Fanciful SLR based questions - Autofocus and Lens

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Lilserenity

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Hello,

Whilst I'm still getting on grand with the SLR kit I have (Olympus OMs) I have this nagging feeling I need to get an autofocus something. I'm pretty quick with the manual focusing but I just feel that I could move my photography up a notch by having something I can in theory react quicker with.

At the moment I'm looking at the possibility of an AF SLR. I don't want a big brick, I have had an EOS 3 in the past (and an EOS 5QD before that) and while great cameras, they're pretty big but some of the Canon EOS SLRs were quite compact (albeit quite cheap, like a EOS 300V I got my brother for Christmas some years ago) I also have some curiosity about Nikon (and other brands should someone make a strong case for Minolta for example.)

I am ideally looking for something with:

- Reasonable size, no EOS 1-n's with motor drives please, Canon EOS 50/30 size is reasonable in my book
- AE lock (might as well have it)
- Exposure compensation not buried away
- Decent AF (snappy)
- 1 focus point is enough for me
- Lenses with image stabilisation (which is why I think this limits it to just Canon or Nikon)
- Good viewfinder, 92% or above coverage ideally, I need to be able to see through the thing, I know the OM's have spoiled me.
- 2.5fps is fine enough for me with the option for single frame at a time

At the moment film bodies only, but I do expect in the years to come I will need to get a digital SLR for colour work when film + processing cost starts holding back how much I can shoot.

Lens wise, I'm thinking a good zoom with IS, the Canon EF 28-135mm IS looks pretty good, what is there on the Nikon side?

Also it'd be nice if the thing was reasonably quiet, not like the EOS 3 I had.

I know I'll get a lot of opinions on which is best here and I have done a bit of research, e.g. Nikon F90X sounds pretty good too, but what are your actual experiences, I know very little about Nikon zooms and lenses in general.

Thanks,
Vicky
 
Film AF-SLR's have probably dropped in price much more than their manual focus counterparts.

For Nikon: look at an F100. The F90x (N90s) is getting old, and used as lot of plastic. For cheap: the F70 (N70) would run $25 or so these days. The latter is very quiet.
 
Hi Vicky,

I think you just described the Nikon F80. I've had one for 4 years and it really does most things very well. It came with the 28-80 AF-D which is better than expected, but I mostly use 50 and 85 primes, plus the 70-300 VR zoom when I need something longer.

I really like my OM kit (pair of OM-1 with 28, 35, 50 and 135) but sometimes it's Nikon time because I know it will do a great job without any worries about focus and exposure. It's also very quiet and very light. In fact it weighs very little compared to more robust models like the F100.

It's also almost disposable as the going rate for something that has probably had little use is £69 at Ffordes.

Just an fairly biased opinion. Never used any sort of Canon.
 
I would recommend to take a look at Nikon F80. It's one of the last Nikon film bodies, it's small and light and very capable. You can buy a nice, boxed example from ffordes.com for much less than £100. It can only take Nikon AF lenses including the new G-series lenses and is compatible with Nikon image stabilization. I'm using mine sometimes with the cheap but quite good AF-D 28-105mm zoom (no stabilization though) but my favorite lens with the F80 must be the light and small AF-D 50mm/1.8 lens.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, the Nikon seems to be fairing quite well, admittedly I had been erring on the side of Nikon. I was never very satisifed with the Canons for intangible and equally irrational reasons (i.e. nothing was intrinsically bad with them) so trying something completely different is rash, equally irrational and exactly the kind of thing I am likely to do 😱

I just want to make sure that whatever I buy, the lenses work on the equivalent DSLR in the future. Perhaps an F80 with a 50mm is what the doctor ordered, as I don't really need the wide side of things for the AF, it's mostly the candid stuff, and telephoto end too (well to the 85 to 135mm end of things.)

£70 for an SLR doesn't sound particularly bad either.

All I want to be able to do with this kit is get those shots that I just can't react to quick enough with manual focus.

I know for my next project/book (whatever, but I should really get the current one done eh!) I need and want to step it up a gear and I might be in situations where I need to be quick when I take a shot and I can't faff at all, auto-focus in theory should aid me in this.

Interesting thoughts so far though!

Thanks.
 
I just sold two Nikon N80s for $50 each, I've had half a dozen pass through my hands... I bought one with a 50/1.8 AF lens off Craigslist for $75. So many were sold to consumers 10 years ago that now they sell for peanuts, and out of the six cheap ones I've purchased, none have been broken or bad - most people shot a few rolls and set them aside for a decade. Unlike a Leica, they don't gum up with lack of use ;-p The N80 is a great value and very quiet and light. I am a larger man so the weight and bulk of a F100 isn't such a penalty and the finder is brighter and the overall operation is a bit "snappier", plus it is a more solid camera (more metal)(about $200 for a clean one). But I doubt it makes better photos, the N80 is quite capable.

The Nikon 50/1.8 AF or AF-D lens is the smallest, lightest, cheapest normal lens that will do auto-focus with these bodies and they are excellent. I am using the newer, larger 50/1.8 AF-S G lens which is quieter and allows me to switch immediately to manual focusing without having to flip a switch, as I would with the earlier Nikon AF lenses. It is new and only $220, but that is double the price of the older lens!

The F6 is selling for around $1400 used these days and seems not much more than a refined F100. I would love one of course but it is very hard to justify when for 1/7th the cost the F100 is 99.8% the same thing.
 
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It really does seem to be pointing at the F80 (what it's called over here in Blighty) and a 50mm (which I would get in any instance) and a AF-G or whatever it is 28-80mm seems perfectly functional too.

I think I'd ideally start with the F80 and 50mm, and find some place to burn some Kodak Gold 200.

Just have to check the pennies tonight, need to make sure I'm not doing myself a mischief on top of producing a book!

Thanks again, more suggestions of course welcome but I'm fairly pleased by what I have read so far.
 
The Nikon N80 (F80 to y'all over there) is a very nice camera. I own one, and it's a lot of fun to use. In addition to auto-focus, it also has all the different metering (Manual, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, and Programmed exposure, all with spot, center weighted and the amazingly accurate Nikon matrix) modes. It's a modern camera, and can use all the latest G and VR Nikkor lenses. It cannot meter with older non-AF lenses though.

A word of cautoin about auto-focusing with the N80: it's fine with a fast lens in bright light. In dim light and with a slow (>f/2.8) lens, the camera will seek for focus. That is the lens will spin back and forth without locking on to the subject. This can be very frustrating, and I often switch to manual focus when I am shooting under those circumstances. I also have a much larger Nikon F5 which auto-focusses extremely fast and accurately, even in the dark. You can also get faster auto-focus with the Nikon F100 and F6, both of which are smaller than the F5, but still considerably larger and heavier than the N80.
 
F100 is not "much more modern" than the N80, the N80 was introduced a year later than the F100. However the F100 is a more capable camera, wrt AF speed and the ability to use older, non-AF lenses in some metering modes. Both of those are more up-to-date than the N90s, which cannot use VR lenses or some modes with non-AF lenses.
 
Thank you for the further advice.

In terms of the F80 it does seem to be ticking all the right boxes for me I have to say so far. I still see my OMs being my main cameras, but who knows. I have sort of discounted the F100 on the basis it's a bigger and heavier camera, and I know exactly what I think about heavier cameras -- they get left at home.

I'm fairly sold on an F80 on the basis I seem to be able to get a good boxed example for about £50 after a bit of looking around and then get a 50mm f/1.8 for it.

I only had Canons in the past based on someone recommending them to me who was a big-time Canon user. Nothing wrong with them per se but the ergonomics weren't great, but reading up on the positioning of items on the F80 reviews I have read so far, it sounds a bit more up my street.

Thanks again, any further suggestions always welcomed!
Vicky
 
For Minolta, if you can get a Maxxum 7, you wouldn't be disappointed.
Maxxum 5 is a good camera for small hands.
 
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