What 35mm SLR?

[Kieran]

What's a good 35mm (or other film format, NOT Digital) SLR camera for a beginner? And what lenses and stuff should I be thinking about?

Any photo Guru's care to comment?

[Spirit]

Ohhhh retro photography !

I used to be in photographic retail for about 8 years, and was the manager of 2 stores in Plymouth for a few years.

In those days 35mm was of course the "norm". Much like today, the decent stuff was the likes of Olympus, Nikon, Canon, Pentax etc. In those days my personal top preference was an Olympus OM-1, 2 or 4........along with genuine Olympus lenses........ahhh the memories.

If money was no object (again in those days) it was the likes of Leica.

Autofocus was fairly new when I left the game.

I hate to think how many people I had to explain "depth of field" too /lol

[Kieran]

Cheers Pete! :)

/Googles 'Depth of Field'... :book: :D

[Spirit]

TBH mate, the market in the 80's was flooded with quality equipment. If you went for any of the brands mentioned then you won't go wrong. I guess the most basic you can get in terms of features will teach you the most. Personally would get one with a built in light meter, but the "professionals" of the day would use a decent hand held one.

[psbarham]

K, I have a huge box of 35mm stuff here if you want it.

[I-S]

Given how cheap they are now, there's no reason not to pick up a decent body from the Canon EOS or Nikon F lineups. The real advantage of these is that the lenses are still produced with new ones coming out, and should you later wish to you can add a digital body to use with your existing glass.

A great starting point would be a Canon EOS 50e, which you should be able to pick up for £30-£40, or £60 with a bundled lens. by the time you've bought a battery and put 5 rolls of film through it then you've paid more on consumables...

[WildCards]

rolls of film


:huh2:

[Robotnik123]

Am more a digital guy, with a Nikon D200 DSLR and a heap of lenses, but I did get the film kick a while back and picked up a cheap hardly used Nikon F75 for NZ$100. http://www.bythom.com/n75.htm

It is a great little SLR with manual controls, but it works good in full auto as well and has scene modes too, to make it easy if you can't be bothered learning about f-stops, shutter speeds and such. People might tell you to get a full manual only SLR like a Pentax K1000, but I would pass on this. It might force you to learn, but it is nice to have the option of fully automatic when you just can't be bothered or you want to shoot fast moving targets. The F75 is good because you can use most modern Nikon lenses including top of the range Silent Wave Motor (SWM) lenses.

Anyway if you go Nikon I suggest an F65, F75, or F100. Avoid the F55 as this will not work with SWM lenses. There are equally good Canon models too, but I don't know much about them.

[Kieran]

Thanks for the advice so far peeps - Keep it coming!!

Reason I ask - It struck me the other day that all of my memories from the last seven or so years are all digital, and none of them are printed out. I dislike the idea that one hard drive wipeout could zap the lot.

The other thing is that digicams remove one of life's little pleasures - that of collecting your pictures and seeing what you've got - and idly flipping through a photo album. :)

[aboo]

I can see where your coming from K. Just the other week we were at the outlaws looking through photo albums & it was great.

I had my computer crash on me last month & I lost a heap of pics of the kids when they were young.

Is there still places that print film?

[Robotnik123]

You guys should look at backing up onto DVD or even a portable USB hard drive for your digital pics. Make several DVD backups and keep copies at work, at home and at your Mum's house or something. That's what I do.

[Spirit]

I dislike the idea that one hard drive wipeout could zap the lot.


Take a look at my signature Kieran, could solve the problem.

[SGHOM]

If only you had asked a few months ago K. :smart:

I binned a perfect AE1 with chinon pro flash, 50mm + 70-210 lenses & a load of cokin filters!

[stuartturbo]

The other thing is that digicams remove one of life's little pleasures - that of collecting your pictures and seeing what you've got - and idly flipping through a photo album. :)

My missus is the same K she takes the best down on a CD and gets them printed and fills up a album.
We have loads about and the kids love looking at them.

Whilst the pc has them all on good and bad never delete anything picture wise then on dvd every so often before the card is wiped