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advice needed-wife is ditching digital and going film

I have a Canon EOS 630 body I'd be willing to part with for shipping.
 
HOORAY FOR HER!
 
It is so subjective you need to take her to a camera shop and stay outside until she comes back out.

Hand size and dexterity...

Real Camera shop in Manchester loads of junk if you want you can borrow one and take it around the block for a quick 120... or two
 
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wilfbiffherb said:
Alas with living in the north west of England there is nothing remotely like that round here
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You should think about a romantic weekend in the depths of Norfolk - Got three stores that sell second hand camera gear right on my doorstep (one is a treasure trove of gear and information).
 

I'm going to suggest something different.

Fujifilm GA645.

It's a natural portrait taking machine. Excellent film size, naturally set in the portrait position. The lens is amazingly sharp, even wide open at f/4 and the meter is virtually fool proof.

Exceptionally easy camera to operate and is incredibly light weight. Has built in flash that works well!

If you can live with f/4 as your maximum aperture, this camera is worth a look.
 
IMO if she doesn't care about neg size get a nice EOS1. You can do so much more with an autofocus camera. I shoot mainly with an old P67 and love the big film size, but it's very limiting and I'm sure I miss a lot of divisive moments trying to focus. (mainly shooting portraits).
 
You knew going in you would get a bazillion recommendations, right? I like sending her into a camera shop and wait for her to come out, camera in hand.
 
My vote is either the Nikon f100 or ideally the f5. I have the f5 and it is awesome, allbeit heavy. Combined with the Nikon 20mm prime, you will have a great landscape system. The 50mm standard is also great and only about £120 new. Or you get the f1.4 for about 300 or better yet, the Carl Zeiss 50mm with Nikon attachment bit that's a lot of money.
 
In my honest opinion. for shooting portraits with roll film you just can't beat a Mamiya RZ67. Yes, it's manual and with the waist level finder doesn't have a meter. She can learn it. She's got a good teacher, right?

Get the 110mm and 180mm leaf shutter lenses. Also buy the flash grip to make it easier to handle. If she decides that she wants strobes pick up a used set of Novatrons dirt cheap.
 
I'd be of the "keep to Canon" opinion.
They've had enough different models around to give a reasonable choice. If light weight is wanted take a look at the
Elan 7 or 7E just a step below the pro cameras.
 
While I admire your bravery, I'd let her pick the stuff out, for about 1,000 reasons.
 
For an easy transition, move within the Canon SLR body line-up. Going from a digital to analogue Canon will not present any pains or stress, save for learning how to load film (it's pretty darned hard to make a mistake, but some people I have known have punctured the shutter curtain with large bling rings!) and, in the case of the high-end EOS bodies (1N, 1V, 3, among) fine-tuning exposure (steps e.g. 0.3, 0.5 or 1), employing bracketing (on EOS bodies an auto form of exposure compensation) and understanding the capabilities and limits of evaluative metering systems, together with the specific applications of partial, spot and multi-spot metering — all of which have pointed relevance in portraiture. If cost is no object, Canon's L-series lenses will definitely step up to the plate with sharp images, and even the L-series zooms will belt out gems. All things related, how much you are going to spend on quality of lenses will determine the end result. Drawing a finger in the air, and from my own experience, the EOS 5 is an excellent base-level introduction, followed by the EOS1N, EOS 3 and the high-level and likely too over-specified EOS 1V. Don't get carried away with the reams of technology on-board cameras: remember it's you, the photographer who makes the decisions, it should not be the preserve of the camera to do so unless you implicitly want it so.
 
Fire those Canons


Very sound advice!
 
I'm now in a similar situation and have found browsing keh.com to be very helpful. It gives a good sense of options and prices, and especially what it will take, in terms of availability and cost, to build the lens kit you want. I have a couple Rokkor lenses for my Nex system, so I settled on an XD-11. But the site is a good place to start and get relative information on many options.

John
 
wilfbiffherb said:
I've been eyeing up the Nikon f100 which looks right up her alley, I'll look into these ones mentioned, thanks all.
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Yep, sell the Canon stuff and get an F100, a 50mm 1.4G and a 105mm 2.5 AIS. I just shot a job for a ski area an hour ago, I used my D800 and brought the F100 along with Tmax 400 in it, totally seamless and either camera can use wonderful Nikon AIS manual focus lenses as well as stunners like the 35 1.4G. At one point in time, I had a few Leica bodies and the legendary 35mm 1.4 Aspheric. The Nikon 35mm 1.4G on the F100 with Tri-x pretty much equaled it so I sold most of the Leica stuff.

I had Canon stuff for a few years while Nikon got their full frame act together and while I do occasionally miss the look of the one of a kind 85L, I am far happier with the *enormous* flexibility of the Nikon system. If you do stay with Canon, stay away from the hokey EOS 3 with it's poorly thought out battery system, mine ate batteries like it had a tape worm.

Oh and by the way, my wife loves using the F100 with a 60mm 2.8D for her macro work....
 
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