What's your favourite 35mm camera or substitute?

[fingel]

I use the Contax Aria when I shoot 35mm SLR and love it. It is small, quiet, has spot metering, manual focus, oh yeh and great lenses

 

[Nick Zentena]

Nicole,

The hard part will be finding one that has a working meter, and then when you do, there are no batteries (this may be the biggest reason mine have fallen in favor of my Minoltas). There are battery substitutes, however, so this issue is not absolute.

Batteries really aren't an issue. Any silver oxide battery small enough will work. Just need a rubber ring around the battery.

 

[Lee Shively]

I like older Nikons and newer Canons but my favorite 35mm cameras are the Leica rangefinders. If you have several Nikon lenses, stick with Nikons. If you don't want to stick with Nikon, Canon wunderplastik is good stuff and a great alternative. Leicas are different--basic, small, quiet, quirky, expensive--but really nice.

 

[John McCallum]

I like older Nikons and newer Canons but my favorite 35mm cameras are the Leica rangefinders. If you have several Nikon lenses, stick with Nikons. If you don't want to stick with Nikon, Canon wunderplastik is good stuff and a great alternative. Leicas are different--basic, small, quiet, quirky, expensive--but really nice.

I'll second that. If Leica is within the budget, and you think a rangefinder could work for your type of work - you would not be dissappointed. An m7 would just knock socks off .

 

[bobfowler]

Give me a motorized F3 or any FM series camera with a motor and I'm a happy kinda guy...

 

[philldresser]

Nikon F80 (N80) is my advice with a Nikon. I believe it to be smaller. I think Tony (TPPhotog) has one. Ask him for more details.

Nicole
I have a Nikon F80 (N80-US) and I am very happy with it. The body is quite small and light, too small for me so I have the MD16 battery pack on it which makes it a lot heavier. Just bought the wife a F55 for her snaps (and a back up for me ) which is even lighter but a bit noisier too.

The F80 seems to have everything in the right place and does way more than I will ever need. Spot metering comes in handy as well

Phill

 

[gbroadbridge]

* Small for ladies
* Quiet shutter that doesn't 'CLANK' everytime you trip the shutter
* Very small and very sharp spotmeter in the viewfinder - as it's usually the only type of metering system I use. I do have a good hand-held meter as well if necessary.

I would love to know which cameras are your favourites and why?

Thank you for sharing.
Kind regards,
Nicole

My favourite camera is a Ricoh XR-M. Getting long in the tooth now I suppose (I bought my new in 1988) but it meets your requirements.

I use it in spot metering mode for calculating exposure for my MF activities using the SQa.

Graham

 

[davet]

Most important requirements:
* Small for ladies
* Quiet shutter that doesn't 'CLANK' everytime you trip the shutter
* Very small and very sharp spotmeter in the viewfinder - as it's usually the only type of metering system I use. I do have a good hand-held meter as well if necessary.

If you didn't have a Nikon, it would have to be the OM3 or 4T. Small, quiet, unique killer multispot meter still unmatched by anyone else, some killer lenses still unmatched by anyone else, real-time autoexposure (in the 4T -- actually, as early as the 2) years ahead of anyone else, macro capability seldom matched by anyone else, too bad they're out of production. Actually, I'd go for an OM1: it only has a center-weighted meter, but has a jewel-like feel the later cameras lack.

 

[johnnywalker]

f80 and/or fm3a. They are both great cameras. The f80 has awesome metering on it's "program" setting, the fm3a is just a joy to use, and uses all the ais lenses. Both have been 100 per cent reliable.

 

[BruceN]

I guess I'll be an Olympus OM man until I die. I just picked up an absolutely beautiful new-to-me OM-1n this afternoon. How many OM's do I need? The world may never know...

 

[oriecat]

I've been thinking of replacing my Nikon too, this thread is great to see. I think I will pop downtown and see how an N80 feels.

 

[Charles Webb]

Over the years I have worn out 35 mm cameras from all but one brand, "Nikon"
If you have existing equipment, meaning other Nikon lenses, stay with Nikon!
Everybody has their favorites and will tout their merits, but by all that is carved into stone, you cannot buy a better system than Nikon.

 

[Soeren]

Nicole
If You don't want to stay with Nikon you might wanna take a look at Pentax MZ5n.
It's in "retrostyle" but small light and more quiet than the F90X. Personally I don't like it as much as my Nikon But Karina loves it, quite lucky since it's her camera
As for the Pentax lenses, I don't know much about them.
Regards søren

 

[FrankB]

I've been thinking of replacing my Nikon too, this thread is great to see. I think I will pop downtown and see how an N80 feels.

Let me know how you get on, orie.

 

[Ole]

Nicole
If You don't want to stay with Nikon you might wanna take a look at Pentax MZ5n.
It's in "retrostyle" but small light and more quiet than the F90X. Personally I don't like it as much as my Nikon But Karina loves it, quite lucky since it's her camera
As for the Pentax lenses, I don't know much about them.
Regards søren

Pentax lenses are good, some great. I have an Mz5n too - I believe it has a slightly different name in the USA? - and it's a great little camera (for an SLR).

One of the things that attracted me to this camera is the fact that it can use ANY pentax lens. You can even get a "manual autofocus" if you should wish, with the camera on AF it will trip the shutter when it's sharp. But you have to turn the focus ring yourself... Or put the camea on MF, and use it fully manual.

 

[Claire Senft]

Not small for sure

I use a Contax RTSIII. It is a wonderful camera but it is by no means small or light in weight. The extra weight of the body when it is almost always attached to 15 pounds of tripod is not too important to me. It is by far the nicest 35mm camera I have ever owned.

 

[nsurit]

Nicole, The completely unbiased opinion of one who owns a few Olympus OMs over the limit (15 or 20 bodies and perhaps 40 lenses), would be an Olympus OM 3T or 4T. My favorite is the OM 2S, however with somewhat unreliable circuits I can't recommend you get that one. The Olympus OM system bodies are small, reliable (generally) and have superb optics. Although out of production, service is still available. I can give you the name of a good service person "downunder". Pricing is favorable. I originally started using them when the OM 1 came out in the late 70's as although my hands are rather large, my significant other had small hands. This system fit the bill. I am now using some of my OM accessories and lenses, with my e-1 which is not film capture, but rather d#g*t% capture. Please don't tell anyone on this list that someone isn't using film capture for all their work. Check out the OMs, you may find something you really like. Bill BArber

 

[AzRaeL]

"favourite" meaning what i dream of having or best of what i have used so far?
I use a F80. Awesome camera...best bang for the buck.

Dream cameras?
Leica M7 Hermes edition
Nikon F6

 

[Donald Qualls]

Let me vote for the Spottie, too. Newer versions *do* have hot shoes, starting with the SP2. They do not have a genuine spotmeter, it's center weighted, but I very seldom have my meter fooled by odd lighting. There is no bad Super Takumar or SMC Takumar glass, though you do have to watch the Super Takumar 1.4/50 lens for yellowing (it's got a radioactive thorium glass element, but the yellowing is supposed to be correctable by prolonged UV exposure -- I have one I'll be trying that with when I can find/build a suitable UV lamp) -- those lenses, however, are worth having; along with the SMC Takumar 1.8/50, they're some of the best glass ever made. In addition, there's a lot of very good M42 glass available in other brands -- Auto Rikenon lenses, for instance, are perfectly acceptable and even cheaper than Super Takumar.

I've had my Spottie (SP) for around 25 years -- got it in college. I later bought a somewhat more sophisticated Ricoh Singlex II, which has a hot shoe and Copal metal shutter with vertical travel, instead of the horizontal-moving cloth shutter in the Spottie, but the Ricoh no longer works, and the replacement Ricoh body I bought has a shutter that won't open at any speed faster than B (needs a CLA) -- the Spotmatic just keeps going. Even with the mirror foam getting tired, the shutter is quieter than the Ricoh ever was. I've gotten used to the dim finder, and I rather like the stop-down meter -- I won't leave the meter on and drain the battery by mistake, and I get a free DOF preview while I'm metering. Mine meters accurately with an alkaline battery -- the Spotmatic is one of the few cameras from the mercury cell era that used a bridging type meter circuit and is independent of battery voltage (mercury cells don't need this, but alkalines very much do).

 

[Woolliscroft]

I'm another of the OM gang. The 4Ti is my all time favorite camera, period, but the 1, 2n and 3 are all great. Other than that I have quite a soft spot for the Contax 167MT and the Bessa R.

David.

 

[Brian Bullen]

My favorite auto-focus 35 is the Nikon F100. Easy to use, easy to handle, and fun. My favorite manual focus is a toss up between the Nikon FE2 and the Nikon F3T(can you tell I'm a Nikon man). Both have taken a beating and given me nothing but love and great memories. For many years these to cameras went everywhere with me. I never should have sold them Ah the good old days.

 

[archaeo]

Small 35mm SLR with a good spot meter? Olympus OM-3 or OM-4 should do the job perfectly.

Hi everyone, well, I never thought I'd say this, but it's time to retire my Nikon F90X 35mm camera as I find the AE-L button just that too far away to get my thumb around. So I'm in the market for a camera with this wish list:
Most important requirements:
* Small for ladies
* Quiet shutter that doesn't 'CLANK' everytime you trip the shutter
* Very small and very sharp spotmeter in the viewfinder - as it's usually the only type of metering system I use. I do have a good hand-held meter as well if necessary.

 

[Paul Howell]

After my F3 outfit was taken from LAX checked baggage after 9/11 I spent a couple of years looking for replacement, I looked at Pentax (have a 4 screw mount bodies and many lens which with a lens adapter can be used on newer AF bodies), Nikon (have 2 FG and several lens that were not with me), after a couple of years dithering on an impulse I bought a Sigma SA 9 and have been very happy. Light wight, small, easy to handel. The AF is not the best, but I tend to shoot in manual mode for the most part. I still use the Pentexs with prime lens, but the SA 9 with 3 lens has become my prime 35 mm traveling camera.

 

[JohnArs]

Hi Nicole

Nikon F80 would fit the bill, small and light its the only upper class Nikon for ladys! But I don't know the name in US and down under!
Or if you really not like a little klack of the mirror then take a Leica M6 or M7

 

[JohnArs]

Oh
Forgot to say my Nikon F5 is my own favorite and for travels the F100 or my Horseman HF 4x5 inch field camera!