bad film/bad camera? both?

[skery]

Hi,

I am returning to photography after several years off. I currently am
using my old Canon EOS 10s and an Olympus c-3020 digital camera. I am
saving for a Digital rebel or 10D (20D?). After using my Olympus almost
exclusively for the last year or more, I decided to bring out the
Canon, I miss having the flexibility of my lenses, longer zoom, wider
angles, etc. So I went to the beach to take some pictures near
sunset, get some action shots of surfers, etc.

The pics came out terrible. Some had a large black line on the
top/side, some where extremely dark, all were very grainy and
generally nasty looking. Most of my shots were attempts at playing
with DOF. Even with my 10S in the past I shot mostly with the normal
point and shoot mode, occasionally changing to shutter speed priority.
This time I shot mostly with aperture priority, normally at an
aperture of 5.6 or 4.5, with shutter speeds of 1/1000 or faster,
usually, depending on the length of my zoom at the time. I was using
an older 100-300 canon usm zoom, if I remember right. I also used a
24mm wide angle, with some larger aperture settings.

Some of the pics I assume are bad because of the exposure meter was
off because of the direct low sun over glistening water I was shooting. But nothing is
good.

Here are a few other, probably more vital facts. My camera has not
been professionally cleaned in probably over 10 years. My film has
been sitting in my fridge for probably several years, there is no
expiration date on them (Kodak Gold Ultra 100). I had them developed and
then scanned to a photo cd, normal resolution, no prints.

I wasn't anticipating great shots, I was just hoping for some
education in using DOF. In other experiments with my Olympus, I
noticed the effect of exposure compensation, however I did not do any.

Here are a couple of examples of pics, and what was happening. If
anyone can give me advise, or has any ideas of what the main problem
is, I would greatly appreciate it. I should be getting the B&W on
Friday, and I can hopefully narrow it down a bit.
Any other tips or observations, based on my entirely not edited shots,
would be appreciated, bad film, etc. aside.

I had written this a couple of days ago, but was unable to post until now. I also shot a roll of Tmax 400 B&W that is about a year old. I just got those back. Only 12 of 36 shots were of anything other than complete black, and a couple of those were terrible. The other shots that came out seem ok, much better than the others, I think part of the problem was old film for the color, but the 24 that didn't come out here, there seems to be a serious problem. The only ones that came out were shots taken underneath a pier. The other shots were directly into the sun, over the water and came out perfectly black. I talked to the developer, he thought maybe there is something wrong with the camera, and its shutter. I'm going to take it to him to run a roll of test shots and see what happens. He said that some older canons like mine exhibited this problem. I didn't have such a problem a year ago, but I was usually shooting in a program mode, or shutter priority, not aperture priority.

thanks for any ideas you might have, I'm quite sure its due to several factors, the first being the old film, but then the black & white stuff... definitely camera related.

here's a couple of photos, one is really bad, shot into the sun, the other is better, but still not great.

Sorry for the length.

Chris