help!

[05]

hello, i need to buy a film slr for my a-level art coursework because i'm going to do photography given my dismal drawing abilities.

to everyone reading who shoots with film (or at least has done so at some point) could you please please please recommend me a good film SLR which is not too expensive? also please tell me if i should buy first-hand

Comments

[thesecretsharer]

well whats good in a slr is really, really subjective. i have (what i consider good, but not great or outstanding) an canon eos100qd (aka elan or eos100) which was a little less than 100$US, and it has nearly all the features i want (only place i find it lacking is that the aperture/shutter steps by halves and not thirds, so for example it jumps from f2.8 to f3.5 where my dslr has f3.2 inbetween). this was the midrange (/a step up from consumer) model in the early to mid 90's. you can probably get an elanII for around 200$ used and its newer (late 90's) so has been updated a bit.

lenses can be really expensive, and are a lot (a whole lot) more important when it comes to image quality than the body itself. a really nice zoom lens will cost around a thousand $$, but decent ones are more reasonable (~3-400$). ive heard good things about canon's 28-135IS zoom, which will cover the range you will probably want to use most. since switching to slrs ive found that i really like prime (fixed focal length) lenses though, and they are alot cheaper, alot faster (wider apertures) and also alot better quality-wise. a canon 50mm/f1.8 is only ~75$ new (though most places are out of stock currently) or ~60$ used, and there are a couple of wideangle primes (24, 28, and 35mm) that go for between 200$ and 300$. if i were on a budget i would probably try to find a decent zoom and the 50/1.8 for good prices on ebay or in online classifieds.

so far ive had good luck buying used, but if you do always ask alot of questions to make sure things are in good shape. if you buy a used body i would either try to find one that was very lightly used, or has been serviced recently as things can break down after alot of use.

thats all i have time to type right now, so if you want to know more you can ask, but also go out and read as much info as you can, id start with photo.net... join (its free) and maybe present your situation on the forums, there are tons of people willing to help there.

[05]

thanks a lot for responding!

i'll definitely have a look at those models/lenses you recommended. i suppose i will join photo.net, have been lurking around for a while already.

i've been looking at some of the canon eos systems as well, very budget-friendly, and they look good too.