Plastic Bodied SLRS?

[MarkoKovacevic]

I'm purchasing a Nikon N90s/F90x soon, and besides the point and shoots I've bought, it is my first plastic bodied camera. I know I have preconceptions of plastic being cheap, but this camera seems well made.

How has your experience been with plastic bodied cameras in terms of durability when dropped/everyday use? I must say I do enjoy the pound of weight taken off!

 

[Stephen S. Mack]

Try not to drop 'em. Try to treat 'em like a piece of precision optical equipment (which they are.) They are quite durable, but the design specifications of even a metal camera can be exceeded. As a graphic illustration, think of the motorcycle helmet, which is made of plastic. Does its job very well unless the design specifications are exceeded, as in the rider hitting a bridge abutment doing eighty miles per hour...

Oh, and most of them don't get along very well with water, as in dropping them into....

With best regards.

Stephen

 

[rover]

I bought a Canon 10s in 1990. After 13 years, I looked at it for the first time in 2003 and was surprised to see it was no longer in mint condition. In fact it looked quite used. I took a lot of shots with that camera, and it still works without flaw today.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I worked in a camera shop when Nikon brought out their first Plastic Bodied Camera, the EM. The most senior salesman, a Nikon enthusiast, held it up in the air and dropped it on its prism head. It still worked, and he agreed to sell them.

Try not to do that. More likely the plastic gears will wear out before the body casing. My N8008s still works, as does the Nikon FG.

 

[ray*j*gun]

I've had a Nikon N6006 since new and it still works fine..... never had a problem even with the plastic kit lens that came with the body. Its probebly the best bargin film camera available today IMHO.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I had an F80 (aka N80), made out of polycarbonate... It was a pretty tough camera, but then, I never dropped it, so never really tested it. However, it was pretty reliable in cold weather, which is something to say. And it seemed to be scratch-resistant too! 🙂

Sold it after buying an F100. It simply didn't stand a chance...

 

[amateriat]

Well, it depends on the "plastic", and how it's applied.

I had a pair of Minolta Maxxum 9xi bodies for the better part of a decade. The 9xi body utilized a stainless-steel mirror box assembly, mated with a polycarbonate film chamber, cast-zinc bottom, and what Minolta describes as a "fiberglass-reinforced polycarbonate top plate with a scratch-resistant UV coating."

All I knew was that the thing was damn near bulletproof. And it really was hard to scratch. It took its bounces in seemingly good humor.

That, and its ridiculously-spec'd shutter (1/12800-sec? Well, not quite, but pretty close, according to both Modern and Pop Photo at the time they reviewed it in late 1992). The camera was quite solid in my hands, hardly "plasticky." While I'm a metal adherent, that camera showed me that it's not just what you do, but how you do it. Plastic doesn't always mean "cheap." (I think someone at Canon once pointed out that the metal/poly shell formulation on the early EOS-1 bodies was more expensive to work out than a cast-metal formulation would have been, but they were going the distance for the sake of increased durability. Yep, you read that right. (Of course, they moved on to cast magnesium for subsequent EOS-1 film and digital bodies, but you get the point.)

So, I prefer ferrous materials emotionally, but you won't find me dissing plastic out of hand. (Okay, not much.)


- Barrett

 

[kshapero]

I worked in a camera shop when Nikon brought out their first Plastic Bodied Camera, the EM. The most senior salesman, a Nikon enthusiast, held it up in the air and dropped it on its prism head. It still worked, and he agreed to sell them.

Try not to do that. More likely the plastic gears will wear out before the body casing. My N8008s still works, as does the Nikon FG.

The EM is NOT a plastic body, only the top and bottom plate are plastic. The actual body itself is magnesium alloy like all the other Nikons.

 

[BillBingham2]

You know as much as I hate to say it, plastics seem to have held up well. I expected the EM to self destruct but they held up pretty well. You see plastics moving into all sorts of devices you never would have expected (e.g. pistols). Treat it with respect and it will last a long time, be it a metal F or a plastic FG.

B2 (;->

 

[payasam]

Metals have always been associated with strength, and early synthetic materials were indeed pretty poor in that regard. The newer engineering plastics and other synthetic materials, however, are often stronger than steel. It remains a relief to know that one's plastic bodied camera has a metal chassis or "spine".

 

[peterm1]

Modern polycarbonate camera bodies are tough. At some time or other most of my metal bodied cameras got dings - usually from very trivial bumps that were anything but serious. These same bumps - in fact far more serious ones were simply shrugged off by plastic bodies. There is nothing wrong with plastic bodied cameras at all and in the hard-wearing stakes I rate them far above the metal ones that aesthetically I prefer.

 

[kshapero]

I love those dings on my metal cameras.

 

[ferider]

Once had a Minolta break through the middle, prism and all. When Skiing ...

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I have metal bodied cameras visually beat to hell from hard use. But I've literally worn out polycarbonate covered EOS cameras with the same hard use and they still looked almost new. Besides, most of these "plastic" cameras have very tough metal frames under that plastic.

 

[Mackinaw]

Shades of 1976! Back in the day, when the Canon AE-1 and its plastic top plate was introduced, there were tons of arguments as to what was better material for a camera's exterior, plastic or metal. One pro-metal argument was that metal was better at absorbing an impact, if the camera was dropped, while plastic would transmit the shock throughout the camera and do all sorts of bad things to its innards.

After 30+ years, I think plastic has pretty well proven itself, but I personally prefer metal top and bottom plates.

Jim B.

 

[btgc]

It depends. Say, EOS 300V (European name) looks and feels like a massive cheap P&S. Plastic mount looks like a fast food (don't know film guides are made from).

What I now is that Ricoh late SLR's with plastics around metal chassis are tough real cameras, feeling and working so. They have metal mounts, film guides and hold on well (but I'm not dropping them specially).

I agree that construction and materials of innards are what makes camera strong or weak.

 

[Mark A. Fisher]

I bought an N90s brand new in 1999, and have run tons of film thru it. It's still going strong, and I've had no plastic-related issues at all.

Mark

 

[Sparrow]

Do you mean cheap like Minox? or cheap like a Fuji disposable?

 

[ebolton]

Plastic bodies can be very tough. My EOS-3 certainly is. They are a lot more comfortable to hold in the cold winter, too. I prefer the look of a metal camera with the traditional coverings, but for actual shooting when it is cold here in NH, nothing I have for film beats the plastic EOS-3.

 

[newspaperguy]

I havw several plastic Nikon SLRs, including a F801...one of the finest cameras I have used (although I prefer using my OMs) and hve never had a problrm... correction, I once set a plastic Olmpus super zoom (can't remember what model) on the roof of my car, just for a second - then forgot and slammed the door shut... CRASH! Beyond repair. So don't do that.