Fri May 06, 2005 3:40 am
I totally agree with Jim's comments. I own two Olympus OM bodies, and they're fantastic cameras on which to learn exposure and composition. The viewfinders on these cameras are among the largest I've seen, and - as Jim pointed out - you can pick them up for next to nothing. I've seen OM-1 bodies sell on ebay for as little as 60 bucks, and you can get a standard 50mm f1.8 for under $20. It's small but built like a rock, and because it cost so little, you'll have no qualms about just throwing it into the bottom of your bag.
The K1000 is also an excellent camera, but you'll generally get better value buying an Olympus. Both cameras are comparable - though I think the Olympus Zuiko lenses are much better constructed - but the K1000 is a pretty popular camera and this has tended to drive prices up. But if you do decide to get a K1000, make sure you get one of the earlier cameras made in Japan, distinguishable by the "asahi" emblem printed on the prism. It's my undestanding that K1000s without the 'asahi' emblem are later models made of plastic and manufactured in China. I'm pretty sure about this, but maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong.
I also own a Nikon D70 digital slr, but I'll have to admit that I actually use my OMs much more often. The reason why is that I personally find that being forced to focus manually, and knowing that it actually costs me money (no matter how little) each time I fire the shutter, slows me down and makes me really think about the composition and exposure of each shot. I found that with my D70, I was developing the habit of switching the camera to continuous shutter and then spraying the world with the expectation that I could just come home and crop in photoshop. I'm still a pretty mediocre amateur photographer, but I think I get better images out of my manual cameras.
In short, an old manual SLR is a great camera to learn on and given the fact that you can get one for 100 bucks, you can't go wrong. I would suggest you get an OM or K1000 and save the rest of your money for now.
If you're interested, check out my pbase - most of the black and white shots were taken with either an Olympus OM1 or OM2n.