Is slide film more expensive? We could certainly argue the point. Get a camera with an accurate meter and shoot that E-6 stuff without fear. Match this increased latitude with the effectiveness of the in-camera light meters found in cameras stretching back to the days of disco, and we start to realize just how much of a mountain has been made of this molehill. Modern slide film has improved exposure latitude over the days of our grandparents’ film Fujichrome Provia shows minimal color and gradation variation in push/pull processing, with Fuji confidently encouraging shots from -1/2 all the way to +3 exposure index. You do need to be more precise with your exposures.

Across random camera blogs and photography forums, the typical refrain is that slide film is unforgiving, and that’s a valid claim when comparing certain slide film to black-and-white and color negative films. To start, shooting slide film isn’t as difficult as everyone says. But it’s also true that there are plenty of shooters who would shoot and project slides if they only knew that the real barriers to entry are small, and that the many perceived barriers to entry are mostly myth. There are plenty of reasons that few shooters are shooting slide film and that even fewer are using slide projectors. There’s nothing like it, and if you’re a photo geek who’s never experienced it, you should try to fix that.īut let’s not pretend the process is without barriers to entry, real and perceived. The depth of the image, the ritual of curating and loading slides, the sensory stimuli of the process, and of course, the sheer wonder of seeing an image projected through pure optics. It hit me then that there’s something special about slide film and projectors. My wife did come and see, and though she has virtually no interest in cameras or vintage photo gear, the massive image with brilliant clarity that was shining in the dimly lit room made her stop and stare.

My daughter’s excitement renewed itself as she pointed out and named each member of her family, and yelled to the other room for my wife to come see. When she was finally finished bouncing, I pressed a switch, and with a metallic rattle and a sequence of clacks the image of the castle slid away, replaced moments later by a shot of our family running through Tomorrowland. She loved that place, and for as long as the projector beamed its magical light, she was there again.

There, towering six feet tall, was a shot I’d made of Disney World’s Cinderella Castle. These were the sounds that rang through my house the first time my daughter saw a photo projected on the wall of her bedroom. Gleeful giggling, happy screams, and the thunderous reverberations of a three-year-old girl hopping up and down on hardwood flooring.

Minolta mini 35 slide projector manual