Fuschia said:
here are a few I've been looking at:
Nikon N80/N75
Olympus OM 2000
Minolta X-700
Canon Rebel 2000/Ti
Pentax *ist
Pentax K1000
Canon Elan 7
The problem with cameras that have internal drives to advance film (ie most modern SLRs) is that many of them use an infrared sensor to count sprocket holes as the film advances. This means that one edge of the film is continuously exposed to the sensor as it's run through the camera, so IR film will be fogged on that edge. I can't tell you how bad it is with all of these models (and in fact, it seems that the degree of severity even varies by individual body with some of them). I think you can safely say that so long as the light seals are intact, most manual models like the K1000 shouldn't have problems with IR film, but don't quote me on that! I'm 100% certain that the N80 has an infrared sprocket counter, and the same probably goes for the N75. Almost every camera in Canon's current line-up has problems with IR film, too. So, the Rebel 2000 and Elan 7 will certainly fog it. As far as I know, the only current EOS model that won't is the EOS 1V, which is a tad expensive
.
As to the other part of your requirements... The N80 can do spot metering, as can the N75. With Canon, you have to go all the way up to the EOS 3 to get true spot metering, so neither of your choices have it. The Elan 7 has some sort of partial metering system, but it's not a true spot. The K1000 and X700 use center weighted metering, and the OM 2000 does that as well as spot. I'm sure you can find spec sheets for all these cameras with Google.
Hopefully some other users can fill in the gaps here! As to fitting all your requirements, the only camera that comes to mind right now is the F-1N, oddly enough. It should work with infrared film, is manual focus, has spot metering with a focusing screen change, works at almost all shutter speeds without batteries, and should be easy enough to use with glasses. Built like a tank to boot
. Hope this helps.
Edit: I just wanted to add this: if you're interested in an autofocus body that you'll also use for manual focus a lot of the time, Canon's USM lenses with full time manual focusing are very attractive. Not only are they almost completely silent when autofocusing, but you can grab the focusing ring at any time and touch up the focus, without having to flip any switches on the body. This is probably the main reason why I prefer the Elan 7 over the N80... when the N80 autofocuses, it makes a lot of noise! After using the USM lenses, it feels very awkward to go back to the system that most Nikkor lenses/Nikon bodies use.
