Hi, I'm a long-time but intermittent lurker who recently recently rediscovered film after I was given a couple of Nikon F100 bodies. That made me go back through the boxes, and I found a Kiev 4a I must have bought decades ago and abandoned for some reason, which turns out to be takeup spool tensioning, plus my first SLR, a Zenit 3M with a Helios 44 and a Tair 11a. Along with a cassette-less Minolta 16. So deciding to put at least a bit of film through each of them, here I am...
So far I've discovered I probably like fixing cameras and lenses more than actually putting film through them. I have a Contax F on the shopping list because I have a solitary M42 lens I'd like to try out. On the local market, cameras tend to be pretty cheap, and there's a reseller-wide grading system which the usual online markets (Rakuten, Yahoo Auctions, etc.) will hold them to. So there is less risk of unpleasant surprises. The only anomoly is that a CLA can be an immense price, which is why I tend to do it myself.
So far I've discovered I probably like fixing cameras and lenses more than actually putting film through them. I have a Contax F on the shopping list because I have a solitary M42 lens I'd like to try out. On the local market, cameras tend to be pretty cheap, and there's a reseller-wide grading system which the usual online markets (Rakuten, Yahoo Auctions, etc.) will hold them to. So there is less risk of unpleasant surprises. The only anomoly is that a CLA can be an immense price, which is why I tend to do it myself.