Should I buy a film camera tommorow?

R10 to the £ now?

I was working in Cape Town in 1997 (designing an online news publishing system for the Cape Argus & The Star) and IIRC it was around R6.

Ah well, I remember ZAR1.8/pound in about 1980.
 
Last year it was 15 ...which would have been nice ...more like 11 atm
 
Last year it was 15 ...which would have been nice ...more like 11 atm

It was at 19 or 20 for a short time a few years back, which was great for visitors but not so good for us travelling overseas!

SA property has always been cheaper than the UK and, IIRC, some visitors were snapping up ZAR 1.0m apartments in CT for the equivalent of 50,000 GBP.
 
In response to the OP I think that a film SLR is a great way of learning how to use an SLR, however the instant response of digital will really help you learn what changing each parameter does as you can change the aperture and take the same picture again to find out what the effect is etc.
But for the price of a film body and a few rolls of film you can't really go wrong, but I think that if you're just learning then it might end up being a false economy thinking that film is cheaper after bought and developed rolls and rolls of film.
 
In response to the OP I think that a film SLR is a great way of learning how to use an SLR, however the instant response of digital will really help you learn what changing each parameter does as you can change the aperture and take the same picture again to find out what the effect is etc.
But for the price of a film body and a few rolls of film you can't really go wrong, but I think that if you're just learning then it might end up being a false economy thinking that film is cheaper after bought and developed rolls and rolls of film.

TopBanana Speaks a lot of sense, even if it does steer the OP away from film for a while, learning on digital eventually works out a lot cheaper!

Its not for nothing that film photography was the preserve of well off people back in the good old early days.
 
Having read this and noticed that the customer has a Fuji S6500Fd, so can experiment with manual, aperture and shutter priorities already, so a film SLR is a way of improving and learnign on a budget.If I am correct?

Have to admit, have thought about it my self.
 
Basically, yeah I have a bridge camera but I'm finding it af a bit rubbish ...but not as bad as trying to see clearly enough to manual focus with it. So I'm looking into an SLR ...probably ideally a DSLR although I find a certain romanticism about film...but my finances for a one off purchase of something like a DSLR just arent there so hoping to find something with good or even just decent IQ, Something to help me learn and reliable AF or a manual focus thats actually useable and something I can put a fast lens on for low light situations. I love photographing in natural light. The amount I would need to learn with a film camera and time put into composing shots would be cool too.

My idea was to use my bridge as my more usual camera but for those amazing shots I would like to be able to take my time...set up the film and get a much better quality photo.

All this however looks like it wont be happening anytime soon as I'm having a small hitch with my finances.
 
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