Decision to be made.

Andysnap

Andysnap

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Andy Grant
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So, here it is, I want an AF film camera because my MF skills are way to slow for street stuff. I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that the Oly OM2 is AF and I have lenses for this system. I also fancy a Nikon F501 but as I know its the same size as the F301, which is bigger than my Oly OM10, it may not be quite as discreet.
Any thoughts, or indeed other suggestions, are appreciated. The budget is miniscule by the way as I'm not allowed any pocket money for being naughty (again). :LOL:

Cheers

Andy
 
The OM2 is not AF so thats kinda out of the question. If I was you I would just keeping practicing MF, you'll get the hang of it.
 
Sam_G said:
The OM2 is not AF so thats kinda out of the question. If I was you I would just keeping practicing MF, you'll get the hang of it.
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Bugger. I don't mind using AF, in fact its all I've used since trying film again, but I feel really obvious when I try street shooting and my eyesight isn't brilliant so its takes a while to get it spot on, consequently AF is more suitable in these situations.

OK, so which of the older Oly's is AF?

Andy
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Nikon F55 and 65 is AF - and they go for silly money.
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Yes I've seen that but they're plasticky and I want something metal and solid. I had an F90, which was great but massive and made of plastic (solid mind) and it just didn't suit me.

Same thing with the F80 Woodsy, I like my cameras old school.

Andy
 
There was some OM AF lenses but they only fitted the OM707 & OM101 - I don't think they sold many of these.

'Proper' OMs were all MF.

Try pre-focusing and try to keep within the depth of field.
 
john-oh said:
There was some OM AF lenses but they only fitted the OM707 & OM101 - I don't think they sold many of these.

'Proper' OMs were all MF.

Try pre-focusing and try to keep within the depth of field.
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Cheers John, I did try that this weekend and when I get the film back we'll see if it worked.....:thinking:

Anyway it appears that the decision has been made for me and its the F501, happy really as I love my F301.

Cheers

Andy
 
Glad you're enjoying that F301 Andy!

I might be stating the crushingly obvious but the F501 needs AF lenses to be and AF camera. They also had the reputation of being slow to focus at the time so they will feel achingly slow compared to modern AF camera technology.
 
desf said:
Glad you're enjoying that F301 Andy!

I might be stating the crushingly obvious but the F501 needs AF lenses to be and AF camera. They also had the reputation of being slow to focus at the time so they will feel achingly slow compared to modern AF camera technology.
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Hi Des, yes its a great little camera, sounds good too. Could be that the f501is slower at MF than I am....:thinking: Maybe I just need to practice more.

Cheers

Andy
 
It just takes practice, mate.

Remember we've only had 'workable' AF for the past 15 years or so...(early versions were horrible).
Before that we all had to 'MF'...
pre-focussing is perhaps the biggest skill in all this - look around as you work, judge distances to likely subjects and pre-focus the lens by 'feel'. Takes practice, but after a couple of weeks sat in front of the TV, you can judge how far left or right of the stops how far you need to turn the focus-ring to get to a pre-determined distance.

It's one reason the 'thumb-flange' is so useful on Leica's lenses... I know that on my 35mm Summicron, fully-right (facing forward) to the stop is infinity, straight-down is 4.5ft and half-way between is 8ft...
Knowing those distances, I can judge pretty accurately the distance to set before I even bring the camera up to my eye.

Same thing applies with other lenses, it just takes a bit more practice...

I haven't used MF in anger since about 1996, so I'm revising all those lost skills again. How many clicks to get from f/2 to f/5.6 (without looking) then to f/16 on a 35mm lens; how much 'turn' to get from infinity to 12ft. etc. etc.

Pro's used to practice this stuff every day: I even watched Tim Page doing it with a new Leica M7 when I met him at a book-launch a few years back...
 
Aye, I think you're right Rob. Just having one of my bouts of can't be ar*ed to try it. I shall get out at the weekend and have a practice round town.

Andy
 
The Olympus OM 101 used a thing called "Power Focus" basically a powered thumb wheel at the back of the camera so a very lazy way of using manual focus. I have handled a couple of these when working in the camera shop and to be honest they were not nice cameras.

The Olympus OM 707 was an AF camera but it was a poor design and its failure rate was amazingly bad, again only handled one of them and it was blinking horrible when compared to the OM 1 - OM 4 series.

If your after a AF Oly camera then try looking at the 'IS' series, look like bridge cameras but were not bad bits of kit.

Other than that I If you still after AF I would stick to the Nikons.
 
Cheers Nick. As I said above I'm going to stick with MF so I think I'll save up and get something discreet, reliable and possibly expensive (ish).

Andy
 
Just re-read this thread.

Your after a Nikon 501?

Think they were AF version of the 301 which you like. The 501 had a "passive autofocus" system which is said to be more accurate than the other systems. However it is slower and will require a fair bit of light for to work effectivley. Think I have played with a 501 which was ok, but if your after cheapish Nikon AF then try looking for the 601 series. I really liked them when they first came out, but did not sell that well. Nothing wrong with it, it was just far easier and everyone wanted the EOS 1000 plus the 601 was a fair bit more cash at the time.
 
narabdela said:
Stick a decent lens on an F55 and you'll forget about it being plasticky.
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Hello and welcome to TP. Thanks for the suggestion and to be fair I probably will end up getting a more up to date Nikon at some point as I can't seem to stop myself :naughty:.

Andy

Blimey I've just seen when you joined, must have been one of the earliest. Glad to see you've decided to post, its fun.
 
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