Slr suggestion

Ben johns

Ben johns

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Ben
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Can anyone point me to a film slr that has full manual controls and spot metering? That can be bought for sub £30
 
not really. i only say that budget as ive seen eos cameras go for £20 or so with a lens, but i dont think they have spot metering.
 
Just out of interest is there any particular reason for wanting spot metering? Usually for 35mm film a manual camera with center weighted metering will cover just about every situation and it would increase your options.
 
About the cheapest would be a Canon T90 body with a sticky shutter ( EEE) and you take the chance of getting it working..a few years back a guy bought three T90 bodies not working for £10 and lucky him he got one working.(y)
 
The last of the great Minolta e.g Dynax 4/5 as well as being full auto also allow for manual control and also offer spot metering.
They will be within your budget and you can use Minolta AF lenses as well as Sony A series lenses.
 
Nikon F80, easy to get for around £30. Is basically like a Nikon D40 but for film and you can obviously use manually.
 
Buying things from the Bay can be a bit of a risk, but there plenty SLRs(Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Olympus) at around your budget.

Dave
 
If you fancy something a bit more robust, the Nikon F801 (or 801S) can be picked up for about £30. I picked one up, fully serviced with a Nikon 35-70mm lens last year for £70 and it is a very capable and well built camera.

A couple of shots taken with this combo on Agfa Vista 400 film.

The-Conductor1 by Andy, on Flickr

A-Warm-Dry-Place by Andy, on Flickr
 
mdjchat said:
Just out of interest is there any particular reason for wanting spot metering? Usually for 35mm film a manual camera with center weighted metering will cover just about every situation and it would increase your options.
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I already have the canon at-1 which is Center weighted but I’ve found it can be fooled taking photos of people in weird lighting. For instance I went to the zoo yesterday with my family. I took my canon and my Sony and the canon got fooled a lot when people were in shadow and there was a bright background. Just want it for speed really
 
Olympus OM40 you might find one with a 50mm for about £30. The metering works rather well.
 
Ben johns said:
Can anyone point me to a film slr that has full manual controls and spot metering? That can be bought for sub £30
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I think a full manual (and only manual) SLR with spot metering is rare, most that I know have centre-weighted metering. There are later auto SLRs that may have manual modes that would have spot metering. But you might be changing settings in menus. I may be wrong, though!
 
Ben johns said:
I already have the canon at-1 which is Center weighted but I’ve found it can be fooled taking photos of people in weird lighting. For instance I went to the zoo yesterday with my family. I took my canon and my Sony and the canon got fooled a lot when people were in shadow and there was a bright background. Just want it for speed really
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Rather than spend £30 on another different system I'd say that you could get away with being a little more careful when metering. If the scene has a tricky exposure scenario you can use exposure compensation or take the slower approach and meter close up from an area that you want correctly exposed (provided it would match a mid grey tone) before recomposing and shooting manually with the settings that you have just metered. I'd say spend the money on film/ developing and take a selection of photos across a variety of conditions (with notes) to see how your meter behaves and to get a feel for when and where you need to override the meter readings.
 
The trouble with a full manual camera comes when the light is fast-changing, like broken cloud and sunny intervals. You meter for one lighting condition and by the time you've set the shutter speed and aperture and focused, the light has changed. That's where a multi-mode auto exposure camera comes in handy, particularly one with easily changeable exposure compensation dial, where you can compensate for strongly backlit subjects. You just need to remember to re-set it afterwards!
 
Mr Badger said:
....particularly one with easily changeable exposure compensation dial, where you can compensate for strongly backlit subjects. You just need to remember to re-set it afterwards!
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Note to self, go on, reset the darn EC dial next time! Please!

(I do usually notice before I've taken more than a couple of shots!!!)
 
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