The Ricoh GR III captures neon signs at night very well, but keeping the ISO down to a minimum is very important. The higher the ISO, the more light noise you will get in your shadows and blacks. While the Ricoh GR III does a great job with these shadows, it sometimes needs your help to keep the noise down.

In this video, I drive around Indianapolis' southside and photograph businesses with neon signs in hopes of making some interesting night images. I also explain the settings I'm using, and why I'm using them. I'm in the middle of experimentation of night photography with my Ricoh GR III, so check back weekly for more videos like this. However, you do not need to own a Ricoh GR III for these settings to work with your camera.

The Ricoh GR III is well-known for it's street photography supremacy, but it's a very versatile camera that can be used in a variety of situations, including night photography.

Night photography camera settings can be any number of combinations of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. In this video, I use my Ricoh GR III to take photos at dusk and dark in a small town. I provide settings info for most of the photos, including a hand-held 1/8 second shutter speed, and another photo shot at 10,000 ISO. The Ricoh GR III handled both of those shots with great results, as well as the other photos in the video.

This is part one of at least two or three part series, with more to come in the next couple of weeks.

I took the Minolta Maxxum 3xi 35mm film camera ($18 body-only) to a small town near me to test it out with a roll of 24 exposure Kodak UltraMax 400 35mm film. The city of Franklin, where I tested the camera and film, is a thriving little town just south of Indianapolis, and offers a lot of shooting opportunities within the one-block town square. Added to the camera was a Minolta 28-80mm lens that I purchased for $20, but can use on many different Minolta camera bodies.  (read more by click link below ...)

-- Minolta 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens - $20

The lens was fairly quick to catch focus and for the most part I have no problem with it, which is good because the purpose of buying it was to be able to test with future Minolta AF mount film cameras for this series. I've already purchased a Minolta Maxxum 300si that came with a 35-70mm lens, but I do not like the lens, so when I test that in future weeks, it'll be with this decent little 28-80mm.

While I typically take my time and shoot in manual mode with most cameras, I have to admit I'm having fun trying out the automated shooting functions of these old film cameras. The Canon Rebel EOS 2000 is no exception. There are several decent videos out there on youtube that will show you the details of the Canon Rebel EOS 2000 camera. This review is more about the on-the-run operation of this camera, with a roll of 24-exposure Kodak UltraMax 400 35mm film.

Actually, the exception is that this camera feels and operates so much like a DSLR camera. The reason for that, I assume, is that this camera was released at the same time digital cameras were becoming widely used instead of film cameras.

Without the Pentax K1000 and Yearbook/Newspaper class in my junior and senior years of high school, my entire life would have been on a completely different path. For better or worse, once my longtime buddy and classmate Brian Story taught me how to use the school's only camera (the K1000), and darkroom techniques, I was hooked for a lifetime!

The Pentax K1000 was the foundation of an entire life of photography. It's amazing how a little 6" piece of well built metal and plastic and mold a human life. It molded mine. It sent me on a path of creativity that, while absent at times, has always been a part of who I am.