[Lpbryan]

I was really in to photography before university; I used to love working with film, developing and printing b&w photos on my own. I turned digital due to an xmas present years ago, and now I'm missing the old film camera I used to own.
I definitely need some advice regarding film SLRs today, as I begin researching before purchasing.

I enjoy taking positioned artistic looking pictures of objects, but I love landscape shots as well. Can anyone suggest a 35mm (or otherwise-- so long as it's film) SLR that would suffice? My price range is around USD600 (about 307 pounds).
Thanks!

[water]

Originally Posted by Lpbryan

I was really in to photography before university; I used to love working with film, developing and printing b&w photos on my own. I turned digital due to an xmas present years ago, and now I'm missing the old film camera I used to own.
I definitely need some advice regarding film SLRs today, as I begin researching before purchasing.

I enjoy taking positioned artistic looking pictures of objects, but I love landscape shots as well. Can anyone suggest a 35mm (or otherwise-- so long as it's film) SLR that would suffice? My price range is around USD600 (about 307 pounds).
Thanks!

The obvious [to me] way to go is pre-owned,Ebay.Over here[ UK] you can pick up a Nikon F90X body for between £100-£200 depending on condition.I owned one and found it a brilliant and very capable camera and the lenses will fit the Nikon DSLR cameras should you eventually go down that road.Manual focus and the world is your oyster.I still have and sometimes use a Nikon FA.I have used the Olympus OM2N and found it reliable and accurate.Canon and Pentax did some fine manual focus cameras also.Personally,the F90X fits your budget and gets my vote

[Dabhand16]

If you are going for used gear, why not think about MF rather than 35mm? You will get a better camera that will be able to give far better results in a darkroom, because you will be able to enlarge small crops to a far greater extent than 35mm amongst other benefits.

If you get a modular camera, (Bronica, Mamiya, Hasselblad) rather than a Pentax style, you can even switch between colour print, tranparencies and black and white film whenever you want by using intercangeable film backs.

[Rob Barron]

Far be it for me to question what Dab has said and I do agree with the point that MF does offer a different level of imaging. However, LpBryan already has a digital SLR if I am reading him right so he would be far better off with a 35mm film SLR body that can utilise the lenses he currently has. Using MF is a very different disipline to using a 35mm SLR and I am not sure this is what he needs at this stage. However, like Dab, I am talking about someone I don't know so of course I could wrong.

If you do have a DSLR Lpbryan, I strongly recommend getting a same marque film camera so that you can use the same lenses and other equipment like flashguns etc. If you have a Canon DSLR then you need to buy a film camera in the EOS range and NOT one of the older A-range (A1, AE1, AV1, etc) nor the T series (T70, T90, etc.) as these use the older FD mount system and will not be able to use EF lenses that your digital SLR has.

If however you have a digital compact or prosumer/bridge camera (bigger than a compact but doesn't allow for changing lenses) then you might consider what you might do in the future. Again, if you think you might progress to a DSLR in the future, choose a film camera that will allow you to use the lenses from it with a future DSLR.

So you see, the decision is not that simple but I personally think a Canon 300X would suit your needs down to the ground. Body will cost you about $350 or less so plenty spare for a lens or two.

Hope that is of some use anyway.

Cheers,
Rob