M42 Lenses and Film Photography

The Strawman Argument

[Hey, I posted this in the learner's mistakes thread and was recommended to post it here instead. Sorry if I'm breaking some rules by double posting]

I'm travelling a bit around Eastern Europe for a month or two coming up and, eh, for some reason or another I decided it'd be a fun challenge to stick exclusively to taking photos with film. That way I'd put a bit more effort into finding things worth photographing rather than just snapping everything mindlessly and learn about photography in the process. Started to geek out a bit once I got into reading everything and got myself a manual camera and a few lenses for 50 euro (Praktica MLT5B*, Carl Zeiss Tessar 50mm F2.8, a 60-200mm and a 70-300mm, also got a teleconverter, cases for everything other stuffand some other yokes). I've been given the loan of a Helios 44 (58mm f/2) and a wide angle lens that I can't remember since. From what I can see, it's all in very good condition, haven't tested it fully yet though.
Potentially looking at getting a developing kit afterwards, I'd scare myself away from trying to learn photography from an artistic approach so I'm treating it a lot more as a big science experiment plaything instead

The plan is to take some photos and stuff before I go just to make sure it's all okay and then go with just the 50mm lens. What I was wondering though, is whether I'd need something with a higher maximum aperture than 2.8 for that kind of general usage? I initially thought that lens was a bit dodgy because the image quality was a bit blurred at best, but this review clarified it for me a bit (basically it gets a bit blurry as you approach it's maximum aperture level). How far off will the SLR view for each lens be from the developed image?

Another thing I was wondering was whether there are any popular adaptors for M42 cameras to use other lenses with?

Finally... has anyone got some storage tips for lenses?

Oh, another question! After a roll of film has been used, is it the expiration date on the box the recommended deadline for getting it developed?

Sorry about the messiness of this post and thanks for all the help!

* I know, it's gonna be one hell of a weight to be lugging around At least I'll be able to use it as a chained mace if anyone attacks me

DaireQuinlan

That CZJ Tessar should stand you in pretty good stead. There are faster Pentacon/Praktica/CZJ ones for next to nothing, or you could pick up a Pentax Takumar 1.4 or something. Honestly there are so many lenses available for M42 that you can pick up pretty good ones relatively cheaply. There are a few ones that have achieved cult or collectible status, prices for those tend to be a little steeper.

Helios 44 is a lovely lens. It's one of my favourite M42 lenses, more because it's got quite a distinctive look to it than anything else. I assume the 60->200 is some f/4 off-brand zoom. I'd maybe keep it and dump the 300 or vice versa.

If you have lens cases and you're not too concerned about space then use them. Otherwise just wrap them in a t-shirt or something. Just don't leave them in there. Use them and air them every once in a while.

Film wise, technically the expiration date is when you're meant to shoot the film by. A year or so either way won't really make any recognisable difference though to consumer film. You can just throw the used rolls back into their film canisters and store them until you get home, if you don't feel like developing them as you go.

TomCo

For something a little different you might consider picking up a pancake lens, something like the industar-50. I generally keep one attached to cut down on bulk when walking around.

The Strawman Argument

Thanks for the replies guys!

I was pretty taken with the photos from the Helios once I had a google of them; it's not that hard to see how people suddenly wind up with dozens and dozens of lenses, isn't it?!
Think I'm mostly okay with what I have atm by the looks of it, might buy a Takumar if I wind up getting more interested in photography overall. For whatever reason I've absolutely no interest in zoom lenses or anything beyond 100mm, a lot of the motivation was to have a way to get me more focused on my surroundings and out of my own head. I see a lot of positives in terms of the limited resources forcing me to think more about where I am and what I'm doing.

Would there be any risk in putting multiple lenses in the one case?

Pancake lens seems like a good idea, I was thinking I'd take it out only for a few hours each morning or something but it'd be significantly easier to lug around with a smaller lens alright.

RE: development deadlines again, would it be okay to leave them undeveloped for a few months? Depending on what way my interest sways, I might decide to play about with film development but that'd take much longer to get set up than just sending them somewhere.

...and finally, how good are m42 adaptors with dSLRs? I'd hate to have to start again from scratch if I got really into it.



...and as I'm sure everyone's been wondering, here's the film I bought:
AGFA Vista+ 200 x 4 (Dealz)
Fuji Pro 400H x 1
Kodak Ektar 100 x 3
Kodak TMAX 100 x 1
Fuji Velvia 100 x 1
Rollei Digibase CR200 x 1

Pretty sure the first 4 can be developed most anywhere and I really just want to have a few slides of myself and home lying around so that's why I got the other 2. Also, I assume having different kinds of film will at least ensure that each batch will look a bit different and that'll make up a bit for the banality of my own skill!

TomCo

I'd buy some B&W film too if you're thinking of developing, its less involved and you can scan the negatives yourself.

I've found (including delivery) this place to have the best prices for film I want - http://generalphoto.biz/. You could even get into bulk loading your own cartridges.

There are a lot of issues using old lenses with adapters. On M42 the rear element protrudes a fair bit from the body of the lens and can end up touching the mirror on a DSLR. Adapters can be bulky and you'll lose any sort of automatic aperture control. There many be issues with focusing to infinity and if your sensor isn't full size the image will be cropped.