a certain amount; shoot a slide film to determine this experimentally. -
Step 3: Check that a film isn't already loaded.
-
Step 4: Load your film.
-
Step 5: Set the film speed.
Detailed Guide
Not all cameras will have all of these, and some might not even have any of them, so don't worry if you see something described that isn't on your camera.
We'll be referring to these later in the article, so it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with them now.
The shutter speed dial sets the shutter speed, i.e. the time for which the film is exposed to light.
More modern (1960s and onwards) cameras will show this in regular increments like 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, etc.
Older cameras use weird and seemingly arbitrary values.
The aperture ring (closest to the body), set to f/2.8.
The aperture ring controls the aperture, which is a small opening near the front of the lens.These are usually marked in standard increments, and nearly any lens will have settings of f/8 and f/11.
The aperture ring is usually on the lens itself, but not always; some later (1980s and onwards) SLRs will allow this to be controlled from the camera itself, for example.
Some systems (like Canon EOS) don't have aperture rings at all.
A larger aperture (smaller number, as the size of the aperture is expressed as a ratio against the focal length) means a shorter depth of field (i.e. less of your scene in focus), and more light being let onto the film.
A smaller aperture will let less light onto the film, and give more depth of field.
For example, with a 50mm focused to 8 feet (2.4 m), at an aperture of f/5.6, the portion of your scene from about
6.5 to 11 feet (2.0 to
3.4 m) would be in focus.
At an aperture of f/16, the portion from about
4.5 to 60 feet (1.4 to
18.3 m) would be in focus.
The ISO dial, which may be marked as ASA, tells the camera the speed of your film.
This may not be a dial at all; it might be a series of button presses.
Either way, this is necessary for cameras that have automatic exposure mechanisms, as different films will require a different exposure; ISO 50 film will require an exposure twice as long as an ISO 100 film, for example.
On some cameras, this is not necessary, and sometimes it's not even possible; many more recent cameras read the film speed from electrical contacts on the film cartridge itself.
If your camera has electrical contacts inside the film chamber, then it's a DX-capable camera.
This usually "just works"
so don't worry about this too much.
The typical Canon mode dial.
The mode dial sets various automatic exposure modes, if your camera has them available.
This is common on fully-automatic electronic SLRs from the late 80s onwards.
Sadly, all cameras call their modes different things; for example, Nikon call shutter-priority "S"
and Canon inexplicably call it "Tv".
We'll explore this later, but you want to keep it in "P" (meaning program automatic) most of the time.
The focusing ring focuses the lens to the distance to your subject.
This will usually have distances in both feet and meters, as well as an ∞ marking (for focusing an infinite distance away).
Some cameras (like the Olympus Trip 35) will, instead, have focusing zones, sometimes with cute little symbols marking what the zones are.
The rewind release button is usually on the underside of a camera.
The rewind release allows you to rewind your film.
Normally, while shooting the film is locked so that it can only move forwards and not backwards into the canister, for obvious reasons.
The rewind release simply unlocks this safety mechanism.
This is usually a small button located on the base of the camera, slightly recessed into the body, but some cameras are weird and have it elsewhere.
The rewind crank, usually on the left hand side of the camera.
Note flip-out lever.
The rewind crank lets you wind your film back into the canister.
It's usually on the left-hand-side, and more often than not has a little flip-out lever to make it easier to turn.
Some motorised cameras don't have this at all, and instead take care of rewinding your film all by itself, or have a switch to do it.
Nearly all batteries for every 35mm camera ever made can be obtained very cheaply, since they don't use proprietary batteries like most digital cameras, and they last nearly forever; you can't afford to not change them.
A few older cameras will expect
1.35v PX-625 mercury batteries, which are very difficult to obtain now and have no voltage regulation circuits to cope with the widely-available
1.5v PX625 batteries.
You can get around this by either experiment (shoot a roll of film and see if your exposure is out, and compensate accordingly), or use a piece of wire to wedge a #675 cell into the battery compartment., It's an easy mistake to make: getting a hold of a camera, popping the back open, and finding a film already loaded (and, consequently, ruining a good part of the film).
Try winding the camera on; push the shutter button first if it refuses to.
If your camera has a rewind crank or knob on the left hand side, you will see it turning. (How to do this on motor-driven cameras without a rewind crank is left as an exercise for the reader.), Even though 35mm film cartridges are meant to be light-proof, it's still a bad idea to do this in direct sunlight.
Go indoors, or at least into the shade.
There are two kinds of cameras you'll have to worry about, and only one that you're likely to encounter:
Rear-loading cameras are the most common, and the most straightforward to load.
Rear-loading cameras are the easiest, and the most common; they have a hinged back which opens to expose the film chamber.
Sometimes (especially on SLR cameras), you do this by lifting the rewind crank upwards.
Other cameras will open by means of a designated lever.
Slot the film canister into its chamber (typically, on the left hand side) and pull the film leader out.
Sometimes you'll need to slide the leader into a slot in the take-up spool; on others, you simply pull the leader out until the tip lines up with a coloured mark.
After you have done this, close the back of the camera.
Some cameras will automatically wind on to the first frame; otherwise, take two or three shots of nothing in particular, wind the camera on.
If you have a frame counter that reads upwards from 0, then wind on until the frame counter reaches
0.
A few older cameras count down, and so will require that you set the frame counter manually to the number of exposures that your film has.
Use the steps given earlier to verify that the film is properly loaded.
An early bottom-loading FED camera.
Bottom-loading cameras, such as early Leica, Zorki, Fed and Zenit cameras, are somewhat less common, and also somewhat more difficult.
For one, you'll need to physically cut your film so that it has a longer, thinner leader.
Mark Tharp has an excellent web page describing the procedure., Usually, you should set it to the same as your film.
Some cameras will consistently over- or under-expose by a certain amount; shoot a slide film to determine this experimentally.
About the Author
Jack Freeman
Writer and educator with a focus on practical cooking knowledge.
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