Help choosing camera

stumac

stumac

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Hi all
I'm very out of touch with anything film these days .

I'm after a compact 35mm camera . I have an om1 but it is too big for what I need it for .
I thought the Olympus trip 35 was the camera for me until I read it has next to no manual control .
Can anyone recommend anything? I'm basically after a film version of a Fuji x100.....fixed lens is fine if it makes it compact and with a light meter and I don't want any of the newer (plastic ) film cameras .
 
I had a fuji x100s and the only film camera that was similar is my Olympus RC.
I think the oly is a bit smaller, heavier (built like a brick).
Fully manual, works without batteries.
 
Marino said:
I had a fuji x100s and the only film camera that was similar is my Olympus RC.
I think the oly is a bit smaller, heavier (built like a brick).
Fully manual, works without batteries.
Click to expand...
This sounds like what I'm after ..will check it out now thank you .
 
I spent a long time looking for this...

Budget?

The RC that Marino recommended is about the best you can do for the sub £100 bracket. It's no X100 though. The rangefinder patch is very small, the meter can be a bit iffy depending on how it's been looked after, but it's a super camera and much smaller than the X100. Bear in mind that it has a max shutter speed of 1/500 which can be a pain if you go out with 400 (or faster) film on a very bright day. You can under/over expose, but only by picking a different shutter speed/aperture/ISO - no compensation dial.

To get the X100 experience, you need to spend money. The perfect camera for me was a Leica M6 with a Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 which was so nice, I upgraded to an MP. Coming down (a bit) in price would be the Zeiss Ikon ZM with the same lens. Down a bit further to a Bessa R3M or one of the variants. They're bigger than the Zeiss/Leica and for me a little clunkier. Still a great camera though. The Canon 7 is another alternative, but I know nothing about it.

The X100 is mirrorless and the only film equivalents without the clunky mirror housings are rangefinders, or zone focus so that's worth bearing in mind if you haven't shot a rangefinder before. The older (cheaper) rangefinders like the early Leicas & their Russian copies have no built in lightmeter, and the fixed lens ones like the RC just don't have the same built quality and you're taking a gamble when you buy one. Budget is the key really.

Left to Right M6, Bessa R3M, M3
2020-11-09-trix1600-canon1v-ddx-19.jpg

Zeiss Ikon
IMG_1927.jpg

MP
R6_I0758.jpg

My RCs... (one was battered, so I took the case off, bashed it into shape and hammerited it)
IMG_1409.jpg

And finally a Hi-Matic F which requires blu tack and chopped up paperclips to get the battery to work. Wouldn't recommend!
IMG_1389.jpg
 
How about the Yashica Electro 35?
 
Harlequin565 said:
I spent a long time looking for this...

Budget?

The RC that Marino recommended is about the best you can do for the sub £100 bracket. It's no X100 though. The rangefinder patch is very small, the meter can be a bit iffy depending on how it's been looked after, but it's a super camera and much smaller than the X100. Bear in mind that it has a max shutter speed of 1/500 which can be a pain if you go out with 400 (or faster) film on a very bright day. You can under/over expose, but only by picking a different shutter speed/aperture/ISO - no compensation dial.

To get the X100 experience, you need to spend money. The perfect camera for me was a Leica M6 with a Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 which was so nice, I upgraded to an MP. Coming down (a bit) in price would be the Zeiss Ikon ZM with the same lens. Down a bit further to a Bessa R3M or one of the variants. They're bigger than the Zeiss/Leica and for me a little clunkier. Still a great camera though. The Canon 7 is another alternative, but I know nothing about it.

The X100 is mirrorless and the only film equivalents without the clunky mirror housings are rangefinders, or zone focus so that's worth bearing in mind if you haven't shot a rangefinder before. The older (cheaper) rangefinders like the early Leicas & their Russian copies have no built in lightmeter, and the fixed lens ones like the RC just don't have the same built quality and you're taking a gamble when you buy one. Budget is the key really.

Left to Right M6, Bessa R3M, M3
View attachment 426502

Zeiss Ikon
View attachment 426506

MP
View attachment 426503

My RCs... (one was battered, so I took the case off, bashed it into shape and hammerited it)
View attachment 426507

And finally a Hi-Matic F which requires blu tack and chopped up paperclips to get the battery to work. Wouldn't recommend!
View attachment 426508
Click to expand...
Thanks for all the info ...when I mentioned x100 I meant more on build and with the general buttons and dials etc . I have an om1 and really looking for a baby fixed lens version . Budget would be up to £200 ish
 
stumac said:
Hi all
I'm very out of touch with anything film these days .

I'm after a compact 35mm camera . I have an om1 but it is too big for what I need it for .
I thought the Olympus trip 35 was the camera for me until I read it has next to no manual control .
Can anyone recommend anything? I'm basically after a film version of a Fuji x100.....fixed lens is fine if it makes it compact and with a light meter and I don't want any of the newer (plastic ) film cameras .
Click to expand...

Depends on your budget but a Konica Hexar AF would be the film equivalent to the X100. Great lens, reliable autofocus, pretty light and compact.

If autofocus isn’t needed then the Canon QL17 GIII is a good shout, I used one for a while before I picked up a Hexar AF (and eventually a Leica).
 
My disclaimer has to be that I have no idea of the spec of a Fuji x100, nor am I familiar with any of the fixed lens full size rangefinder cameras (like the Trip, Yashica Electros and so on). Picking up on the OM1, which is a very small SLR, is too large for you, I feel that the only things I know of that are significantly smaller are the Rollei and the Olympus XA. I have the XA from the days before the numbering went up and the facilities offered went down and have found it an excellent camera to stick in a pocket and forget about - until needed. The clamshell makes it safe to carry that way.

Personally, regarding pocketable as the feature I look for for a carry around camera, I chose a 6x9 folding camera ((Ross Ensign in my case) but that doesn't have a meter. For what it's worth, it doesn't take long to get comfortable with estimating the light accurately enough to dispense with a meter.
 
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I should probably expand further (it's a weird one lol) I'm just back from a heavy metal festival and cameras were not allowed in but I saw many people with disposable film camera that were allowed in .
So it got me thinking .....if the camera was small enough I could get it in past security it seemed that if they knew it was a film camera that it somehow became less of a threat to the official photographers But it needs to survive a mosh pit while hanging around my neck .......so yeah I need a heavy metal camera for heavy metal gigs lol
 
The heaviest metal cameras that I know of that are not oversized are Leica, having handled (and not bought) an M2 or M3 :) .

Probably the Rollei 35 is the nearest in appearance to my idea of a disposable camera, but I'm not sure about neck straps.
 
Thanks again for the replies ..next and last question...any recommendations for used film camera dealers in the UK ? Would rather avoid eBay
 
FFords, West Yorkshire Cameras (they have currently a cosmetically challenged compact that might suit you at £49 - see new stock).
 
The Voightlander Vito B series are small, fully manual, but they are certainly not light. No plastic in the main construction. (Only place I can think of is the light meter window when it has one)
 
StephenM said:
FFords, West Yorkshire Cameras (they have currently a cosmetically challenged compact that might suit you at £49 - see new stock).
Click to expand...
This.
 
stumac said:
I should probably expand further (it's a weird one lol) I'm just back from a heavy metal festival and cameras were not allowed in but I saw many people with disposable film camera that were allowed in .
So it got me thinking .....if the camera was small enough I could get it in past security it seemed that if they knew it was a film camera that it somehow became less of a threat to the official photographers But it needs to survive a mosh pit while hanging around my neck .......so yeah I need a heavy metal camera for heavy metal gigs lol
Click to expand...
That's precisely why I got my 35RC. People think it's a toy and I have one of those elastic waist belts for gigs to stop me losing my stuff (phone, keys, wallet etc) in the pit. The RC fits in it just fine, although it's a little bulgy. You're a brave man with something round your neck in a mosh pit!
 
GreenNinja67 said:
Just change the ISO (or ASA in those days).
Click to expand...
You're right, but "just" change the ISO... it's always a fiddly operation involving holding down a tiny button and twiddling something while trying to work out which dot between two almost (or actually) unreadable numbers is the one you want! (And that's with SLR...)
 
stumac said:
I should probably expand further (it's a weird one lol) I'm just back from a heavy metal festival and cameras were not allowed in but I saw many people with disposable film camera that were allowed in .
So it got me thinking .....if the camera was small enough I could get it in past security it seemed that if they knew it was a film camera that it somehow became less of a threat to the official photographers But it needs to survive a mosh pit while hanging around my neck .......so yeah I need a heavy metal camera for heavy metal gigs lol
Click to expand...
I've never been in such an environment, but I'm visualising something with lots of movement and bright lights (as well as noise, but for these purposes that's less likely to matter), and sometimes low light... I'm thinking a rangefinder will be a problem, and maybe you'd be better with a zone focus viewfinder camera?
 
ChrisR said:
You're right, but "just" change the ISO... it's always a fiddly operation involving holding down a tiny button and twiddling something while trying to work out which dot between two almost (or actually) unreadable numbers is the one you want! (And that's with SLR...)
Click to expand...
It's easy on the Trip.
 
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