Loved my Canon S300 til it broke (my fault). Not because it was a great camera but cause it was tiny and I brought it everywhere. As a result I took easily 100 photos a week and had some really nice ones come out. Though it was digital...
Drooling after a Leica now... or a nice medium format...
i have a leica digilux 1 and its wonderful. even though its 4 years old by now, its still is better than most 4mp cams out there. If you can find a cheap one on ebay i say go for it. the digilux 2 seems great, but maybe not worth the $1600. The nikon D70 seems pretty amazing, all images i've seen from them are awesome, and everyone seems to be in love with then. The cannon d20 and the pentax ist*ds are pretty great as well.
I use a Mamiya 6MF (my most prized posession). Incredible photos. e - do you take that thing out and about? I had one briefly. It's HUGE! If I ever go digital and ever have money, I have a serious hankering for the epson RD-1 (I think it's called) by Cosina Voightlander. Anyone tried one of these? I saw a guy with a Sony camera at a party - it was seriously SMALL (like smaller than my wallet) w/ 5 MP. I admit I was impressed with it until he asked me how many Megapixels my Canonet had. Poser!
My Nikon FM2-N is a favorite for sure, and the Olympus XA is a sweet rig- small point and shoot size, but complete manual control of shutter speed and aperture, plus rangefinder focus! BTW- these are old skool 35mm cameras- you know, with the film.
Favorite ever- turned a room in my house into a camera obscura, good 8'x10' images on the wall.
Ether -
Go with a Canon elph. I had mine for almost 2.5 years. Dropped it several times onto asphalt and rock. Solid metal body. The colors are very good too (for a digital). I have a Sony DSC-V1 now (gift) which has great features and a pretty good lens but I hate the colors. They're way too cold.
Wish I had the time to still work with film. It's incredibly fun but the cost of film, developing, and the time you invest have made me move mostly to digita.
I have a fuji 6mp camera, and although it takes incredible pictures, I miss my little Nikon because of the portability, so I'll probably cave and buy a new smaller one for everyday pics before I go back to school. I like the look of the elph, but how does it compare to Nikon cameras?
i am a advocate for Canon tilt-shift lenses. the 24mm, 45mm, and 90mm are just spectacular for architectural photography. couple it with the fuji velvia (color) or tri-x flim (B&W) it will give you excellent results. With film cameras the body didnt matter as much as the lens and the film but now with the coming of digital the body is essentially the film itself. I shoot with the Canon 20D with the 17-40L f4 lens and find it enough for me. I think having a good editing program like PhotoshopCS is more important in the end. The new CMOS chips and digic II processor developed by Canon has excellent color rendition and I would argue is the most accurate of what is being produced right now.
I think essentially anything above 6mp is the equivalent of the film world's medium format. You can essentially print a 20x30 without loosing much detail at all. Spend your money on a good tripod (bogen or gitzo legs with a arca ball-head) because a blurry picture taken with any camera not matter now expensive is useless.
pollen - the RD-1 is a rangefinder right? I have heard good things about it.
My fav film cameras are the Canon EOS3, Nikon FM2, Olympus OM2, and of course the Canon AE-1
My fav digital cameras are the Canon 20D, Canon 1D II, Nikon D70, and the Minolta 7D.
If you get a SLR, spend your money on the lenses, they will last you forever... bodies come and go.
This is somewhat off topic, but (partly) after reading fro9k's comment about creating a camera obscura I thought I'd share this -- it's an app that takes an image, and automates printing it as a huge wall-sized poster broken up into 8-1/2x11 sheets. Might be fun to play with, or for presentations/pin-ups.
My fav 35mm of all time the heavy bulky Nikon F4,
tinatium body, great mirrors/excellent baggage of lenses/fantastic light
metering.
produces pro slides with fantastic sharp grain near medium format quality
.nice.
Well apart from getting a rectilinear wide angle lens for your distortion free building facades or regular fish eyes which look kinda cool for interior shots... take a look at this</div> camera.
In the 70s and 80s Minolta and Leica exchanged know-how on electronics and lenses. The Minolta XE-1 (or XE-7 in the US) being a re-badged Leica R3, the XD-7 (or XD-11) a re-badged R4.
All controls are in the right places for operation without taking eyes from the viewfinder.
The Minolta Rokkor lenses are beautiful, wide-angles, shifts, varisofts...
I bid Euros400 for a 28mm shift lens and just missed out. However I did get the exquisite 85mm 1:1.7 shown below. Still hunting a 17mm.
1. Pentax k1000 (because that's what I learned on)
2. Lomo LC-A (because it's fun and takes awesome photos)
3. Cannon Elph (small durable and digital - tons of photos everywhere)
4. Olympus 80 (Point and Shoot - it might be indestructable)
the pentax k1000 is great....however. If you live in a humid climate or intend to travel with it be prepared to find a funny mold growing in the viewfinder. It won't affect your photos...oh no. However it will keep growing until you can't see jack all. Oh and don't try opening the camera either you'll never be able to find it. Mine barely a decade+ old sits at a friends house as decoration
Nikon N5....hands down one of the most amazing slr's I ever had the pleasure of shooting with. At the time it was a staggering 1500 for it. Sad to see them in pawn shops for a nickle
> PsyArch - You should check out the Mamiya 645J, a medium-format 6x4.5 single lens reflex. The bodies and lenses are really inexpensive on eBay these days. You can find Hassy bodies for a few hundred too but the lenses still cost a fortune.
Another good and inexpensive medium format camera is the Yashica Mat 124 (a 6x6 square format camera). There is also a 126G they claim has better contacts on the meter but you can no longer get the mercury cells to power it correctly so it really doesn't matter. For some reason everyone wants the 124G and they pass over the (much better looking to me) 124 so you can pick them up for around $100... This is a twin lens camera with a fixed 80mm so it is not as flexible as the Mamiya 645.
If you want a square format 120/220 camera with interchangeable lenses take a look at the Mamiya C330. It's not small or light but I quite like it myself.
I had a good old Canon AE-1. The shutter sounded like a car accident.
Eventually I realised I would never be taking film pictures again. And if I do, my brother's Pentax ME should do nicely.
daver, thankyou. i will be watching eBay with a new interest. Meanwhile I have picked up a plustek 7200i negative scanner (35mm only), so will be consolidating and digitising the 35mm archive.
agfa8x, another joy of the Minolta XE-1, it has the quietest, the slickest, the most elegant shutter sound. It makes the Olympus OM series sound like drum and bass, badly mixed.
daver, a C330. maybe yeah.
digital photography is still a format akin to skype'd conversation, or music at 128kbps. Not quite there...
i am canon user but im thinkin of switching to leica because the new release of the digilux makes it the sexiest camera on the market today. i'm currently using a canon 350D and the canon AE-1. both of which are great, although shooting in digital annoys me only because its so dam convenient. there's no feeling like processing your own negatives.
Favorite Cameras...
Loved my Canon S300 til it broke (my fault). Not because it was a great camera but cause it was tiny and I brought it everywhere. As a result I took easily 100 photos a week and had some really nice ones come out. Though it was digital...
Drooling after a Leica now... or a nice medium format...
i have an old mamiyaflex medium format. it takes beautiful pics.
olympus 8080 8mp
i'm in the market for a super small digital - for the same reason ant - to take it everywhere.
canon ae-1 slr which i love too.
i have a leica digilux 1 and its wonderful. even though its 4 years old by now, its still is better than most 4mp cams out there. If you can find a cheap one on ebay i say go for it. the digilux 2 seems great, but maybe not worth the $1600. The nikon D70 seems pretty amazing, all images i've seen from them are awesome, and everyone seems to be in love with then. The cannon d20 and the pentax ist*ds are pretty great as well.
I use a Mamiya 6MF (my most prized posession). Incredible photos. e - do you take that thing out and about? I had one briefly. It's HUGE! If I ever go digital and ever have money, I have a serious hankering for the epson RD-1 (I think it's called) by Cosina Voightlander. Anyone tried one of these? I saw a guy with a Sony camera at a party - it was seriously SMALL (like smaller than my wallet) w/ 5 MP. I admit I was impressed with it until he asked me how many Megapixels my Canonet had. Poser!
My Nikon FM2-N is a favorite for sure, and the Olympus XA is a sweet rig- small point and shoot size, but complete manual control of shutter speed and aperture, plus rangefinder focus! BTW- these are old skool 35mm cameras- you know, with the film.
Favorite ever- turned a room in my house into a camera obscura, good 8'x10' images on the wall.
Also, any Polaroid that shoots SX-70 film is fun.
Ether -
Go with a Canon elph. I had mine for almost 2.5 years. Dropped it several times onto asphalt and rock. Solid metal body. The colors are very good too (for a digital). I have a Sony DSC-V1 now (gift) which has great features and a pretty good lens but I hate the colors. They're way too cold.
Wish I had the time to still work with film. It's incredibly fun but the cost of film, developing, and the time you invest have made me move mostly to digita.
yeah, i second the canon elph. i've also dropped that thing a few times and it still works fine.
pollen, i do from time to time, but you are right. the thing is as heavy as a brick.
I have a fuji 6mp camera, and although it takes incredible pictures, I miss my little Nikon because of the portability, so I'll probably cave and buy a new smaller one for everyday pics before I go back to school. I like the look of the elph, but how does it compare to Nikon cameras?
i am a advocate for Canon tilt-shift lenses. the 24mm, 45mm, and 90mm are just spectacular for architectural photography. couple it with the fuji velvia (color) or tri-x flim (B&W) it will give you excellent results. With film cameras the body didnt matter as much as the lens and the film but now with the coming of digital the body is essentially the film itself. I shoot with the Canon 20D with the 17-40L f4 lens and find it enough for me. I think having a good editing program like PhotoshopCS is more important in the end. The new CMOS chips and digic II processor developed by Canon has excellent color rendition and I would argue is the most accurate of what is being produced right now.
I think essentially anything above 6mp is the equivalent of the film world's medium format. You can essentially print a 20x30 without loosing much detail at all. Spend your money on a good tripod (bogen or gitzo legs with a arca ball-head) because a blurry picture taken with any camera not matter now expensive is useless.
pollen - the RD-1 is a rangefinder right? I have heard good things about it.
My fav film cameras are the Canon EOS3, Nikon FM2, Olympus OM2, and of course the Canon AE-1
My fav digital cameras are the Canon 20D, Canon 1D II, Nikon D70, and the Minolta 7D.
If you get a SLR, spend your money on the lenses, they will last you forever... bodies come and go.
canon ae-1: like a brick, manual or shutter priority only.
unfortunately i 'fixed' mine.
This is somewhat off topic, but (partly) after reading fro9k's comment about creating a camera obscura I thought I'd share this -- it's an app that takes an image, and automates printing it as a huge wall-sized poster broken up into 8-1/2x11 sheets. Might be fun to play with, or for presentations/pin-ups.
http://arje.net/rasterbator
My fav 35mm of all time the heavy bulky Nikon F4,
tinatium body, great mirrors/excellent baggage of lenses/fantastic light
metering.
produces pro slides with fantastic sharp grain near medium format quality
.nice.
Rollei 35 bought in 1971 or 1972
my girl and i have matching nikon fm2-n's with some hot lenses to boot
Well apart from getting a rectilinear wide angle lens for your distortion free building facades or regular fish eyes which look kinda cool for interior shots... take a look at this</div> camera.
nikon fm. sweet images. bullet-proof.
and, among others, a 28mm shift lens - just an amazing piece of glass.
2 zoroaster
There is other poster maker software. I have tested it. It produces good posters.
P.S. Despite this thread is old, I think this info will be useful for somebody.
save your money
if you spend more than $300 you've lost out.
I've gone through 6 cameras in 5 years....mostly digital and destroyed by some very funny ways (the coolest by drowning)
1. Sony DSC
2. tied Casio Exilim & Kodak EasyShare V530
3. any sony atm they've slashed their prices by 100 across the board
In the 70s and 80s Minolta and Leica exchanged know-how on electronics and lenses. The Minolta XE-1 (or XE-7 in the US) being a re-badged Leica R3, the XD-7 (or XD-11) a re-badged R4.
All controls are in the right places for operation without taking eyes from the viewfinder.
The Minolta Rokkor lenses are beautiful, wide-angles, shifts, varisofts...
I bid Euros400 for a 28mm shift lens and just missed out. However I did get the exquisite 85mm 1:1.7 shown below. Still hunting a 17mm.
i have beaten the crap out of my nikon 995...and it has delivered.
Has anyone any ideas on a similarly under-priced 1970s medium format set-up?
get a Pentax...most photo schools used to use them and you can find used ones easily and cheap...and they are tanks...they can take a beating.
1. Pentax k1000 (because that's what I learned on)
2. Lomo LC-A (because it's fun and takes awesome photos)
3. Cannon Elph (small durable and digital - tons of photos everywhere)
4. Olympus 80 (Point and Shoot - it might be indestructable)
my personal favs are the 4-shot, 8-shot, and the horizon.
the fisheye is fun but it is really poorly manufactered. i have purchased two already and have had both of them break within 3 months of the purchase.
the pentax k1000 is great....however. If you live in a humid climate or intend to travel with it be prepared to find a funny mold growing in the viewfinder. It won't affect your photos...oh no. However it will keep growing until you can't see jack all. Oh and don't try opening the camera either you'll never be able to find it. Mine barely a decade+ old sits at a friends house as decoration
Nikon N5....hands down one of the most amazing slr's I ever had the pleasure of shooting with. At the time it was a staggering 1500 for it. Sad to see them in pawn shops for a nickle
olympus om-2
35mm shift
been using this setup for a long long time,
and dont need anything else
film
nikon FM2N is fantastic, all mechanical, bulletproof.
Holga- just got it, medium format, cheap and loads of fun
http://minnery.org/gallery/images/jeanlafitte2.jpg
Horizon 202- 35mm panoramic camera for $200, got it about 2 weeks ago, 120 degree.
http://minnery.org/gallery/images/chuckanut_forest.jpg
digital
canon sd600- fits in my pocket and always with me
canon s2is- this is a great versatile camera with a great zoom.
canon sd800's wide angle lens is fantasical
who has the money for a tilt-shift as architects? splurge a little a get the 17-40 f4 and be merry
i used to build my own pinhole cameras...i made a geodesic dome one once that had a cylinder of film down the center
> PsyArch - You should check out the Mamiya 645J, a medium-format 6x4.5 single lens reflex. The bodies and lenses are really inexpensive on eBay these days. You can find Hassy bodies for a few hundred too but the lenses still cost a fortune.
Another good and inexpensive medium format camera is the Yashica Mat 124 (a 6x6 square format camera). There is also a 126G they claim has better contacts on the meter but you can no longer get the mercury cells to power it correctly so it really doesn't matter. For some reason everyone wants the 124G and they pass over the (much better looking to me) 124 so you can pick them up for around $100... This is a twin lens camera with a fixed 80mm so it is not as flexible as the Mamiya 645.
If you want a square format 120/220 camera with interchangeable lenses take a look at the Mamiya C330. It's not small or light but I quite like it myself.
I had a good old Canon AE-1. The shutter sounded like a car accident.
Eventually I realised I would never be taking film pictures again. And if I do, my brother's Pentax ME should do nicely.
strong 2nd on the Mamiya C330
daver, thankyou. i will be watching eBay with a new interest. Meanwhile I have picked up a plustek 7200i negative scanner (35mm only), so will be consolidating and digitising the 35mm archive.
agfa8x, another joy of the Minolta XE-1, it has the quietest, the slickest, the most elegant shutter sound. It makes the Olympus OM series sound like drum and bass, badly mixed.
daver, a C330. maybe yeah.
digital photography is still a format akin to skype'd conversation, or music at 128kbps. Not quite there...
Still diggin' them chemical developments.
i am canon user but im thinkin of switching to leica because the new release of the digilux makes it the sexiest camera on the market today. i'm currently using a canon 350D and the canon AE-1. both of which are great, although shooting in digital annoys me only because its so dam convenient. there's no feeling like processing your own negatives.
LOMO
Lomography
These cameras are so bad ass...
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