Good canon FILM camera

[Pixiememories]

I have the MKIII and a bunch of L lenses and I feel I need to start dabbling in film. Can you recommend a good canon film camera that will accept my lenses?

 

[TCampbell]

Mk III is ambiguous... 1D Mk III? 5D Mk III?

Any EOS film body will work...

The EOS 1v would have been a flagship, an EOS 3 would be very high end, but not flagship.

I'm skimming the listings at KEH.com and a 1v is still $500-600 for Ex to Ex+ condition. An EOS-3 is about $250.

Like the current digital bodies... the 1 series is still best (and there were several of them but the 1v was the most recent to be the flagship body) and single digit model number bodies (e.g. EOS 3) were also very high end. 2 digit model numbers were high-end/advanced like the 33, 33v, or 50 and note that in the US market these were usually (but not always) sold as "Elan" models. And just like today, the entry film bodies had 3 or 4 digit model numbers and in the US were often sold as "Rebel" bodies.

As a curiosity... why film?

Having shot film for years and years... I have no wish to return to it. Digital is so much more convenient. Darkrooms take a lot of space (I _never_ lived in a home conducive to building my own darkroom and was always doing my developing with friends who either owned permanent or temporary darkrooms.)

I only did B&W in the darkroom... I sent color out. But there's the next issue... processing isn't nearly as popular as it once was now that "film is dead" (not completely... just mostly), so labs aren't as common. The main lab is my own town is gone. There's a lab about 30 miles from me that still does processing. And then there are places where I can drop off film and they'll send it out for processing. Some labs that used to develop and print daily only do it a few days a week because they wait to get enough film to make it worth their while (they don't want to do it for just one or two rolls.) And of course the cost of film, developing, and printing adds up over time.

This is why I say... I don't miss it.

I have a Pentax 645 behind me and quite a few rolls of film in the refrigerator... I keep thinking I'll take it out shooting, but I never do. I always grab one of the DSLRs.

 

[minicoop1985]

I'm assuming you have an EF mount camera. The EOS 10S seems pretty solid to me. The Rebel G seems pretty solid. Make sure you test everything though-the bumpers for the shutter can get sticky, causing shutters to never open or to open at the wrong speed. Also, see if you can find something that can take rechargeable batteries. The batteries for both the G and the 10S aren't cheap, but the 10S battery seems to last a long time.

 

[vintagesnaps]

You should be able to find a Canon at a good price, as mentioned KEH is a good option. I use mostly mechanical film cameras and have a couple of Canon FD/FL mount, you'll need something w/the EF mount. I never stopped shooting film, just added a digital camera to the many film cameras I have.

To me an advantage is being able to go from film to digital easily enough; it's not so easy to do the opposite. From what I've read making negatives from digital files is a challenging process and I don't think it's being offered much anywhere. There are places that will develop film, scan, print, whatever you want done.

 

[Big Mike]

A film camera is just a box to hold the film and lens. Since you already have good lenses, any EOS film camera would do the job.

But just like digital bodies, there is a functional difference between the entry level 'Rebels' and the higher end bodies.

Seeing as your digital body is not a Rebel, I would suggest not getting a film Rebel. They are small and feel rather cheap.
The mid level film bodies are the ELAN series. I think they had the Elan, Elan II, Elan 7 and Elan 7n. You could also get these with 'eye control focus', designated by an 'e' in the name. I haven't tried it, but it's an AF system that chooses the focus point by where your eyeball is looking in the view finder.

The EOS 3 was a great camera. Most of the features of the pro '1 series' bodies, but in a smaller (regular size) package.

And of course, there were several 1 series 'pro' bodies that were built like tanks, with all the best features.