Want to shoot more film, Stick with Current body? Or Buy into new system..

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SimonUK

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Simon
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Over the next few weeks and over summer, i want to start shooting some more film again. Also want to look at dev'ing my own.
I started a thread about getting a range finder a few weeks ago, but some RL things happened, and it got forgotten about!

Right now i shoot digi with a Canon 10D and a 50mm. And film on a Zenit EM with a broken meter and a Heilos 58mm with a loose aperture ring :p

THe body works and i like it, and the len's is pretty nice swell. But i want to start picking up a little kit of Primes (28/35/50/135).. DO i do this in M42? Or would be be easier to buy into new kit.....

Simon
 
If you're happy with the Zenit, then why not. There are a number of good quality prime lenses available in M42 screw fitting available, and shouldn't cost you too much either.

Alternatively, there are some excellent film bodies available from the likes of Olympus, Pentax, Canon and Nikon and third party lenses to fit these cameras are readily available too, as well as of course, lenses from the camera manufacturers themselves.

I don't know whether or not Canon's manual lenses are compatible with your 10D, but if they are, you may wish to stick with the same brand.
 
Depends on your budget really. You can do this relatively economically in Pentax, Canon FD and Olympus (to an extent), but Nikon F is going to be expensive picking up each of those primes. Whilst there is some M42 stuff out there which is good, and some very good glass, they tend to be older bodies and with that come limitations and problems of 30-40 years of dust and tough love. Factor in a CLA if you plan on going M42 (or any system, really). I think a CLA is a small price to pay for your main 35mm shooter.
 
Carl V said:
I don't know whether or not Canon's manual lenses are compatible with your 10D, but if they are, you may wish to stick with the same brand.
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They're not - or at least not without an adaptor - of which there are 2 types. One is a simple tube with the correct connectors on each end, which doesn't make a mess of the image quality, but loses the ability to focus to infinity. The other has a lens in the adaptor, keeps infinity focus but works like a short teleconverter, slightly degrading IQ, giving something like a 1.2x converter boost to the lens length and losing half a stop or so of aperture in the process. Either way, it's not a great situation :thumbsdown:
 
Its finding len's that i'm finding hard right now.. Is Ebay the Best place for M42?
 
There's no single best place - there are sometimes good listings on eBay, but they are snapped up and massively inflated by people using them on micro 4/3rds digital cameras (and digital SLRs). M42 lenses tend to come up every few weeks on TP Classifieds, so maybe worth posting a wanted ad if nothing pops up. Dealers like LCE, ffordes occasionally have good value lenses and are often warrantied for peace of mind.

Like the M42 bodies, these are lenses that are decades old so if you buy from eBay try to ensure you get the flexibility of return - major dust, scratches and fungus are inherently more likely in older lenses.
 
To be honest if I were having to cope with an old Zenith EM (I have one the same too) I'd be looking at buying another camera and perhaps changing systems, Olympus and Pentax can both be bought quite cheaply, Nikon and Canon for a few dollars more!..

Film cameras can be bought so cheaply these days that it's the time to buy the dream cameras that we lusted after when we were younger!

I've got the OM4ti and Nikon F5, both cameras that were crazily expensive for me when they were current!
 
pepper said:
To be honest if I were having to cope with an old Zenith EM (I have one the same too) I'd be looking at buying another camera and perhaps changing systems, Olympus and Pentax can both be bought quite cheaply, Nikon and Canon for a few dollars more!..

Film cameras can be bought so cheaply these days that it's the time to buy the dream cameras that we lusted after when we were younger!

I've got the OM4ti and Nikon F5, both cameras that were crazily expensive for me when they were current!
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Thats a Fair point, i think i'd buy into Nikon or Pentax tbh, The FD stuff is cool but way expensive....

I might look into buying a system.....
 
FD lenses are cheap compared to Nikon! In fact I reckon the FD system offers some of the best value currently, they are a bit unloved compared to most of the other old lens mounts.
 
FD's are definitely on the value side, primarily because of what I said ^^^ up there - that Canon abandoned the FD mount (and left all the FD mount users in the lurch in the process) to completely re-engineer things for the EF mount, seemingly almost deliberately making it awkward for users to continue to use their existing (and often expensive L class) glass.

That said, with a nice FD mount body (F1, A1 or even a T90 of that floats your boat) they are lovely bits of glass, and at a price/quality point that's hard to dispute.
 
TheBigYin said:
FD's are definitely on the value side, primarily because of what I said ^^^ up there - that Canon abandoned the FD mount (and left all the FD mount users in the lurch in the process) to completely re-engineer things for the EF mount, seemingly almost deliberately making it awkward for users to continue to use their existing (and often expensive L class) glass.

That said, with a nice FD mount body (F1, A1 or even a T90 of that floats your boat) they are lovely bits of glass, and at a price/quality point that's hard to dispute.
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You Reckon? My Dad actually was a hobby shooter back in the day, and still has his T90 with a 70-200 f4, and a f4 zoom. He hates primes(Crazy right? :p)
But it no longer works, was a replacement for the AE1-P he had nicked :/ I'd love to get an AE1-P but getting them good nick and working is hard as nails :/
 
^^ I've seen many many AE1 Programs for sale and working fine. The only question you really need to ask is "does it have the Canon squeal" and that about covers the most important bit!

I used to have a Canon AE1 Program and it was a nice camera, and FD glass is still very accessible, especially the standard primes. I know there are many fans and regular users of the T90 and A-1 who will happily talk the FD system up (y)
 
I've an A-1 that I keep expecting to develop the cough - when it does, I'll ship it away for a CLA for £30-40 and get another 10-15 years out of it... that should do for me :shrug:

(doesn't mean I would pass up a good working F1 at the right price though... Tried a T90, and while it was a nice enough camera, if you like that sort of thing, it's just too much of a "missing link" beween the old FD kit and the EOS. Problem is, it handles like a EOS, but a EOS with a broken AF setup. If I'm going THAT automated/assisted, then I'd sooner use the EOS-3 and all that lovely L glass that's in the peli-case...)


The Canon A-1 Family Snapshot by The Big Yin, on Flickr
 
Go M42 imho, you can get a decent EOS to m42 convertor for a few quid and use the lenses with your digital. Frankly the spotmatic ed mentioned is imho a lovely camera, a spotmatic F would be nicer and does open aperture metering with the very good smc-Takumar lenses from pentax. But if you like retro the older spot without hotshoe is prettier.
 
freecom2 said:
^^ I've seen many many AE1 Programs for sale and working fine. The only question you really need to ask is "does it have the Canon squeal" and that about covers the most important bit!

I used to have a Canon AE1 Program and it was a nice camera, and FD glass is still very accessible, especially the standard primes. I know there are many fans and regular users of the T90 and A-1 who will happily talk the FD system up (y)
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Freecom2 is right, as per usual (y) You can pick up an A-1 for relatively cheap, around £20-30 then if it has the cough, send it away for a CLA, if not, winner. FD glass is very nice to use, the lenses tend to be pretty damn sharp as well.
I picked up an A-1 over summer with a canon 28mm f2.8, 50mm f1.8 and a Tokina 70-210 for £50. It's ended up as my main 35mm body and its a pleasure to use, nice and compact yet very able and tactile :)
 
I think the entire setup above cost under 90 beer tokens...

Canon A-1 (04/1982) with Power Winder A

Lenses From Left to Right
FD 28mm f2.8 (04/1984),
FD 70-210 f4.0 (06/1982),
FD35-105 f3.5 (04/1984),
FD135 f3.5 (11/1977) and
FD50mm f1.8 (02/1985)
 
Well I'd get another extra camera like a Canon A1 or T70 (I really like my T70 and they go for peanuts) Why an extra camera? Well manual cameras are Ok if you have time, but a semi auto (or auto) camera is very useful for a quick shot and some examples from my experience would be:- taking shots of kids while running in and out of the shade of trees and the sun is in and out from clouds....or at a zoo with different lighting conditions in cages with animals (like monkeys) moving in and out of sunshine, and you can't use flash etc etc
 
Here to raise the Thread back up from the semi-dead! after a sale on here, i have a full 40 Pounds to spend on a Body+1 Len's ideally.... not critical though....

Thinking after some reading i want to go Canon FD, had a play with the T90, and i get what people mean by its a, stop gap between the FD and EOS stuff, so want to go with a Mechanical body really..

Eventually i want to get a Full kit of

Body+Winder
50mm 1.4
35mm
28mm or WIDER
70-210mm f/4

Flash is boring and ugly so i don't want none of that :p

Recommendations pleasee :)
 
If you're set on FD and want a camera and standard 50mm 1.8 for £40, then I guess you'd be looking at the AE-1 (or variants) or if you're lucky a cough-free A-1...

Putting together the kit you mention is certainly do-able on a budget though - I think the whole setup I posted ^^^ was less than £150 in total :shrug:
 
My opinion, best bang for buck if you want a 35mm SLR with primes is the Olympus range, all of the zuiko range is decent and available fairly cheap, you should be able to get a 28mm f3.5, 50mm f1.8 & 135mm f3.5 for around £100. the 50mm 1.4 can be had for an extra £30 or so, however I find that it was no more useful than the 1.8 as it was a little too soft at 1.4 and above that the lenses were equals.

With M42, yeh you can get those same specs for a lot less money however a lot of the cheaper lenses I tried were complete crap and the better stuff tends to fetch fairly big prices.

Nikon, f-mount is still active so the lenses are full price or more

£40 should get you an OM-10 with manual adapter and a 50mm 1.8, I'd advise saving a little more and going for the om-1 or om-2 range though.
 
Tim - what part of the OP's comment "i want to go Canon FD," made you think "oooh - I'll recommend a camera that isn't made by canon, and doesn't use FD lenses" ?
 
How much more do you think I could get a F1n for? The build quality looks better than the ae1?
 
For a f1 you will be looking at at least doubling your budget
 
Pfft, wont be doing that then! Why are they so much more expensive? Pretty similar to the AE1?
 
They are the pro version, better build quality, better electronics, better metering. They also have fully manual override speeds if your battery runs out
 
with a totalbudget of £40, you'd be VERY lucky to get a decent working A1 sans lens, never mind a F1n - I doubt I'd touch anything under £200 with a 1.4 lens unless I knew the guy who was selling it, and knew it'd been recently serviced. I've wanted one for a while, but simply can't justify the money, considering I've only put maybe 1 roll through the A-1 in the last 9 months or so, and I can't see even the purchase of a F1n making me get out and shoot often enough to justify tying that capital up in one. But they are lovely...
 
TheBigYin said:
with a totalbudget of £40, you'd be VERY lucky to get a decent working A1 sans lens, never mind a F1n - I doubt I'd touch anything under £200 with a 1.4 lens unless I knew the guy who was selling it, and knew it'd been recently serviced. I've wanted one for a while, but simply can't justify the money, considering I've only put maybe 1 roll through the A-1 in the last 9 months or so, and I can't see even the purchase of a F1n making me get out and shoot often enough to justify tying that capital up in one. But they are lovely...
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Yeah i might be getting my hopes up :/ Looks like the all black ones are even harder to find :/ Yours looks so pretty?! If your not using it, you know.... i run a good camera day care centre..... :D
 
ahh - there's a problem with that, I'm one of natures pack-rats. Once I've bought something, I keep it. Until It dies/falls apart. Then I keep it. For spares.

One day I'll die a lonely old man, surrounded by piles and piles of useless tat, and it'll all end up in a skip...

.... 'till then, it's mine, all mine, I tell ye....
 
TheBigYin said:
Tim - what part of the OP's comment "i want to go Canon FD," made you think "oooh - I'll recommend a camera that isn't made by canon, and doesn't use FD lenses" ?
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Mark, a tad harsh don't you think? Whilst the OP has started leaning towards Canon FD, the point of this discussion thread is a far more open discussion about what systems to go for if you were starting afresh, and what offers value for money. All the points aired were valid and fair enough.

Anyway, I never really liked the Canon FD system much, but it does offer good value for money (y)
 
freecom2 said:
Anyway, I never really liked the Canon FD system much, but it does offer good value for money (y)
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....but you don't have to use Canon lenses, the world of screw lenses is open to you as well using a cheap adapter, and a T90/T70/A1 with sophisticated metering using say a M42 Flek or Sonnar is something an Olympus/Nikon owner can only watch. :cool:
 
freecom2 said:
Mark, a tad harsh don't you think? Whilst the OP has started leaning towards Canon FD, the point of this discussion thread is a far more open discussion about what systems to go for if you were starting afresh, and what offers value for money. All the points aired were valid and fair enough.

Anyway, I never really liked the Canon FD system much, but it does offer good value for money (y)
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As posts 1-10 had thoroughly discussed other options, and all bar one posts from 11-19 had been on the subject of FD compliant kit, along with the OP's starting comment that "i want to go Canon FD," I feel that it was pretty plain to anyone who'd read the entire thread as opposed to looking at the first post and jumping straight in, that going for a different camera system had been discussed, explored and rejected, and was therefore redundant...

so, no, I don't actually think it's all that harsh - frankly, you should have seen the first three drafts!
 
TheBigYin said:
Tim - what part of the OP's comment "i want to go Canon FD," made you think "oooh - I'll recommend a camera that isn't made by canon, and doesn't use FD lenses" ?
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Having used both systems, I just thought I would put in my 2 pence, Don't worry I'll keep my opinions and experience to myself in future. :bonk::wave:
 
Save up and buy Nikon......its the only way...


http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/12190/s***storm.gif
 
joxby said:
Save up and buy Nikon......its the only way...


http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/12190/s***storm.gif
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I would actually also agree with this, but didn't mention it as it would triple the budget! However having one set of lenses for 3 bodies is worth it for me.
 
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