Starting Over (Buying another Canon)

Hi there! I'm new to this forum. Last year I sold my Canon EOS Rebel Ti kit with 28-90 lens on eBay because the film door latch wouldn't stay shut. I even mentioned "you can just tape it up and it works great!" in the description. How stupid was I for selling this? Why didn't *I* just tape it shut? :rolleyes: Until recently I haven't had the money to purchase a new one. I *loved* that camera, but I am torn between purchasing the same or similar, and purchasing an much older SLR.

I've done a little bit of Googling, but I keep going back and forth about it. I know that the EOS systems won't necessarily create better images than the complete manual SLRs, that the new systems have shutter delay, etc, but they also seem to offer more in the way of metering and such.

However, in some ways I feel as though I will never learn all the technicalities of exposure, AV, shutter speed, etc, unless I use an older, less forgiving camera. I do know about ISO as I used to work at a photo lab, but I know very little about the rest of what I mentioned.

So, would you suggest getting another modern EOS SLR like the Rebel, or something older like the A1, etc? * I am pretty partial to Canon, but I am open to suggestions of other brands. I would prefer something that I can find used for less than $300 as I'm on a limited budget right now.

Lastly I should mention that while I take photos of lots of different things, my favorite and what I'm probably best at is *portraits. I also really want to get a longer telephoto lens so I can take more tightly cropped, close-ups of people without actually being right in their faces.

Hi,

you might want to follow this thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I don't personally buy into learning the ropes by restricting yourself by going back to an old, manual camera. Buy a modern one, appreciate what it does for you in terms of easy film loading, autopilot when you need it, and disable the stuff you don't need. For learning exposure etc, the manual mode found on most modern SLRs is excellent.

my USD 0.02!

Did you keep any of the auto focus Canon lenses? I ask because there is a difference between the lens mount on the older style Canons, i.e. the FD mount. FD lenses won't work on an AF (auto focus) body, and vice versa. Do you have a preference for AF? If so, then I would say go for the AF camera. I don't really know much about the AF Canon line as I got rid of mine years ago due to battery hogs and the battery door not staying closed (two different models). I still have my Canon FD stuff though.

Wow, such quick replies!

Kvistgaard said:

Hi,

you might want to follow this thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)

I don't personally buy into learning the ropes by restricting yourself by going back to an old, manual camera. Buy a modern one, appreciate what it does for you in terms of easy film loading, autopilot when you need it, and disable the stuff you don't need. For learning exposure etc, the manual mode found on most modern SLRs is excellent.

my USD 0.02!

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Thank you! You make some good points, and that's how I felt. With my Rebel Ti, I shot in Manual mode quite often anyhow, but usually left the lens on AF. I just thought that perhaps not having a choice would somehow make me learn faster (at least that's what the college professors want you think). LOL.

colrehogan said:

Did you keep any of the auto focus Canon lenses? I ask because there is a difference between the lens mount on the older style Canons, i.e. the FD mount. FD lenses won't work on an AF (auto focus) body, and vice versa. Do you have a preference for AF? If so, then I would say go for the AF camera. I don't really know much about the AF Canon line as I got rid of mine years ago due to battery hogs and the battery door not staying closed (two different models). I still have my Canon FD stuff though.

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Nope, I sold the 28-90mm lens with the body (and the bag, and the UV filter, etc). Again, a stupid move on my part. :rolleyes: I bet the person who bought it was thrilled. Now that I am better educated about it I just want to smack my head on a wall for selling it. But I can't change the past, right?

I agree that the AF cameras are battery hogs, but they sure don't eat up batteries as fast as digital.

Thank goodness I kept my Hoya Macro set!!! I <3 it and can't wait to use it again when I get a new camera.

For the pre-ultrasnapshot cameras, a Canon has the best lenses, and if you are slanted towards Canon, that is good.

But, (I had to use a Nikon F in school and hated it) Nikon now has lenses pretty much heads-up equal to Canon and with few exceptions, Nikon lenses fit all Nikon cameras.(including digital if you ever are forced to get one.)

If you want to do it with a manual camera, rather than a A-1, get a F-1, old model.
When you, are the ONLY thing between a good picture, in ALL aspects, and a fair to lousy picture, you DO learn or you die by your own failings.
In a modification of an old saying, Talent talks, BS walks.

Part of the equation is how much do you want to spend?
What ever you do, get what fits your fancy.
Bobby

how about an EOS 5? they are great bargains now - almost as good as the 3 and not as pricey. I got mine with Grip for £80 last year. They always come up on ebay.

Try the Elan 7N or 7Ne or the 3. All three cameras will last a long time. If you want to really splurge, get the 1V.

It's illogical and childish and not at all responsible and mature but... I personally have emotional connections to certain of my cameras, which I have learned to respect. For example, the Minolta SRT-101 all manual metal bodied lurker from the 70's. I don't use it much (I shoot mostly 8x10 these days) but I wouldn't dream of selling my SRT. I sold all of mine years ago, and couldn't sleep for six months until I'd bought another one. Is that sensible? No, but since buying a replacement I do sleep well.

To address your question, I came into photography late in life, in my mid-30's in fact, due to a life-long fear of the technical terminology. "F stop" and "ISO Speeds" and... It seemed very mysterious (and I had a friend, an experienced photographer, who may have qualified as the worst photo teacher in history, but that's another story.) My oldest daughter was looking for things which interested her and I bought her a used Minolta 35mm camera from the local camera store (pre-digital days.) She didn't know how to use it so I read the manual -- and everything became crystal clear. It's really very simple, if explained properly. I think that the little Minolta pamphlet did the job in about four pages, illustrations and goofy English included. Explaining it to my daughter took another ten minutes, then we went out to take pictures. (She still has that camera, by the way.) I still think that some of the older (1970's) camera manuals did the best job of explaining all of that which has ever been done. If you can find them (look online for scans or PDF's of them,) that may be all you need to get started.

An automatic 35mm camera may work fine for you, IF it gives you easy access to aperture and shutter controls. In other words, if you can easily put it into manual mode and alter aperture and shutter settings, then it should be fine. If it doesn't have a manual mode, or if changing the settings is convoluted and difficult, then perhaps a different camera would be better.

Mike

Thanks again, everyone!

After days of mulling it over, reading reviews online, and searching on eBay, I feel completely OVERWHELMED by everything. At this point I think I would really prefer to get an old fully manual camera, but after reading that the older Canons don't have aperture priority, I'm not sure what to do. I am highly frustrated - should I try another brand like Pentax, Minolta, or Nikon? I feel like I can always get another EOS camera (a really nice one) once I re-learn some of the manual stuff, but there are still soooo many pros & cons to each of the old models.

Also, some of you suggested professional models and I am looking more for student models because A) I'm not a pro, and B) I want to spend as little money as possible and still get a high-quality, durable older camera and buy a couple of lenses (28-90ish and 90-300 if possible, or some similar variation).

It looks to me like the AE-1 does aperture priority mode.
The nikon FE and FE-2 do aperture priority for sure.
That said if your strategy involves zooms, stick to the auto focus. Early zoom lenses generally sucked even worse than the ones available today.

Hi - actually, the AE-1 is shutter-priority. The AV-1 was the aperture-priority model of the same vintage. The A-1 is both, plus a program mode. I remember spending most of my summer job proceeds as a 14 year-old in the late 70's on an AE-1. I still have that camera, and it still works fine!

filiadeluna said:

Thanks again, everyone!

After days of mulling it over, reading reviews online, and searching on eBay, I feel completely OVERWHELMED by everything. At this point I think I would really prefer to get an old fully manual camera, but after reading that the older Canons don't have aperture priority, I'm not sure what to do. I am highly frustrated - should I try another brand like Pentax, Minolta, or Nikon? I feel like I can always get another EOS camera (a really nice one) once I re-learn some of the manual stuff, but there are still soooo many pros & cons to each of the old models.

Also, some of you suggested professional models and I am looking more for student models because A) I'm not a pro, and B) I want to spend as little money as possible and still get a high-quality, durable older camera and buy a couple of lenses (28-90ish and 90-300 if possible, or some similar variation).

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If you get a Canon F-1/n with a Servo EE Finder, it does set the aperture for you; the Nikon F-2 camera has a similar item available.

Now a month ago these went for not outrageous prices, but recently they have not been around, and the one Canon Servo EE, recently, they tried to sell without the aperture adjusting arm.

Of course there is the Nikon FM2 or Pentax LX, and many others.
Bobby

film_guy said:

Try the Elan 7N or 7Ne or the 3. All three cameras will last a long time. If you want to really splurge, get the 1V.

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Ditto. The 7N is a nice camera. Relatively light and small for an EOS and pretty quiet. Well spec'd too (no spot meter). I no longer have access to the one I used to use, so I skipped the 3 and went straight to the 1V. Awesome camera.

If I did it again, I would still buy the 1V, but the 3 looks like a better deal. 99% of the functionality at 50% of the cost.