john_tran14

I have never said to use a digital camera to learn about film. In my previous post, I wanted to emphasize that the ASA on the box of the film roll + the metering system of the camera can only give a suggestion on shutter speed and/or aperture and it would be better if we follow our own judgement and preferences

I do like EVF because it gives us a quick feedback of what would be the result. The main thing that most of us still don't understand is that I also need a View Finder and EVF is not really a View Finder (reason given above). Besides it is possible to have both EVF and View Finder with mirror and prism (if you insist to have EVF)

There is no xenophobia here. The reason those cameras don't satisfy my requirement is given above.

I believe this topics has been discussed so many times, so once more I give my 2c opinion. Though I love all kinds of cameras including the Argus C3, I would not buy a MILC camera because I consider them as "lesser" cameras. Without a mirror and a prism, they don't have a View Finder. Of course they have EVF, in spite of their names, EVF is not a View Finder. I see these EVF are very useful but only to see quick (or very quick) review of the result instead of allowing the user to "view" the scene. These are two different things. I have not known (let me know if you know such a MILC camera that is not really really expensive) any EVF that gives what is close to (forget about exactly the same or very close to) the scenes as I see with my own eyes (maybe because they don't know anything about my eyes at the time I use the camera). For example, it may show a bright scene while I see the scene is dark and vice versa.

but it lost the aperture ring which I really want

There is a simplicity of the EF that I have not seen in any other SLR except one DSLR, the Panasonic L1.

This is true, hence you should also test it without batteries. Sure, and even if it works I should also check if the shutter speed is "correct". If not I also walk away because I don't want to buy it to send to a repair shop. This is also true. Though it can be used without batteries, it is no fun at all if the meter is dead, S-mode is not working right, and long speeds are not available.

I am no repair guy, but my guess is that the yellowish of the focusing screen is similar to your car headlight and cleaning needs some strong compound and often requires sanding and scratching.

As I remember, there are used E-1, E-3, and E-5 from Olympus and easy to get under $500. I really like the 4/3 format, but I don't want any mirror-less cameras, therefore micro-4/3 format is not for me. I also agree with other opinions here that using the 4/3 lenses on micro-4/3 cameras is not a good idea. So if your father does not want any of the E-1, E-3, or E-5, then you could sell those lenses to me (if the lenses are in good conditions and the price is good). I have a Panasonic L1 (in great condition and I really love to use it) and an Olympus E-300 (which was very poorly built and its card door was broken, though it is still working) and a few working lenses for them. However, I really want to have some other lenses in great conditions.

If for any reason I had a Leica MP, I would sell it right away. I had only a Leica III (which I bought from Goodwill at about $20) and I sold it for $300, because it was hard for me to put the film roll in. I believe the lens that came with that camera was not bad, but (for me) there would be a lot more fun to use an SLR and the final result would not be worse in anyway.

I have had many "compact film cameras", but I think the compact digital cameras are more compact. For example, I often used the Coolpix 3100 with only one hand. Well, but the compact film cameras are usually more valuable, and I sold them right away after I serviced them (at my best) because they don't satisfy my requirements but I could sell them very fast at a high price. My favorite compact film camera was my Agfa Isola I because at least it satisfied my basic requirements Simple + Fully manual Focus manually by scale.

With the cameras that I know, the red assist light is often not enough to assist and the camera would use the flash to assist focusing.

I don't worry about the prices of film cameras because I already have good enough film cameras to use for the rest of my life.

You know that any prediction is hard and may not be correct, but here is my prediction: The people who love film cameras will own the good ones and sell out the bad ones. So in the market, there will be more of the bad and the low-grade cameras, the mint and top cameras will be very rare. The bad cameras will be sold at a higher price, which is almost the recent price of good ones. So you may say the price is a little lower while it is actually a lot higher. And the mint top cameras will be almost impossible to get. There may be low-end, consumer cameras made new by Chinese (like Seagull "Hai-Au")