35mm speed

[DarinMartell]

Hello, my instruction book on my 35mm reefmaster says to use 200 speed film. Is there any reason not to use 800 or 1600 speed? Isn't the higher speed better for motion?

[Puffer Fish]

Originally Posted by DarinMartell

Hello, my instruction book on my 35mm reefmaster says to use 200 speed film. Is there any reason not to use 800 or 1600 speed? Isn't the higher speed better for motion?

It is, but at a sacrifice of image quality. I read over the manual, and it does not make it clear if that camera can ever use 800 or 1600 speed film (flash setting and shutter speed/f-stop).

Hopefully, some out there has tried it and knows the answer. My first bet is that the camera is setup to work best with that film speed, where 800 and above cannot really be used in daylight...

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Puffer Fish

It is, but at a sacrifice of image quality. I read over the manual, and it does not make it clear if that camera can ever use 800 or 1600 speed film (flash setting and shutter speed/f-stop).

Hopefully, some out there has tried it and knows the answer. My first bet is that the camera is setup to work best with that film speed, where 800 and above cannot really be used in daylight...

The other question is wether or not there is a place to set other film speed on the camera, or if it "reads" the cartridge. If it reads the cartridge, what film speeds does it know how to handle? And if for some reason you are rolling your own film, do you know how to make the marks on the cannister for the film speed sensor to read? (Yes, I have that article somewhere).

[cyclone3565]

Film at that speed gets very grainy. As a rule I don't use anything over 100 speed underwater with the exception of 400 speed when shooting Truk without a strobe. I can get some great lighting effects that way

[mike_s]

Originally Posted by DarinMartell

Hello, my instruction book on my 35mm reefmaster says to use 200 speed film. Is there any reason not to use 800 or 1600 speed? Isn't the higher speed better for motion?

I had the reefmaster 35mm and had some ISO 400 speed film and decided to use it. The pics just didn't come out all that great compared to the slower ISO film speeds.

I used ISO 100 and 200 for the best results in that camera.


Yes the higher speed is better for motion shots in most cameras, but unless you can set your camera to the higher speed film, and I don't think you could on the 35mm reefmaster, then you're just wasting effort and will get poor quality shots.


Now... I don't have that 35mm reefmaster anymore. I sold it and bought a digital camera. For what the film cost at about 1 roll per dive and processing/developing, etc, For what it cost me to pay for the film and process it, I took that money and invested in a average digital camera, housing and strobe. It's paid for itself now and since it's digital, you can shoot as much as you want.