Which analogue 35mm SLR camera should you buy?

Which analogue 35mm SLR camera should you buy?

Klick on the picture to watch the video on YouTube!

Are you new to analogue photography? Maybe you have already taken pictures with a digital compact camera, digital SLR or mirrorless digital camera?

And then you look around on the internet or stand in front of the windows of the photo shops and are overwhelmed by the variety of offers?

There is a hardly manageable selection of SLR cameras for the 35 mm format.

Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Ricoh, Zeiss Ikon, Voigtländer, Praktica, Yashica, Contax - just to name the best-known brands - and of course many more... and each brand offers countless models...

Phew, now you're thinking: „I need help!"

Watch the video to the end and hey, the decision is not that difficult!

1. Recording format

Basically, you have already decided on the shooting format: it should be the 35mm format. A very good choice if you want to start with analogue photography. The films are - compared to medium or large format - a lot cheaper; there is a relatively large selection of different film materials and you can get the films in all photo shops or drugstores (at least in Germany) - I myself prefer to have the negatives/slides developed and, if necessary, digitised in specialist laboratories.

You can find detailed information on the subjects of films and digitisation on my homepage.

2. Autofocus or rather enjoy the complete analogue feeling of manual focusing?

To answer this question, consider which motifs you want to shoot first and foremost.

Quiet landscapes, architectural photography, the world of the small - macro photography and even street photography are not the domain of autofocus. With a little practice, you can also take enchanting portraits without autofocus. Clearly, you can buy a camera that focuses manually!

When you focus manually, you can also see how the plane of focus shifts smoothly and discover new motifs and design possibilities.

However, if you are into action, want to capture fast movements, the subject moves back and forth unexpectedly, the running, romping children are to be "captured" and you have a preference for sports photography, then go ahead and buy an analogue 35 mm autofocus SLR camera! But: a digital camera (SLR or a mirrorless model) is better suited for such shots. A film with 36 exposures can be quite short if you shoot 5 or 8 frames/sec...and correspondingly expensive...

3. Seeing things - the viewfinder

It's obvious! I look at my subject from the back of the camera through the prism viewfinder and the lens! But is that really always the case?

No, of course not. Many manufacturers offered so-called interchangeable viewfinders for their top models. In my opinion, the most important types of viewfinder are briefly presented here.

The waist level viewfinder offers a view of the subject from above, so that a comfortable view of the subject is possible even at low camera angles. Often a magnifying glass can be folded out of the waist level viewfinder, which offers better focusing by magnifying the image in the centre of the viewfinder. Since there is no prism - you have exchanged the prism viewfinder for the waist level viewfinder - you see the image upside down. At least it's not upside down, thanks to the mirror in the housing.

This viewfinder is also very suitable for architectural or macro photography.

There is also the magnifying waist level finder. As the term suggests, the entire viewfinder image is magnified. Some of these viewfinders offer diopter adjustment, so that you can do without your visual aid if necessary. With this viewfinder, too, the view is from above, and the image is also upright, but inverted.

Due to the magnification of the entire viewfinder image, the domain clearly lies in macro photography.

The choice of available cameras is already clearly limited when choosing a body with an interchangeable viewfinder. Examples are the Canon F1, Canon F1 New, Nikon F2, Nikon F3, Nikon F4 (with autofocus), Nikon F5 (with autofocus and built-in motor for film transport), Pentax LX or Minolta XM. Whether you need such a camera directly is up to you. Perhaps you will buy a housing with a fixed viewfinder first and then add such an (expensive) camera later. Make sure you check whether the viewfinder you want is easy to get. And if you see it, go for it, maybe even before you buy the camera. Interchangeable viewfinders are usually harder to get than the camera model they are made for!

4) Exposure control: manual, manual exposure, aperture priority, shutter priority or programme automatic?

Of course, from a technical point of view, all pictures should be correctly exposed.

Most 35 mm SLR cameras offer a built-in light meter for this purpose.

To expose a picture - and it doesn't matter which camera, which shooting format, whether analogue or digital - only two settings are necessary: the aperture and the shutter speed.

You can find a detailed illustrated explanation on my homepage.

If you shoot purely manually - without a light meter - you have to estimate the aperture and shutter speed, which I would only recommend to the most experienced photographers!

Of course you can also use an external light meter and manually transfer the aperture and shutter speed determined there to your camera.

In the tracking mode, you select either the shutter speed or the aperture and change the other value until the built-in light meter shows the correct exposure. The type of display varies from camera to camera.

When you shoot with aperture priority, you preselect the aperture and the camera automatically determines the correct shutter speed for the selected aperture and automatically opens the shutter over this time range when you shoot (in simple terms).

With aperture priority it is the other way round: you select the desired shutter speed and the camera adjusts the aperture.

When using programme automatic, the camera automatically selects shutter speed and aperture. Some cameras offer special programme automatics for sports photography, here the camera automatically selects a shorter shutter speed so that the movement is frozen. I do not recommend this type of automatic for conscious photography, as it is too restrictive.

Did you notice it when you read this?

Aperture, shutter speed, shutter speed and aperture - this is the core!

No matter if manual or using various automatics.

To expose a picture correctly (hopefully always), there is only this pair

Aperture and shutter speed.

Now you just have to decide which form of automatic is more suitable for you - or whether you want to shoot with the tracking meter.

Do not choose your camera according to the number of automatic exposure controls!

Our hobby should be fun! Rather buy a camera that you find aesthetically pleasing, that is simply sexy for you. An automatic does not make better pictures, the aperture priority is not superior to the shutter priority - you just have to know the effects and correlations between shutter speed and aperture! This must become second nature to you!

Before buying, find out about the prices of used lenses for your chosen system and about the range of accessories. All the manufacturers mentioned above offered a wide and deep range for almost all photographic tasks - except for a few special cases.

I myself shoot in the analogue SLR field with numerous systems from Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Zeiss Ikon, Voigtänder, Contax, Rollei and Pentax.