Looking to add a Classic SLR

[ben_ballard]

<p>I second the recommendation of the Minolta XE-7 in addition to the SRT. Minolta lenses are also hard to beat. In particular if you are looking for good bokeh, I would recommend two lenses with excellent bokeh which can often be found for bargain prices: the Rokkor 58mm f1.4, and the 100mm f2.5. The latter has prevented me from feeling the need to cough up $300+ (still a bargain) for the legendary 85mm f1.7, because it is so good and only a bit slower. The 135mm f2.8 is also great with excellent bokeh, and always a bargain.</p>

<p>But prices for so many brands of cameras and lenses from this era are so low that you shouldn't feel constrained to pick just one. I stuck with Minolta for quite a while and built up a good system, but recently I wanted to get a shift lens and found the best deal was for an older Nikon lens, which prompted me to buy an F. I'm now thinking before I get too eager to spring for the Minolta 85mm f1.7, I could look for a Nikon 85mm f1.8, which is generally cheaper (probably a greater supply). Anyway, it opens up some options to have more than one brand of SLR, and cost really isn't a barrier these days.</p>

[amir_aziz]

<p>I strongly agree with the guys recommending A Pentax MX (in black) with a 50mm 1.4 SMC.</p>

[kevin_dixey2]

<p>After looking at all the responses I am leaning toward picking up a Minolta body. I like the SRT 101, 102 or the XE-5. Add to that a couple of well placed Rokkor lenses and I think it would be a decent travel outfit. I am also considering getting another Zuiko lens for my OM2/OM1 but I may be able to get the Minolta+lens for a bit less. I'll pair that up with my Konica C35 or S3 RF and a digital P&S and call it good. Now I just gotta decide on what lenses.</p>

<p>This discussion has also opened up the Pentax MX and a few others as future acquisitions. Gotta get a handle on that G.A.S.</p>

[bob_miller4]

<p>The grass is always greener...</p>

[richard_oleson]

<p>I'm biased of course (I expect everyone is), but I have owned every one of the cameras on your A list and a number of the others that have been suggested; and out of all of those, the OMs are the best IMO... and #2 is some distance down.</p>

<p>I'm reluctant to add this as I don't want to start a brand war, but I've had two Pentax MX's and I developed a strong dislike for the camera. It is the size of the OM1 but the designers did not quite grasp the point of the OM contol layout which makes the OM1 an uncommonly fast handling camera. The handling of the MX I found to be slow and awkward due to a combination of control placement, crowding, overly aggressive detents on the shutter speed dial and the meter's tendency to shut itself off just before you got the settings in.</p>

<p>OK, I'm done now, I promise never to say another negative thing about any Pentax. I love my KM.</p>

[kevin_dixey2]

<p>I have to say I really do like my OMs (during the course of this thread I took my OM1n and OM2n out and ran some film through them to remind myself). It is loads nicer than my AE1P. with the 50/1.8 it s so nice and compact and easy to use. Maybe I'll just take the OM1 with the 50/1.8 and maybe a 24/2.8 to Europe and leave everything else at home. S</p>

[astral]

<p>I've had some really bad experiences taking 'new' ( to me) - gear on foreign trips. There are some issues with 'new' cameras that only become apparent after a few rolls of film have been tried, like shutter tapering at high speeds and excessively slow low speeds. I now only take stuff that I am utterly familiar with and can trust totally, which I can even operate in total darkness . . . and whose qualities and limitations I know pretty well, etc. I don't rule out taking a classic camera <em>per se</em> , but for me this is subordinate to taking the most appropriate camera - and lenses - for the job. YMMV.</p>

[patrick_mont]

<p>The Nikkormat FTn is an amazing machine. In my opinion it is one of the greatest manual 35mm SLRS. Truly built like a tank. I highly reccomend one.</p>

[kevin_dixey2]

<blockquote>

<p>I've had some really bad experiences taking 'new' ( to me) - gear on foreign trips. There are some issues with 'new' cameras that only become apparent after a few rolls of film have been tried, like shutter tapering at high speeds and excessively slow low speeds. I now only take stuff that I am utterly familiar with and can trust totally, which I can even operate in total darkness . . . and whose qualities and limitations I know pretty well, etc. I don't rule out taking a classic camera <em>per se</em> , but for me this is subordinate to taking the most appropriate camera - and lenses - for the job. YMMV.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I hear you...that is why I am looking for it now. The trip isn't until late March giving me time for a proper shakedown. That being said I am getting more enamored of just taking my OM1 and being done with it. I think what is stopping me from doing just that is that this trip is very special for us (25 years together). I think I have a prejudice against the OM lenses. Not that I can point to them being of lesser quality in actual use (well at least the OM ones), but I see them as second rate compared to something like Rokkor and Konica lenses. Maybe it comes from my time with an Olympus DSLR and my disappointment with their affordable glass. They have some terrific lenses mind you but they cost and arm and a leg. The stuff that is more reasonably priced is much less impressive and typically pretty slow. Lets just say that my whole Olympus DSLR experience was not a good one and I think perhaps I am having doubts about the OM gear because of that.</p>

<p>Ultimately, its just pictures but I am obsessing a bit as I really want it to be perfect and getting pictures of it is a part of that process. I have noticed that I have been much more keen on stuff like this since I survived cancer (8 years clear). I have made sure to take pictures of my son, wife and the things we do together...and to get lots of them. I guess I feel that if it ever returns I want to leave something behind that they can remember these times by. Silly I know but its amazing what cancer can do to you. You can survive it but I'm not sure you are every really rid of it. My photography I guess has become my way of coping with that. I guess I get a little crazy with the G.A.S. but I make it pay for itself so the financial impact is pretty small.</p>

[awahlster]

<blockquote>

<p>

The AE1-P is a funky, clunky camera

</p>

</blockquote>

<p>WOW first time I have ever read this kind of comment about an A series Canon. being they are one of the smaller SLR's with a very ergonomic design for the pre plastic shell days.</p>

 

[richard_oleson]

<p>Nice array, Les! I always wanted an LX but could never afford one. Maybe about the time that the last roll of 35mm film becomes unavailable, I'll snag one.... of the Pentaxes that I have had, my favorites have been the K series.</p>

[kevin_dixey2]

<p>That OM4 looks pretty tasty.</p>