Posted on 08/07/2005 4:03:11 PM PDT by 6ppc
My son has signed up for a photography class and I need to buy a 35mm SLR camera capable of manual operation.
My limited experience with 35mm photograph was a Pentax Spotmatic F I owned in the 70's and 80's. It was an excellent camera, but is no longer alive.
I want to buy him a good quality camera and have been shopping on Ebay, but really do not know enough about 35mm SLR cameras to know which ones are the best buys. I was hoping some freepers could clue me in on which of the following cameras are good/better/best etc.
Requirements include through the lens metering and ability to operate in manual mode. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Here are some examples of the brands and models I'm considering:
Canon AE-1
Canon A-1
Canon EOS 650
Canon EOS A2E
Canon T-70
Canon EOS Rebel
Nikon N-70
Nikon Nikomat
Nikon N-80
Nikon FM
Pentax K1000
Pentax SF1
Olympus OM-1
Olympus OMG
Olympus OM-2N MD
Minolta Maxxum 7000
Minolta Maxxum 450si
Minolta XG-se
Minolta SRT MC-11
Minolta XG-A
Minolta Maxxum 4
Minolta Maxxum 5
Minolta X-700
Showoff!
Although an excellent camera, this series used a mercury button cell for battery power and those are no longer sold or manufactured because of environmental concerns. I would avoid any that uses a PX-625 or PX-13 mercury cell.
Pentax K1000, if you can find one is the standard and how I learned everything about photography.
Film may be dead, but a manual film camera is the best way to learn about photography. You cannot learn about the relationships between ASA, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, backlighting, etc with a point and shoot digital.
There is a web site somewhere, I haven't seen it in years, which gives you detailed instructions on converting the SRT series bodies for the newer non-mercury batteries. It did not look too difficult.
Also there are still mercury batteries available from overseas suppliers. Also other fixes.
I don't want to argue.
However, pixels are not just pixels. The size of the photosite on the sensor that creates the bits that inform the pixels is very important. As is the number of bits.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If you never go beyond 8 x 10 or if you are not talking about serious art prints then digicams are usable.
The best fashion guys right now are using the 1Ds II with 16million pixels. They tell us that they can do a large mag double spread if they don't have to crop much. Of course I'm talking about 'perfect'. Every eyelash. Art quality.
If we are talking about snapshots or the web then 5 MP is all you need. My comments are geared towards art photography. Fine detail. Withoug the plastic look of normal digital. Even the 1Ds produces a bit of that 'plastic look'. It is reported by some that the 30 thousand dollar digial backs for medium format cameras are beginning to produce 'film like' quality.
I would suggest you spend some time on the digital photo web sites. That is a very poor example of sharpening. Way over done.
(this one was on manual focus, manual shutter speed and manual aperture:
Large art prints are large format, not 35mm, not prosumer digital.
I don't think large format photography is what the beginner is taking on.
Get a Minolta 101 or 102.
It was downsized for the web and hastily sharpened ... which wasn't done on the full resolution file used for printing.
I admit I learned on a Pentax 35mm, too -- decades ago. Haven't shot film in 4 years.
Are not the Nikon SLR lenses usable on their digital version too?
I wish there was a devise I could insert to convert my older and expensive investment in lenses and camera equiptment into digital.
My last SLR was a Minolta.
Was quite happy with it.
But these days, I'd probably--IF--I could afford it--go with a Minolta or Nikon high quality digital.
Konica bought out Minolta.
I think there are 4 pentax lenses including a 135 and a wide angle plus a couple of converters and an extension tube. I even have one of the hardback Spotmatic books published way back then. and a canvas bag.
I noticed that Sony has agreed to jointly develop new digital photo products with Konica-Minolta.
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