Where to buy affordable film cameras

[John Koehrer]

And this is devolving to a film vs digital discussion.

Obvious reasons/OPINIONS for a limited sampling of students at your local college. Facts are what
your audience is taught to believe.

 

[faberryman]

You can learn with both. It just depends how much effort the student puts in. A few years ago, before I got my darkroom set up again, I took a B&W course at my local community college so I'd have access to a darkroom. A basic and advanced digital course were required as prerequisites. Even so, only one student could transpose shutter speed/aperture settings. I know the information was taught in the digital class; it just didn't sink in. They just put their digital cameras on auto and took pictures. Needless to say, darkroom work was slow going.

 

[SuzanneR]

Long story. But, the kids love film. Digital cameras have to stay at school, they cannot take them home. Subject matter is then limited. I have done work on cellphones, but it is not as engaging for them. Like I said, they love film.

Clearly, the OP's classes use both SLR and DSLR cameras, so let's keep this thread on topic. Like others, I'd suggest KEH.com or any local camera dealers. (We have a group in New England that have a gathering twice a year, lots of cheap gear available, maybe there's something similar there?)

 

[Chan Tran]

I have an idea how about have them buy the cameras for themselves? I don't think it's too expensive for them to afford it. That way they can even pick the one they like best.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I'll have to respectfully disagree. The ability to review the histogram after taking a photograph is an easy and essential learning tool. It's a fantastic way of closing the feedback loop. Take a picture, look at the histogram, rotate a dial, look at the histogram. There's no more direct way to see how the manipulation of the ISO/shutter/aperture settings affects the actual exposure. Think of the camera sensor as a matrix meter with millions of cells where you can readily see if any cell is over or under exposed.

If thirty years ago there had been a magic box that you could attach to the back of the camera which would show what the histogram does, photographers would have paid thousands of dollars for it and talked non-stop about it. But since it's a part of the digital system, some people think it things too easy. For those who invested all the work into learning the old way, where they had to close the feedback loop themselves through test shots, Polaroids and documenting their exposures, it seems so easy now that the student must be missing something by doing it the new way. But I don't think so.

In the course of a decade or so, film went from "this is how things are done" to "this is how things used to be done". Film used to be with it, contemporary, an essential medium of communication, and now it's not. Now it's backward-looking, and nostalgic. Why force new students to read an old alphabet? Aren't we trying to teach students today's tools for today's jobs, to communicate today's ideas, and prepare them for tomorrow's world?

You and I have the interest and determination to do that, but I have doubts that the average person would have enough sustained interest to do that.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have an idea how about have them buy the cameras for themselves? I don't think it's too expensive for them to afford it. That way they can even pick the one they like best.

Good idea. That is what my daughter's class in high school required. The class was for film only, no digital cameras for that camera, film and darkroom class. Also if a student owns the camera then they will take better care of it. Why should the teacher be put in the situation where the teacher had to become the enforcer to collect money for damaged cameras.

 

[Chan Tran]

Good idea. That is what my daughter's class in high school required. The class was for film only, no digital cameras for that camera, film and darkroom class. Also if a student owns the camera then they will take better care of it. Why should the teacher be put in the situation where the teacher had to become the enforcer to collect money for damaged cameras.

Also I think the camera is only a financial burden to those students who took photography just for the credit and never use it again after the course. I don't think the OP should worry for those.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Also I think the camera is only a financial burden to those students who took photography just for the credit and never use it again after the course. I don't think the OP should worry for those.

They could sell the cameras on eBay after they completed the course.

 

[Bill Burk]

On eBay, KEH outlet has a number of "parts only" Pentax Spotmatic for about ten bucks. Many of them specify the meter is not working.
50mm f/1.8 M42 screw mount lenses are about thirty bucks. Some of them are Pentax brand and look clean and usable.
I think you might approach KEH with your request, for a number of Pentax Spotmatic with normal lens that the meter doesn't work.
They might have no problem coming up with a stable of cameras for thirty (generic lens) to forty bucks (Pentax lens) each...
Don't expect the meter to work, it would be a massive waste of time anyway since most meters are a bit flakey in older cameras.
Then teach students to work without a meter (using sunny 16 charts).

 

[Craig]

If thirty years ago there had been a magic box that you could attach to the back of the camera which would show what the histogram does, photographers would have paid thousands of dollars for it and talked non-stop about it.

They did - Polaroid! Lots of Poloroid was shot to test lighting and exposures before the "real" film was shot on a studio set.

 

[Chan Tran]

They could sell the cameras on eBay after they completed the course.

What I meant is that if a student loves film then the cost of buying a camera is nothing. If a student only wants to go thru the course then it could be significant but if the cost of a camera is too much for this student then the teacher shouldn't feel bad about it. In another word, I don't think such a student deserve the help.

 

[michr]

You and I have the interest and determination to do that, but I have doubts that the average person would have enough sustained interest to do that.

So they wouldn't have the patience to learn how to do it the easy way, but would be able to learn to use an incident and reflected meter, wait a few days while their film is processed or develop their own before they can find out of the camera settings were correct?

 

[michr]

They did - Polaroid! Lots of Poloroid was shot to test lighting and exposures before the "real" film was shot on a studio set.

Well, if the person I was responding to was correct, that's what kept them from being able to learn how to expose the film properly, since they were "chimping" and had to rely on expensive Polaroid sheet film instead.

 

[Chan Tran]

They did - Polaroid! Lots of Poloroid was shot to test lighting and exposures before the "real" film was shot on a studio set.

Polaroid doesn't show you the histogram not that I need the histogram to judge exposure.

 

[Minoltafan2904]

Sign up on Ebay and do a search once or twice per day for the camera or whatever you want to buy, knowing how to bid on Ebay can also score you a good deal....( if you set yourself a limit on how much you want to spend )