Knowing the ending (spoiler: almost everyone dies)
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Wow. £200 with the f:1.8 lens, that was roughly $400 at that time!!
Exactly! Photographic equipment was very expensive. The OM3-Ti was about £1,600 when new.
That is interesting, I bought my OM1 just a few months later. I don't recall which shop I got it from, which is odd as I remember a previous SLR my parents bought me and subsequent cameras, nor do I know the exact price. One hundred and eighty something rings a bell, so it was in the same ballpark. The Fujica 605 was half the price. The OM1 was a little cheaper than the Nikkormat at that time IIRC.
I have the original bill of sale for my Contax II, dated 3 July 1937, from Photo Franke Potsdamer Sraße, Berlin; including the case, yellow 1&2 Zeiss filters, fabulous masked telescoping Zeiss "Sonnenblende" which mounts on the outer bayonet, and one roll of film. It was just over half the price of a new 1937 Ford coupé.
I have mixed feelings about this. There are many cameras I'd have loved to own, but never bought.
Pentax LX for example, or Olympus OM1, were dream cameras for me. I may still, one day, get one just for fun. Even if in the end they "lost", they are still dream cameras.
On the other hand, more than "Canon's adoption of plastic", it's "Canon's adoption of unreliable shutters" that helped me forget about SLRs. I had a T90, best design ever for an SLR if you trust me, but had to get the shutter fixed once, then got it fail again after a few years. Got an EOS3, which was quite as good as the T90 (but for twice the weight. The only advanced feature was the AF, but to get the same shooting speed I needed the booster), and developed the same shutter issue.... So I'll never buy a Canon SLR, except for an A series of a F1...
I own/ed a Canon T90, T70 and T50, as well as most of the A-series. The T90 suffered from sticky shutter magnets, but these were fixed quite cheaply. It was a camera that liked being used and I eventually sold mine, a tool I admired more than loved. The control placements were a work in progress, some in the body, others resembling modern SLR top LCDs. That's the thing about looking at the history of film cameras through the rear view mirror, technology dates faster than engineering, which may be why well engineered cameras are more desirable today.
Good news/bad news on this one. I bought a Sony digital SLR precisely because it could use the Minolta A mount lenses I already owned. I use a Minolta Maxxum 7 right along beside it - sharing lenses. The bad news is that those lenses are getting harder to source and may cost more (because of Sony).
Not in my opinion.
To answer the OP general question: with the exception of the Sony, I don't buy a camera based on the evolution of the camera company. Buying used photo gear - I buy what I want or need. Company still in business, fine. No? Doesn't matter.
Never owned a Canon ...
For me, the dream camera was the Nikon F2. I can remember in the 1970s, drooling over them in the display case thinking "I'll never be able to buy one of these". Fast forward, a really clean 71 body with a later DP11 finder showed up here for $100 shipped. The camera turned out to have been overhauled by Sover Wong (it came from an estate) in 2012, shipping was $15.50.
I love the digital revolution!
That Fujica ST 605 has the 55/2.2 lens, which is a Unar type, a very odd choice for a 35 slr in those days. The lens has an interesting look, I've been wanting one but most have issues with the plastic sheathing of the barrel & fucussing ring.
I had to Google the Unar, seems to be an all air surface lens. An old college pal had the Fuji ST 605 with the 55/2.2. Curious that Fuji, a company well known for its optical prowess should have fitted an "antique" design. Sample shots render a busy background.
The ST605 was introduced in 1976. It is surprising they offered a 55mm f2.2 lens of any design at that time. They also offered 55mm f1.4 and 1.8 lenses as well, making it even more curious.
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The 605 was an oddball, with a 1/700 sec. top shutter speed. No clue why the Unar except the simplicity, even with modern glasses that design must have been creaking at f:2.2. Pentax used an orthodox double Gauss design for their 55/2.2 Auto Takumar, a very good lens btw.
I'd forgotten that. Probably the same speed as some 1/1000 sec cameras.
Oddly, the blank speed at the 1/1000 position on my Pentax H1a times at 1/700!
None of the companies used PLASTIC, it's RESIN! 
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No. Mydigital camera is Nikon because my now dead 35mm camera was a nikon and the lenses work. My MF camera is Ukranian modified by another Ukranian company both Kaput and my all but one of the lenses have CCCP and a red star, My LF cameras are a hodge podge of makers and only 2 seem to be in business still. Maybe 3. Has Kodak gone belly up yet? I've stopped looking.
Ok, RESIN it is! But, it's still not METALNone of the companies used PLASTIC, it's RESIN!
Still looks and feels cheap.None of the companies used PLASTIC, it's RESIN!
What about the F6, or similar, where a metal body is covered in polycarbonate?
It may be better overall than if the camera were metal-only, but I still like the look and feel of all-metal.
It may be better overall than if the camera were metal-only, but I still like the look and feel of all-metal.
None of the companies used PLASTIC, it's RESIN!
Surely that’s semantics. Plastics are synthetic resins. Mont Blanc like to say their pens are made of “resin”. It’s plastic
At that price, plastic becomes something more exotic.
perhaps the word "polymer" is appropriate for the many varieties of plastic?
I like "plastolene".
OP, makes no difference to me.
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