Advice on buying a 35mm camera

Paul Howell · Aug 20, 2007

For a beater of beater's camera, at around $20.00, I recommend a Chinon, Rioch, or Cosina in a M42 or early K mount. My beater of beater if a Chinon branded GAF M 42 with a 50mm 2.0, I also carry a Chinion 35 and 135 Vivitar in my trunk. In the summer I keep a roll of 35mm in by brief case. The lens are not great, but in a pinch.

Snapshot · Aug 20, 2007

I second the Contax RTS. This cameras are rugged and the optics you can purchase are some of the best you can buy.

copake_ham · Aug 20, 2007

No need to wade through three plus pages of stuff to suggest a Nikkormat FTN, FT2, FT3 etc.

Will cost you about fifty bucks (maybe seventy-five with a 2.8/50mm lens) and is built like the proverbial brick ....house.

Others will have other suggestions.

Uncle Bill · Aug 21, 2007

While I am a OM and Pentax M-42 fan, my recommendation for a tank camera would be the Nikkormat Ftn. Mine is about the same age as I am (very late thirties) still goes strong.

Bill

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 21, 2007

If you don't HAVE to stick to 35mm, think about a baby Speed Graphic or Busch Pressman with a roll-film holder. Huge negatives, still easy to fit under the car seat, self-casing, and virtually indestructible.

Roger Hicks · Aug 21, 2007

TheFlyingCamera said:
If you don't HAVE to stick to 35mm, think about a baby Speed Graphic or Busch Pressman with a roll-film holder. Huge negatives, still easy to fit under the car seat, self-casing, and virtually indestructible.

Not so hot on close up, though. At least, not conveniently.

mjs · Aug 21, 2007

TheFlyingCamera said:
If you don't HAVE to stick to 35mm, think about a baby Speed Graphic or Busch Pressman with a roll-film holder. Huge negatives, still easy to fit under the car seat, self-casing, and virtually indestructible.

Hah, I have been thinking about a 4x5 Graphic type of camera, although not as a beater but more for street portraits. Hmm. Wouldn't fit under the seat but there's always the trunk. I could stick it in a small cooler bag...

I ought not to think about this too long: it gets more and more attractive the longer I do!

Mike

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 21, 2007

Roger- they may not be as convenient on closeup as an SLR, but they're a damn sight better than a fixed-lens 35 rangefinder. If your closeups are close up enough to require careful composition and focusing, then you should be on a tripod anyway, and you can do full-on macro off the GG with a Baby Graphic which you certainly can't do with a fixed lens rangefinder or an SLR without a dedicated (and pricey) macro lens.

Bill Mitchell · Aug 21, 2007

It sounds like one good situation to go Dig.... (you know). Unlike film, not affected by the 150 degree heat in a closed up car, and no degradation of images while waiting to "finish the roll."
PS, you didn't hear this here.

TheFlyingCamera · Aug 21, 2007

Bill- reasonable point, but the batteries in those beasts do conk out much faster in the heat and the cold. You'd have to keep a car charger handy at all times, to be able to re-juice the thing.

Roger Hicks · Aug 21, 2007

TheFlyingCamera said:
Roger- they may not be as convenient on closeup as an SLR, but they're a damn sight better than a fixed-lens 35 rangefinder. If your closeups are close up enough to require careful composition and focusing, then you should be on a tripod anyway, and you can do full-on macro off the GG with a Baby Graphic which you certainly can't do with a fixed lens rangefinder or an SLR without a dedicated (and pricey) macro lens.

Fair enough -- which is why I said 'conveniently'.

keithwms · Aug 21, 2007

Press cameras aren't convenient for closeup?

Most of the graphics have a number of features to facilitate fast framing even for close focus, and without using ground glass.

With the 135mm on my old crown graphic, I am pretty sure I can work about as fast as any other rangefinder. And I can do half-decent macro with it. Can anybody's 35mm RF do macro?

Note that because of the big neg, you can get by with much faster film than you might use for 35mm. So stop down, try delta 3200, and for instant prints there is fuji fp3000b.

I wish I had one of those big exploding flashes, then I could get a media pass and put on a trench coat and work the streets...

Advice on buying a 35mm camera

Paul Howell

Snapshot

copake_ham

Uncle Bill

TheFlyingCamera

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Roger Hicks

mjs

TheFlyingCamera

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Bill Mitchell

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Roger Hicks

keithwms

Advice on buying a 35mm camera

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