I recently dove into analog photography with a Canon EOS 300V 35mm SLR camera! It’s been a wild learning experience going from digital back to film. There’s something magical about not seeing your photos immediately and having to think carefully about every single shot.

⚙️ My Equipment

📸 Camera: Canon EOS 300V

35mm SLR with electronic controls, aperture priority mode & full auto. Battery hungry beast (Duracell CR2 ~ about 1.5 rolls per battery set!)

🔍 Lenses:

• ❌ Original: Sigma DL Zoom 35-300mm, f/4-5.6 (way too dark for most situations)
• 📦 Borrowed: ~f/2.8 w/ image stabilization (for Halloween shoot)
• ✨ New: 24mm f/1.8 (finally bright enough!)

🎃 The Halloween Disaster (aka My First Roll)

My first real shooting experience was at Halloween with a 400 ISO film and the borrowed f/2.8 lens. Sounds reasonable, right? It was not.

⚠️ The Problem: Not even close to enough light.

Camera kept yelling at me: “Too dark!”, “Turn on flash?”, “1 second exposure - you sure about that?”

Aperture was already wide open, depth of field on portraits was way too shallow, and even after pushing the film twice (400 → 1600 ISO), it was borderline unusable.

💡 What is “pushing film”?

Pushing means developing a film as if it were a higher ISO than it actually is. For example, treating a 400 ISO film like it’s 800 or 1600 ISO during development to rescue underexposed shots. The tradeoff? Increased contrast and grain. It’s like the analog version of cranking up exposure in post.

🏪 The Development Odyssey

I went to a photo shop hoping they had an on-site lab like their website claimed. Plot twist: They also just mail it out to a lab.

The highlight? The guy working there had no idea what “pushing film” meant. They had to call the manager/owner, who was also confused about how to even enter it into their system. He ended up writing it in the notes field, bold, underlined, triple-highlighted, so the lab wouldn’t miss it.

Apparently they used to develop on-site, but since switching to a mail-in service, they basically haven’t had anyone request pushed film processing.

It’s 2025 and film pushing is officially a relic from another era. 📼✨

Current status: Film is still out there somewhere. No idea when it’s coming back. No transparent pricing upfront. I pick it up and pay when it finally arrives. 🤷

🎞️ Roll #2: Learning From Mistakes

Armed with my new 24mm f/1.8 lens, I shot a second roll - and finally had enough light! The camera barely complained. Only in very dark indoor situations did it suggest flash.

This roll hasn’t been sent in yet. I’m waiting for the first one to come back so I can see the quality and pricing before deciding if I’ll stick with this shop or try somewhere else.

✨ Lessons Learned So Far

• Fast lenses are essential for analog photography in less-than-perfect lighting
• Film pushing is so rare today that even photo shops don’t know how to handle it anymore
• The Canon EOS 300V is solid, but battery consumption (especially with IS lenses) is intense
• Analog requires way more planning than digital – no live preview, no instant ISO adjustments
• Waiting for your photos to come back is both exciting and terrifying 😅

🔮 What’s Next?

• Waiting for those Halloween photos (will they even turn out?? 🤞)
• Getting the second roll developed
• Slowly building a feel for the analog workflow
• Maybe experiment with different film stocks (if I survive these first two rolls)
• Eventually learn to develop film myself?? (scary but exciting!)

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Stay tuned for updates! I’ll post the results once I get my first roll back. 📸✨