Beginner needing help finding a camera with certain specifications

P/S are readily available. Buy cheap. Personally after a lifetime using FILM, I say it's expensive, a P/S Digital makes more sense,, It's free to shoot.
The new film Pentax may be a success but it ain't cheap.For a fraction one can buy a SLR,Pentax Spotmatic Canon Ae-! AV-1!! Focusing is easy, metering can be checked on Phone APP. Good luck.
 
Although 500 USD isn't a trivial sum of money, I'd say that Pentax 17 is fairly priced, given that it's brand-new, and this is 2024, and it's likely being produced in far smaller numbers than it would have, had it been offered in 1995, when film was king.

My experience with Pentax P30 film loading (the 17's film loading seems based on the earlier camera's) is that it's very easy and reliable. And if you still have doubts, use the rewind crank to take up some of the slack from the film, and the movement of the rewind crank as you advance the film is a 100% surefire indication that your film is advancing.

But regardless, when using a film camera for the first time, it's never a bad idea to shoot a test roll of film and verify that the photos look ok before relying on the camera for once-in-a-lifetime shots.
 
One off-the-wall possibility is to buy a CLA'd (Cleaned, Lubricated, Adjusted) Soviet camera such as a Smena 8M from a seller in eastern Europe. Shipping times from Ukraine -> USA are typically ~18 days, and total cost is well under 100 USD.

Lo-tech: No worries about aging electronics, because there are none. Mechanically, they're only slightly more complicated. You have to manually set exposure, and cock the shutter as a separate operation from advancing the film, but don't worry, millions of beginners once mastered such basic skills.

Despite the unpretentious looks, these are real cameras with 3-element glass lenses.

 
I'm going to recommend the Nikon FG, as a good entry to a total top-end system with a long history and a lot of bits. It can be had with lens for about $60, it has a program mode that you can use without thinking, but also aperture-preferred, shutter-preferred, and fully manual, with or without metering. Additionally it will use every Nikon SLR lens except for the first pre-AI and the last ones without aperture rings, leaving you about 40 years of used lenses to buy at bargain price, and you can still take those lenses to the vintage F3 you will ultimately just HAVE to have as the addiction grows. I actually own half a dozen of them spotted around work and home, and it's often my daily carry when I go somewhere where I don't want to risk taking something expensive.

As an aside to one previous post, the original Olympus Stylus with the rangefinder and f/2.8 lens was one of the best cameras I've ever owned and I still have it somewhere, and when I decided to "upgrade" to the Stylus Epic I moved to a camera with a lens so bad that I eventually just put it in the trash. So be careful there.

By the way the film loading indicator on most 35mm cameras is to take up the slack in the rewind crank and then watch it spin as you advance the film. Just at the beginning should be enough. You can't use that trick with cameras with a motorized rewind.
 
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You haven't said how much of a criterion size is. If it's not an issue, I would recommend a late model autofocus SLR from any of the major manufacturers. The first I would consider is something like a Nikon N75; it gives you autofocus and AE, so you have the point-and-shoot experience, in addition to allowing the use of fairly compact single focal length lenses. The big plus: if your interest in photography deepens, you can use it manually for focus and/or exposure, and the lenses could eventually be used on a higher-end body. These cameras were very versatile, if you needed them to be, but otherwise could be no-brainers, if you needed that.
Tiny, light, and reliable, and cheap! I loved the one I had as a backup for my pro level cameras. And the camera will let you know if it's not advancing properly!
 
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I inherited no fewer than 5(!) Compact Japanese cameras from the 1990s-00s.

I gave away one Canon Sure Shot without ever testing, hopefully it was ok as it looked like it had never been used.

Another Canon Sure Shot had been stored indifferently (dusty, on the floor) but aside from the flash not popping up fully, it seems fine. I think a plastic gear has cracked, and perhaps one of these days I will open the camera up and take a look.

A near-mint Nikon has some fungus, and while it shows signs of life, it errors out. Suspect another broken gear causing it to fail power-on self test.

Absolutely mint-in-box Olympus stylus zoom, no fungus, but otherwise same situation as the Nikon

Olympus Stylus Epic, the sought-after one with 35/2.8 lens. No signs of life.

The plastic gears that often fail are the small pinion gears pressed onto the end of a motor shaft. When new, the plastics are somewhat elastic, but as they age, they can lose elasticity and develop cracks. I've had some success using replacements sourced from kkpmo - KK Produktcja Mikroantriebe Zahnrad, Schnecken, Mikro Getriebe und Car System Hersteller
 
Retro-Grouch said:
You haven't said how much of a criterion size is. If it's not an issue, I would recommend a late model autofocus SLR from any of the major manufacturers. The first I would consider is something like a Nikon N75; it gives you autofocus and AE, so you have the point-and-shoot experience, in addition to allowing the use of fairly compact single focal length lenses. The big plus: if your interest in photography deepens, you can use it manually for focus and/or exposure, and the lenses could eventually be used on a higher-end body. These cameras were very versatile, if you needed them to be, but otherwise could be no-brainers, if you needed that.
Tiny, light, and reliable, and cheap! I loved the one I had as a backup for my pro level cameras. And the camera will let you know if it's not advancing properly!
Click to expand...
I hadn't had a chance to reply yet but i've been researching this camera since I saw your comment yesterday afternoon. I do plan on taking the camera with me virtually everywhere but this one doesn't look TOO big, especially if I got a fixed 35mm lens. I love the classic 90's look to it, the silver looks so nice in my opinion. Plus, letting me know if it's not advancing is a dreammm. I love that. Does it just show an error message on it or what's the sign? Either way, that's a big deal for me and I would love that about it.
 
Hayli said:
I hadn't had a chance to reply yet but i've been researching this camera since I saw your comment yesterday afternoon. I do plan on taking the camera with me virtually everywhere but this one doesn't look TOO big, especially if I got a fixed 35mm lens. I love the classic 90's look to it, the silver looks so nice in my opinion. Plus, letting me know if it's not advancing is a dreammm. I love that. Does it just show an error message on it or what's the sign? Either way, that's a big deal for me and I would love that about it.
Click to expand...
I couldn't remember whether there is an error warning, so I looked up the owner's manual. Here's a link, and if you look on page 118, you'll see that there is an error signal to warn you of mis-loaded film. https://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/archive/N75-N75QD.pdf
This is a great little camera. It does nearly everything a pro camera can do, but the construction is not as durable (mostly plastic). For the casual use you're contemplating, it would absolutely be fine. Good luck, whatever your decision!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
I couldn't remember whether there is an error warning, so I looked up the owner's manual. Here's a link, and if you look on page 118, you'll see that there is an error signal to warn you of mis-loaded film. https://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/archive/N75-N75QD.pdf
This is a great little camera. It does nearly everything a pro camera can do, but the construction is not as durable (mostly plastic). For the casual use you're contemplating, it would absolutely be fine. Good luck, whatever your decision!
Click to expand...
Just checked out the manual, that's so neat and would make me feel a lot better knowing that the film is advancing. I'm gonna keep my eye out for one of these on eBay. I'm torn between it or the new Pentax, so I have lots of thinking to do. Thanks so much!
 
Retro-Grouch said:
You haven't said how much of a criterion size is. If it's not an issue, I would recommend a late model autofocus SLR from any of the major manufacturers. The first I would consider is something like a Nikon N75; it gives you autofocus and AE, so you have the point-and-shoot experience, in addition to allowing the use of fairly compact single focal length lenses. The big plus: if your interest in photography deepens, you can use it manually for focus and/or exposure, and the lenses could eventually be used on a higher-end body. These cameras were very versatile, if you needed them to be, but otherwise could be no-brainers, if you needed that.
Tiny, light, and reliable, and cheap! I loved the one I had as a backup for my pro level cameras. And the camera will let you know if it's not advancing properly!
Click to expand...

Yes!! Or a Nikon F65 (= N65). I have two, small but highly efficient cameras, nowadays as cheap as chips on Ebay, and I can use all my AF Nikon D lenses on them as well as my AIS/AI, with a few minor limitations on the latter two. Get a battery grip and use AAA batteries, which reduces the operating cost by heaps (even if what you save on batteries you will pay for film).

There are also two others in this line, the N60 and the N55. I've used them, and in my opinion they are not worth buying. Too basic and certainly much too flimsy.

(PS I still believe you would be a super happy bunny with a Contax G1 and one lens.)
 
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