What camera do I buy? / general gear talk

Check the film camera thread as well.

Just a couple of thoughts Jack;
The OM 1/2/3/4 are much better. Sadly they will cost more and do have a couple of issues relating to battery life/type and prism foam.
If you're on a tight budget but still want a great camera I'd have a read, and look for Konica, Minolta, Yashica bodies. You can still these on the ffordes or LCE websites sometimes.
Some of the motor driven, plastic Nikons like the N90(?) are cheap and supposed to be ok but I've not used them. The Nikon EM is another one to look for and a really nice camera.

Cheers! I’ll keep an eye on the single digit ones and have a read up about the other cameras. Really appreciate it!

No worries.

Just had a quick look about and Nikon EMs with a the 50mm E lens are plentiful under £100. Other things are a bit harder to get good examples of.

Do you know how to check shutter speed and a lens for fungus?

Cheers!

Not sure how to check other than look through or fire it. What else should I do?

Shutter speeds
I usually set the shutter speed to 1s and see if it's on. That's usually going to tell you if a shutter is slow (the most common problem with old cameras). Do this with the lens off looking through the open back of the camera ... you can sometimes spot if the shutter is slow, sticking or not returning normally. Have a quick check that other speeds are appropriately different, this will be a bit more guesswork.

Aperture oil
With the lens check whether there is play in the aperture and focusing rings. Close the aperture down and lave a look at the aperture leaves through the front of the lens. You might see a bit of wear at the point the leaves rub over each other, that's ok but any oil there is not good and will probably cause a slower, less snappy aperture and moisture in the lens. This is a bargaining point rather than a deal-breaker on a cheap camera.

Fungus/haze
Probably the most important thing is to check for shit on the lens elements by holding it up to a strong bright light. You'll see some dust (not a problem) but look for haze (in the centre) or anything that looks like fungus threads (towards the edges of the glass elements). Any of that and it's no good really. If you bought it on eBay it's a return.

Curtain damage
Stick the camera on B setting and hold the shutter down to take a look at the shutter curtain itself. On something like an OM1 or Leica the curtain is fancy pants cloth and needs to be clean. On newer designs they're various metal contraptions. Just look for obvious dents on those.

Viewfinder bogies
The other thing with SLRs is to have a look through the viewfinder against a light. A bit of dirt in the viewfinder can sometimes be cleaned with the camera apart, same with any fungus (which can be in the finder or on the finder prism). More often than not it's impractical to repair.

And lastly check the battery compartment for corrosion. Do these checks and that weeds out 90% of the shitty cameras.

General thing
Electronic cameras (like most compacts) can just die ... whenever. The more mechanical cameras (the ones that only use a battery for the light meter) are really tough. If you get a good one and just be aware to try and limit prolonged exposure to moisture or heat, don't sit it in a car/house window in direct sunlight and they'll last decaaaaades.

... that was a bit epic but hope that helps.

tl:dr

fungus is camera cancer

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The OM 1/2/3/4 are much better.

Care to elaborate?
I have not worked with them much to be honest - to me they were just somewhat fiddly to use.
Also they tend to be more expensive on the used market and tend to have more 'issues'.

Legend! Thank you very much

Sounds about right, it’s costing me the best part of £350 to fix my OM4 Ti, purely because replacing 30 year old electronics is pretty difficult these days

Thinking of getting a new camera for the missus, she's got an old Nikon d70, and I'm hoping to get her a smaller rangefinder style camera with interchangeable lenses, but still have a viewfinder and manual controls. When she's shooting on the d70 she likes using a 70-200, so would need to be able to mount one of those or similar.

Any thoughts on the Olympus pen or the fujifilm x-e3? Or any other options that might come to mind. Not going to buy it soon or new, so can spend time surfing eBay and forums for a decent one..

In short the single digit OMs were all part of a camera system. They’re basically modular, so everything from focusing screens to film-doors are interchange. Being a ‘professional’ system they’re relatively feature rich and durable.

They’re all tiny / unconventional but very smartly designed: shutter speed ring is on the body by the lens, the lens-release is on the lens (impossible to drop) etc.

Differences between the single digit OMs are well documented online but basically they start mechanical with matchneedle metering and gain reflective metering accurate over insanely long durations (OM2n) and then it just gets more sophisticated with zone and spot metering (and auto) options from there.

Problems;
OM1s will have had their the foam around their prism degrade by now. It’s not hard to open the camera and clean this off, but if left uncleaned it stains the prism, darkening the view through the finder. They are also designed for old zinc batteries. It is possible to get the meter recalibrated or there are easy workarounds you’re probably familiar with already.
OM2s had an issue with battery drain. This was fixed at some point during production. The info is out there as to serials etc.

I think an OM1n (overhauled), OM2n (with the later circuits), OM3, OM4, OM4ti are all great.
The 3 and the 4ti are collectible so the prices are high.

I have two black OM1n bodies, a 28mm f3.5 and 85mm f2 for occasions were I know I’ll get some static portraits. It’s easy to pack/carry and I’m unlikely to want anything more.

If you know what needs transplanting you could buy an OM4 and a soldering iron?

Cheers guys.

6D it is, just got to find one thats not 5 years old and folk asking nearly new money for it!

Seen a lot of folk comparing 6d to 5d3 instead of 5d2 like I thought was a more fair comparison, I guess at least a whole generation newer sensor and image processing makes that difference. Centre focus point on 6D apparently takes down a lot of others (the other 10 are usual canon 'never lock onto anything' jobs, but I can deal with that) right upto latest 80/90d and others of same current generation.

Gonna pick up either a 17-40L or a 16-35 IS, an old gen 70-200/4 (don't really need to IS or 2.8, seen as 6D does much higher iso cleaner), and a 42/43mm STM as a walk about lens. Feels like a reasonable bag to tackle most things.

My electronics knowledge is limited to failed GCSE level, and the price of a donor body OM4 (and hoping it’s not gonna have the same issue in the near future) doesn’t really work out cost wise.

It’s expensive, but it should keep going for another 30 years when it’s fixed

Who's repairing it?

Sendean. I spoke to 3 other places, all about the same cost, or just didn’t have the parts anymore

Does anyone have any experience with the Ricoh GRD IV 10mp camera?

Ideally I'd get the new one, but too many £££s, how do the old ones hold up?

Ok you obviously know what you are talking about and you are also obviously a fan of Olympus single digit cameras.

I'd just say if somebody that's apparently rather new to this would ask me what SLR to get I would personally direct him into the Nikon / Canon direction for reasons already mentioned because it's maybe less of a hassle, and cheaper.

[edited post because I was being thick]

I think he meant they are better than the double digit Olympus cameras, not better than other brands...

About the Ricoh ... Small differences until they dropped the ‘D’ and got a bigger sensor with the GR ‘digital’ I & II.

The upgrade is significant.

Yeah OM1/2/3/4 are significantly better cameras than the OM10/20 etc which is what Jack was looking at.

The closest I’ve come to making a recommendation was a Nikon EM, so we’re completely on the same page!

If you're just wanting a cheap film slr I say get something like the Olympus OM30. You can pick them up for under £50 including a lens on ebay. Something within it will die at some point but they're cheap enough to just get another body.

Ah, my bad, sorry!

On the cheap film SLR front Minolta Dynax 5 is an absolute steal and lenses are plentiful and cheap.