Canon or Pentax?

[tudor96stani]

I've found an F801 body only for $60, an F90X body only (though with some scratches) for $75 and an EM (very good condition) with Nikon 50mm 1.8 E series lens for $120.
In terms of Canon, I found an EOS 700 body only for $30, a T70 + flash + 4 lenses (Canon 50mm 1.8, Hanimex 28mm 2.8, Soligor (?) 85-135mm f4 & Exakta 35-70mm 1:3.5-4.5 Macro) for a little less than $130. Also, an EOS 650 + Zoom Canon EF 35-70/3.5-4.5 for $90 and many other Canons...

 

[Derrel]

Canon T70....a friend of my Dad had two...he was a snapshooter and he knew nothing, but he loved his little T70...I found it a dreadful machine, simply abhorrent. Nikon EM--tiny, light, toy-like, basically an Auto-only (well,almost) snapshooter's camera, and the 50/1.8 E series is only a marginal 50. I've owned a pair of 50/E's....ehhh...not very well-coated... And EM + 50 for $120 is way too much money, just wayyyy over-priced.

The EOS 650 is minimalist, and yet, a very competent AF camera. I sold TONS OF THOSE to customers....they liked them. I also sold TONS of Nikon N8008 and 8008s models aka 801's...great body. Used 35mm film cameras are plentiful in some areas. You donl;t say where you are and your listing on non-USA Model numbers makes me wonder... anyway...out of those cameras, I'd want the two Nikons or the EOS 650 with the 35-70.

It;'s difficult to give any good advice not knowing where you're located, or what you want or expect and so on. I dunno...I say keep waiting for that Sweeeeeeeeeet deal... just so you know, lenses like a Hamimex 28/2.8 or most Soligor variable aperture zoomjs are like, $10-$12 lenses at my Goodwill stores, and "some" (poorly run, long-time same ownership) pawnshops have CASES filled with old 35mm junker type lenses like that, a type of lens inventory that just.does.not,sell. EOS 700 body on e-Bay for $17.95, Buy It Now...and no takers...does that tell you anything??? It's not even worth $18...

I have a barely used Canon Rebel XS and a Sigma 70-200 f/4~5.6 I'll sell you for $40 if you pay me $8 shipping to the continental USA.

 

[tudor96stani]

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, I'm from Romania... So shipping from the US is very pricey - on keh (was that the name of the website?) - it calculated the shipping, and for an $115 camera the shipping would cost $116, so not really cheap...
I though that that Canon that came with 4 lenses wouldn't include the top of the line lenses - except from the Canon one, that I presume is BETTER than the other 3.

 

[Mike_E]

Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, I'm from Romania... So shipping from the US is very pricey - on keh (was that the name of the website?) - it calculated the shipping, and for an $115 camera the shipping would cost $116, so not really cheap...
I though that that Canon that came with 4 lenses wouldn't include the top of the line lenses - except from the Canon one, that I presume is BETTER than the other 3.

Romania?

Man, get yourself a Praktica MTL3 and a hand held selenium light meter and don't look back. Screw mount lenses are pretty cheap too and the Penticons were good performers along with the Zeiss Jennas.

The MTL3 has an onboard meter but with newer batteries you may run into exposure issues. Or you could get an adapter for it and forego the handheld meter.

 

[tudor96stani]

I have seen a lot of Prakticas for sale around here (on the internet, of course!). There is one for $25. There's also a MTL5 from the same seller for $30. Anyways, some friend of my dad's has both a digital nikon and a film nikon with two lenses ( I don't know which model) and he asked me if I wanted to check them out. I'll probably go tomorrow and see them. If not, it's either one of these Prakticas or an Nikon N90s/F90x I found for $80.

 

[minicoop1985]

There's a ton of good Soviet stuff out there too. You're in an area where I would think the Soviet cameras are more common. There's a few I THINK that are M42 thread mount, which would give you nearly limitless possibilities. Quality can be a bit... hit or miss, though, so only buy in person.

Ironically, I ended up with ANOTHER Canon AE-1 Program. That's 4 now.

 

[tudor96stani]

Indeed, here in Romania there are numerous Soviet cameras! I first tried to shoot film couple of weeks ago on a Smena 8M (40mm lens), which is quite popular in Europe.

 

[timor]

T70...I found it a dreadful machine, simply abhorrent.

WHY ?!? :shock: It is a bit noisy...

 

[timor]

Oh no ! Now I will be in the eyes of Derrel just a snapshooter. Oh, well, I own two T70 and find them very practical and flexible. And when comes to noise T70 cannot beat my Pentax SF1n.

 

[Derrel]

Oh no ! Now I will be in the eyes of Derrel just a snapshooter. Oh, well, I own two T70 and find them very practical and flexible. And when comes to noise T70 cannot beat my Pentax SF1n.

I just never liked the T70,and the T50 was, OMG...hideous. Shutters that spontaneously combust (well, collpase, really, with the blades falling apart and requiring an all-new shutter). NOISY early-generation motorized film advance. Just an inelegant camera of a type that never really "Stuck" because people...hated it so much...while it was in effect, a snapshot type of camera.... a "snapshooter" that used 135 film instead of 126 cartridges. "So advanced it's simple," was Canon's ringing TV commerical slogan of that era. Canon T70 Camera

But hey...it was not just a snapshooter--it was a much bigger, bolder, but yet ukltimately failed initiative: the T70 was an effort to bring the, "So advanced it's simply!" people into buying cameras. It was an experimental direction, but it never took off. It was as we say today, an attempt to make a disruptive product...but it died. After the T70, Canon launched the technological tour de force, the T90 but then pulled the plug on FD mount gear, and left all their customers high and dry when they pulled the EOS-EF mount switcheroo on millions of customers. I get what they tried to do with the T50 and T70,and then the high-end T90, but the marketplace would not accept the concepts at that time. But really, that's what the camera makers are always trying to do: create a new, disruptive product, so millions of people will re-buy all-new cameras to replace "obsoleted" kinds of cameras.

Kodak disc camera. Kodak instant film camera. 35/70 dual lens cameras. 28-90 zoom cameras. APS-C camera. d-slrs. smart phones. mirrorless cameras. All "disruptive" efforts.

 

[dubiousone]

Now I've seen that this question has been highly debated over the internet, but here it is: what would you suggest to buy: Canon AE-1 or Pentax K1000? A seller on Amazon has the both, refurbished for $140, both including 50mm lenses.
I'm not a photography expert, and from what I saw, the Canon looks far more complicated. Separate button to view the depth of field through the viewfinder and all the information that is displayed on the viewfinder - it looks like it's too much. And I don't like the fact that it depends on a battery completely, especially since that type of battery is not accessible at the nearest supermarket or something. On the other hand, I like the fact it has some automatic features - most of the time I'd like to manually set them, but there are times when auto might come in handy.

The Pentax seems to be much more straightforward, easier to use, and the battery is not "compulsory". I also like the fact that it is fully mechanical so there are fewer things to go wrong (or so I read!).
Anyway, what's your take on this competition between the two of them?

Either would be a fine camera; I have and shoot both!
Canon FD lenses are excellent as are the Pentax and both can be had relatively inexpensively though for some reason, people seem to want to pay a premium for any lens that says 'takumar'.

The AE-1 is shutter priority. Set the speed to whatever, the lens set on A and in the viewfinder you will see the 'meter' which is a needle that points to what aperture the camera is going to use. If you set the aperture manually the needle will point to whatever the camera says is the right aperture. Say you select F4 but the needle points to F11 a smaller aperture. This means the shutter speed is too low for F4 so...change the shutter speed until the needle is on F11 and that is the correct exposure. The only real difference between the AE-1 and the AE-1 Program is there is a program setting on the shutter speed. Lens set on A shutter set to program and just shoot. The 'meter' will show you what aperture is used but there's nothing for the shutter. I like my AE's and this is the only thing I don't like however I normally don't use program unless I'm in need of less fiddling with settings and more shooting and I don't care what the shutter or aperture is.

I have quite a few of both AE-1 and Programs and I use them all. Some I have had CLA'd professionally. My local guy is about $160. Another guy I've used is in Florida, really fast service and he's about $120. I am also a BIG fan of the A-1 which is different still and can be as auto or as manual as you want but some people don't like the LED's in the viewfinder.

With the K1000 you set the shutter and aperture manually; look at the meter and center the needle in the C. That's correct. If you want a little over or under exposure just adjust shutter or aperture until the needle is 1/2 above or below (over and under exposure). It is a simple and robust camera and that it was the most used camera for years says something.

I wouldn't get too worried about batteries; they last quite a long time. Yes the K1000 will work without a battery (the canon's won't) but neither will the meter so you'll still have to have a meter or just use sunny 16. The canon batteries can be had at most camera stores, online and a spare is always a good idea. They don't spoil like Bananas, you know.

 

[timor]

"So advanced it's simple," was Canon's ringing TV commerical slogan of that era. Canon T70 Camera

Hey, I never relised this. For me even most advanced camera has to do only two things: close the iris to required field stop and fire shutter at required speed. Usually I make this requirements. But I tried T70 auto exposure modes and it performes them very well, much better than Minoltas of that period. But Minoltas had AF and everyone had to change, FD was just useless for AF conversion. Canon left FD users high and dry ? Or was it, customers abandoned manual focus cameras for new, lousy... but new, AF systems ? As today they go for the newest cellphones to not to be "behind" ? We can discuss this for weeks, but smarter guys already figured it out: people en mass behave like flock of sheep. Why not to sk... them up ?
BTW. I am lucky guy I guess to never be under the influence of Canon or any other camera maker "propaganda" and the effects of that. But that is another story.

 

[Derrel]

"So advanced it's simple," was Canon's ringing TV commerical slogan of that era. Canon T70 Camera

Hey, I never relised this. For me even most advanced camera has to do only two things: close the iris to required field stop and fire shutter at required speed. Usually I make this requirements. But I tried T70 auto exposure modes and it performes them very well, much better than Minoltas of that period. But Minoltas had AF and everyone had to change, FD was just useless for AF conversion. Canon left FD users high and dry ? Or was it, customers abandoned manual focus cameras for new, lousy... but new, AF systems ? As today they go for the newest cellphones to not to be "behind" ? We can discuss this for weeks, but smarter guys already figured it out: people en mass behave like flock of sheep. Why not to sk... them up ?
BTW. I am lucky guy I guess to never be under the influence of Canon or any other camera maker "propaganda" and the effects of that. But that is another story.

To my knowledge, Canon was the very FIRST major Japanese camer maker to use widespread, national American TV advertising to promote brand awareness. The used several professional tennis players in TV and print advertising, with saturation TV ads that featured Chrissy Austin, and two male tennis stars, I want to say John McEnroe and another mustachioed, strapping fellow; later, Andre Agassi in the Rebel film series ads. These 1970's TV ads started the campaign that featured Canon;s long-running "faked" or "simulated action" photos, but more importantly, featured the autowinder sound effect. as a result of the saturation campaign on American TV, Canon grew VERY well, and the AE-1 and later AE-1 program were VERY successful. Later, in the late 1980's/early 1990's, people would call the camera store asking about the "Andre Agassi camera"--the early film Rebels.

Nikon, Minolta, and Pentax were NOT hip to the power of mass marketing via TV advertising, instead focusing on PRINT ads in enthusiast magazines, ie the popular and modern photography magazines of the day. Canon has built itself up from #5 to #4 to #3, to #1 by decades of careful, good marketing and advertising. The other makers have marketed and avertised poorly, and have....disappeared or been reduced to tiny,tiny sales figures. Minolta, Konica, Petri,Exakta, all dead brands now.

yes, Canon had some BRILLIANT advertising minds. They displaced Pentax easily, and passed Minolta like a SHOT within a couple of years of regular TV saturation ads. The autowinder craze was a great example of a distruptive technology that caught on, thanks mostly to Canon's inititiative.

 

[cgw]

"So advanced it's simple," was Canon's ringing TV commerical slogan of that era. Canon T70 Camera

Hey, I never relised this. For me even most advanced camera has to do only two things: close the iris to required field stop and fire shutter at required speed. Usually I make this requirements. But I tried T70 auto exposure modes and it performes them very well, much better than Minoltas of that period. But Minoltas had AF and everyone had to change, FD was just useless for AF conversion. Canon left FD users high and dry ? Or was it, customers abandoned manual focus cameras for new, lousy... but new, AF systems ? As today they go for the newest cellphones to not to be "behind" ? We can discuss this for weeks, but smarter guys already figured it out: people en mass behave like flock of sheep. Why not to sk... them up ?
BTW. I am lucky guy I guess to never be under the influence of Canon or any other camera maker "propaganda" and the effects of that. But that is another story.

To my knowledge, Canon was the very FIRST major Japanese camer maker to use widespread, national American TV advertising to promote brand awareness. The used several professional tennis players in TV and print advertising, with saturation TV ads that featured Chrissy Austin, and two male tennis stars, I want to say John McEnroe and another mustachioed, strapping fellow; later, Andre Agassi in the Rebel film series ads. These 1970's TV ads started the campaign that featured Canon;s long-running "faked" or "simulated action" photos, but more importantly, featured the autowinder sound effect. as a result of the saturation campaign on American TV, Canon grew VERY well, and the AE-1 and later AE-1 program were VERY successful. Later, in the late 1980's/early 1990's, people would call the camera store asking about the "Andre Agassi camera"--the early film Rebels.

Nikon, Minolta, and Pentax were NOT hip to the power of mass marketing via TV advertising, instead focusing on PRINT ads in enthusiast magazines, ie the popular and modern photography magazines of the day. Canon has built itself up from #5 to #4 to #3, to #1 by decades of careful, good marketing and advertising. The other makers have marketed and avertised poorly, and have....disappeared or been reduced to tiny,tiny sales figures. Minolta, Konica, Petri,Exakta, all dead brands now.

yes, Canon had some BRILLIANT advertising minds. They displaced Pentax easily, and passed Minolta like a SHOT within a couple of years of regular TV saturation ads. The autowinder craze was a great example of a distruptive technology that caught on, thanks mostly to Canon's inititiative.

Believe that all this made the AE-1 the all-time best-selling SLR with reportedly a million units out the door globally during its production run.

History Hall - Canon Camera Story 1976-1986

Always wondered what agencies they used. Those and later campaigns were always so precisely designed to put product in front of key markets, e.g., top-shelf AF bodies and glass in NG and upmarket magazines. Other makers just never got it.

 

[timor]

Thank's for the insights of business prowess of Canon to advertise so well. Something of that leaked to my side of the iron curtain as when I came to West I thought Canon is the mightiest (LOL) of all major camera makers. Maybe because of the National Geographic.