Manual focus 35mm recommendations (similar to AE-1 Program)

Xmas

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Although the user manual may say mercury button cell most have bridge circuits and will work ok on silver oxide or alkaline cells. very late ones went to differential galvanometers (like K1000s) which can also accept any cell type. They will work ok with Wein cells or silver cell adapters too.
 

smieglitz

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Buy an A-1. It is an AE-1 on steroids. 6 exposure modes, great meter, easy to read numerical meter LED, depth-of-field preview (and stopped down automation with a viewfinder curtain which is great for macrophotography), winder and motor drive options, small, light, 2 self-timer settings and double-exposure capability, several meter buttons, automatic exposure compensation dial and the great and extensive Canon FD lens line. IMO, the only thing it is missing is a system interchangeable viewfinder and screens.
 

Tamara

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smieglitz said:
Buy an A-1. It is an AE-1 on steroids.
Click to expand...

As someone who dearly loved her AE-1 Program in the early-'90s, I agree with the above. I recently acquired an AE-1 Program and an A-1 both, and while the former triggers all kinds of nostalgia, the latter takes the pictures now. (Once upon a time, there was a noticeable difference between their price tags, but now that they cost essentially the same, there's no reason not to go with the higher-zoot A-1.)
 

John Koehrer

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Canon EF-M is manual focus and takes EOS lenses. This comes sorta close to the OP's wants (no spot, battery dependent, but uses AF lenses). Selective reading, I know.
Link to WIKI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS

For spotmeter AND compact, The Olympus' mentioned above.
Miranda, neither light weight nor compact
Mamiya 1000 DTL(TL?) even less compact and even heavier.

None of the manual focus Canons had true spotmeters but had a clearly defined metering area And NONE were
either lightweight or compact.
The Canon EF, with FD mount also had a hybrid shutter years before Nikon. Manual speeds were 1/2-1000 sec.
Big & heavy but people who use them love them.
 

Les Sarile

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John Koehrer said:
The Canon EF, with FD mount also had a hybrid shutter years before Nikon. Manual speeds were 1/2-1000 sec.
Click to expand...

The EF is Shutter Priority autoexpose instead of aperture priority autoexpose as in the FM3A. With the EF - as well as others like the Konica Auto-Reflex (1965), with dead batteries, you can of course manually select the shutter speed.
 

blockend

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John Koehrer said:
None of the manual focus Canons had true spotmeters but had a clearly defined metering area And NONE were
either lightweight or compact.
Click to expand...
The Canon AV-1 may not be Olympus OM1 or Pentax MX diminutive, but is still a small camera compared to earlier and later 35mm SLR size norms. A contender for the EOS EF-M niche would be the Nikon F601M.
 
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tomfrh

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thanks for all your replies.

I mentioned I want spot metering, but what I really meant was being able to meter individual areas. So anything resembling spot metering or partial metering would be fine. I'm not too sure how these old cameras meter, and how centrally weighted they are. Maybe centre weighted average is all I need!

I'm not so interested in manual focus EF. I have EOS already and can do that. It's like putting your automatic car into "manual" mode. It's not a manual.

I'm thinking hard about the FM2n at this point. I see that Afghan girl was shot with this camera. My portraits never come out as good as that photo, so maybe I should get this camera...

The FE2 is also a possibility.

Can someone explain soemthing - I understand the FM2 is mechanical, and FE2 is electronic. Yet FM2 has an LED meter, but FE2 has a physical needle? I find that confusing. I'd assume mechanical would have a needle and electronic would have leds. Clearly I'm missing something!

Re. price. Yes the FM3a isn't that expensive in absolute terms, but I'd rather spend ~$200 than ~$600 if possible!
 

trythis

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Fm's work with no meter. Batteries just light up the meters leds or needle solenoid. Fe's fire only one speed without batteries.
 

Alan Gales

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The Contax bodies always felt the best in my hands. I've owned the 139 and a pair of 167 MT's. I've handled the RTS ll and Aria.

Also, it's hard to beat the Zeiss glass. Not cheap though.
 

blockend

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The battery issue is a red herring in the current camera market. I'm not saying there aren't people in northern climes subject to battery failure, but at those temperatures the camera itself is prone to seizure if exposed for long periods. Full mechanical cameras have their charm but that doesn't make battery powered models impractical - batteries have never been cheaper. Even early autofocus models that sucked juice for AF, film advance, flash and readouts can be fed a diet of batteries economically via far east ebay dealers.

Manual focus camera batteries (with a few notable exceptions like Olympus) tend to last ages even under hard use, and cost next to nothing. Chances are your spares will expire before the original needs replacing.
 

Les Sarile

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You're not missing anything as those were just the choices made. Complete reviews at -> MIR Nikon FM Series and MIR Nikon FE Series.
 

MattKrull

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Most cameras used some form of center weighed averaging. Very few (like one year of the Nikon F) used flat full scene metering. Honestly, you'll be good with any of them.

I'm thinking hard about the FM2n at this point. I see that Afghan girl was shot with this camera. My portraits never come out as good as that photo, so maybe I should get this camera...
Click to expand...
The camera had about 1% influence on that photo. Seriously. Steve McCurry could have shot that with pretty much any of the cameras listed here so far and no one would be able to tell the difference. Was his gear good? Yes, and he knew how to use it. What is really important (and is true for most other famous photos) is the light, the setup, and in the interaction with the subject. IE the person behind the camera.



Mechanical vs Electronic in this case only refers to the shutter timing mechanism. One is clock-work, one is an electronic timer and magnetic solenoid. As has been mentioned, don't fret about it. Batteries are easy to get, cheap, and light (in the canon AE-1 they last dozens and dozens of rolls, even the OM-2S, the battery pig that it is, gets 10 rolls on a pair of $2 batteries that take up less space than a quarter in your camera bag). I have romantic notions about mechanical shutters, but all my "go to" cameras are electronic, go figure.

When looking at your camera purchase, you're really buying into the lenses too. Nikon lenses tend to be expensive, because you can still use them directly on (higher end) modern Nikon digital bodies. Canon FD (AE-1) and Olympus tend to be cheaper because they have to be adapted. Pentax, despite being directly mountable on current Pentax digital bodies still seem to be cheap too (probably because Pentax doesn't have much market share right now).

For $200 you can get very clean camera with at couple of primes (28 and 50 for sure, maybe a 135 too) for FD, OM, Pentax K, or M42 off your local classifieds. Heck, on my local classifieds I could do most of those for under $100 right now. Nikon might be a bit more, but not enough to stop you from buying Nikon if those are the cameras that appeal to you. If you want the comfort that comes with buying from a place like KEH with a solid return policy, the price goes up, but you know what you are getting.
 

film_man

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The FM2 has a mechanical shutter. So you can still use it without batteries. The meter obviously needs a battery so needle or LED doesn't matter. Never used a FE2 but the FM2 is a one smooth camera. Go for it. Get a 50/1.4 and a 105/2.5 and then you just need a ticket to Afghanistan...

 

PentaxBronica

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That's pretty much exactly what I've found in the past couple of weeks. Looking at Canon lenses for my new FTb and Nikkors for my Nikkormat FTn, I already have a sizable collection of Pentax glass.

Pentax lenses are going up in price slowly, especially A series and AF ones (as those are the easiest to use on the DSLRs).

Nikon lenses are ridiculously expensive comparing like for like. £50-£60 for a 50mm prime, compared to £20 or so for the Pentax equivalent.

Canon FL and FD lenses are insanely cheap for what you get. Been sorely tempted by an FL 135mm f2.5 for £37, I wouldn't find the Pentax equivalent for double that.
 

John Koehrer

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Most cameras used some form of center weighed averaging. Very few (like one year of the Nikon F) used flat full scene metering. Honestly, you'll be good with any of them.

Which head was that? Thought they were all 60/40.
 
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tomfrh

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So I ended up buying an FE2. It comes with a 50mm nikkor f2 combo. The analog needle system is what sold me on the FE2.

It'll arrive shortly. Fingers crossed!
 
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tomfrh

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tomfrh said:
So I ended up buying an FE2. It comes with a 50mm nikkor f2 combo. The analog needle system is what sold me on the FE2.

It'll arrive shortly. Fingers crossed!
Click to expand...

The meter turned out faulty , and the winder wouldn't wind properly, and the shutter button was jammy.

The perils of buying 2nd hand!

Seller has offered a refund.

I've had this happen before, and I can't figure it out. Why would anyone sell a clearly faulty product if they're also prepared to offer a refund. Makes no sense....
 

Rick A

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I'm sorry to read of your misfortune with the camera purchase. Many sellers don't have a clue as to how these older cameras work, they cock the shutter, hear a sound, and call it functional. I've experienced that from ebay sellers and many get defensive and accuse me of trying to scam them when I contact them about it. I don't buy 35mm cameras, usually medium format folders. The people who sell those are really clueless. Maybe they were hoping you were looking to use it as a bookend or door stop.
 

Kawaiithulhu

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I've been very happy with a camera I got from someone here, with a knowledgeable and accurate description, so apung might be another source to consider?
 
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