Looking to Buy a Film SLR

[potownrob]

I've had good luck buying through keh.com (as someone mentioned). I got "bargain" condition Nikon N70 and F3HP that I would consider to be in much closer to excellent or excellent + condition, both for good prices. I paid I think 22 USD shipped for the N70 and 125 shipped for the F3HP. I'd imagine you'd want to stay with Canon since you already have lenses (not that a 50mm lens is going to be expensive if you jump boat and go Nikon or with another brand) and I've heard very good things about the Elan series, if you want a much newer camera. Unfortunately, I'm more than clueless about the older Canon models.

 

[thisisoriginal]

I have a canon eos rebel 2000, before I was using an older minolta, but I love this canon, I believe the year it was made was in 2002 so it basically has the same settings as the digital slrs but in film. I love it...

 

[Rem]

If you are willing to jump ship to nikon, the f100 can be had for less then $200 these days, and it's an amazing camera... the F5 is also a steal at around $350 for a near mint example.

I got an N 90 for about $50 on ebay. For most folks..it has 90% of whatever an F100 or F 5 has.

I've played wih the A-1 canon and AE-1 P and either can be had at decent prices. I got a "like New" A-1 with winder on ebay. might have cost me $60.....seriously not a visible scuff in it. I combined it with auto extension tubes, a Canon 199 Speedlite, a Series One Vivitar 70-210, a canon 50 1.4, a 18-35 Samyang ultra wide zoom and a Canon 35 mm, plus a camera bag,a parts body, service/repair manual, some filters etc...about $300 on Craigslist. Pretty exceptional system and I'll make about $75 profit off it.

The thing to watch for is that "a" series canons get "mirror squeal". I figure my A-1 and AE-1Prog were too low mileage to have tha issue.
Otherwise the A-1 and AE-1 P are nice.

If I was leaving the Canon FD mount...I would not go for a Canon EOS just because good lenses are too damn hard to get. I'm selling off 2 NICE Canon EOS AF bodies....each with a Sigma zoom that does NOT AF anymore. I gave up trying to find a nice priced AF Canon lens. Their digital lenses are so high $ the EOS Film lenses get bought for Digi Canons.

Pentax kept backward compatibility when they went AF, and again as they went digital A late 80's AF Pentax SF-1 can use a "K" lens from the late 70's or a AF from the 90's, and can use the screw mt adapt-use a Pentax M42 mount lens from the EARLY 70's. Further....a current Pentax K20d DSLR can use the SAME lenses as the SF-1 and Pentax has the shake reduction in the BODY.....so it works even with the old lenses

Nikon has SOME backward compatibility. Usually their high-end stuff works with older glass and the mainstream cameras often do not.
An AUTOFOCUS Pentax can use a 90's vintage AF Pentax lens....AND any Pentax "a" or "k" mount from the 70's or 80's

 

[Rem]

That battery light is a possible sign of deeper issues, it's one of the only known faults of the camera. Internal wiring goes out. Completely negating all electronic function of the camera. It is a fixable issue and the camera can be used rather acceptably with out the electronics. The electronic components are the meter and long shutter releases of 2s,4s,8s,15s,30s all other functions of the camera (including shutter release delay timer) are mechanical and can be used with out a battery or power.

Or it could just be a dead LED....


Last time I saw an F-1 for sale it had an $800 price tag....and there where a few of them.

I believe I bailed out on an ebay F-1 at about $80,and it sold around $90-body only. Some do go pretty high. The A-1 is IMHO the best target for an Ebay buy. Due to Canon abandoning the FD mount-I tilt more to Pentax and Nikon,