What camera should I buy my girlfriend?

many years ago i had the same request of my wife. she had a very strong leaning towards street photography because she felt it was a method which gave her anonymity and she was very good at it because in those days women were not seen as the photographer threat on the street and people gave way to her stealth. she chose and i susbsequently bought her the M3 when it was very much the normal camera of its day. it is still with her although i am not. and it is still used, so i understand. one good choice out of two.

-dd
 
Pentax MZ-5. It can be auto everything inc. autofocus or fully manual. Also ME Super and MZ-M can be a good choice.

They ARE competitors to Olympus OM, Keith 🙂
 
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Buy her the camera that keeps on giving....a Leica! 😀
*also shows great love for a person*

Late 1930`s Leica IIIa w/f2.0 50mm Summitar *uncoated at best* the BEST starter Leica ever!

Or the BEST starter Canon there is Canon AE-1 Program (they are always on evilbay for good prices)

My ex-girlfriend wanted something really exciting so I bought her a 1955 Rolleiflex f2.8C Planar and a Gossen Meter..................she used both of them for years, till the Rollei`s shutter locked up 🙁

Tom

PS: I`m fixing to buy my Daughter her "FIRST" Leica, it might turn out to be a IIIa or a IIIb with a f2.0 50mm Summitar or maybe a Rigid Nippon Kogaku Nikkor f2.0 50mm? - you have to start your kids off right, go straight to Leica 😀
 
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I'd love to buy her all those things but I can only buy what my budget allows... Leicas are beautiful as we all know, but she just wants to try her hand at film cameras and a bit of documentation work that isn't made of pixels. I'll aim for under $100
 
Attractive girl and a nice photo of her. If you could have gotten the plants just a little more back to frame her face instead of intruding you would have an even better photo imho.

As to cameras, what does she expect in a camera? Since she had a digicam, does she expect zoom and automatics as well as wish for manual control? Fixed lens RFs aren't so attractive in that case. As someone mentioned, since you already have some Canon glass, the A1 might be a good choice. The Olympus mentioned by Keith is a good choice too. Possibly one of their auto models, and then their good glass. They have the advantage of being small, and yet very good. I think they look good too. My segway to fashionable.

My take on that is to decide on several you think would be good for her and show some to her; either photos or in a camera store. Unless you are awfully good, you aren't going to second guess what she thinks is fashionable.

Good luck.

EDIT: Well, I missed your last post. Under $100 limits your selection. You could get a cheaper but still quite good SLR for that, and maybe even a Canon. The Yashica FX line might be good to look for. The advantage would be that if she really likes film phtography, they take Contax glass. Again, good luck.
 
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Minoltas..... near your budget

Minoltas..... near your budget

Minolta SRT101 or 201. The Minolta student camera of note is the X370. Metering, some auto and full manual by choice. Judicious shopping should turn up an X370 at your budget. If you could score a harder to find X570, that would be a plus. The X370 became the defacto student camera after the Pentax K1000, which is also an option. Both light and small.

The cameras that rank similarly in size, budget, and features:
Pentax K1000 or KM
Minolta X370
Olympus OM 1, 2
Olympus OM10 (but only if you get the manual override attachment that plugs in front next to the lens)
Nikon EM
Canon AE1, or your AV

The underrated camera on this list is the OM10. Most people did not ever get the manual over-ride, so this camera was automated only and did not sell well. It never sold in the pro market, so most of them saw limited use, and have virtually no wear. They use all the Zuiko lenses, and the Zuiko 50mm 1.4 is one of the smallest large aperture lenses you will ever find.

On that list, the OM10 with the 1.4 is the smallest package in the lot. With the manual override, it also accomplishes everything that all the cameras on the list will do.

The manual override is a small plugin with a round black dial that controls shutter speeds, since the camera is Aperture Priority without it. If you look at the front of an OM10, and it has the attachement, you will see the black dial to the right of the lens, and toward the top of the body, just below the chrome. A percentage of the OM10's that show up on eBay will display that attachment if one is included. You can also find them being sold separately very often on eBay.

HERE is a link to an OM10 With 1.4 AND the adaptor. The pictures clearly show how the adaptor attaches:

http://cgi.ebay.com/OLYMPUS-OM10-35...ryZ15239QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


A very tidy and somewhat rare package would be that OM10 w/1.4 lens in Black. There were some black ones made. It's sweet.
 
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The Nikon EM would be a nice choice, manual shutter speeds notwithstanding. Small, light and appropriate lenses are reasonably cheap. The shutter speed problem can generally be worked around.
 
fdigital said:
Thanks for all your suggestions - It's not that I don't know what I should look at, just seeing what other people think. The problem for me is finding something that is simple enough, giving a little bit of manual control, without being too complex such as the canon A-1 with all the scene modes so as to scare her away.

I wouldn't give her my fm2n either - she bought me the thing and I love it too much.

Reason I was thinking the av1 was that it's quite light, and the one I previously had was really fantastic for a cheapo camera. The VF was very nice and even metering was very accurate. The lenses are cheap too. I think I may look at some of the manual focus minoltas out of interest.

It's gotta be an old manual focus/very basic camera with a bit of charm. SLRs are very pedestrian at times, and being such a pretty girl she's a bit fashion orientated... I suspect the canon a1 may look a little 80s/startrek/geeky for her.

I wonder what old school minolta SLRs I could get with a lightmeter?
Click to expand...

The Minolta SRT 201 wasn't bad; it did have a problem with "playing well with others" though. It had very tight tolerances and a thing that happened a lot with third party lenses was that the mirror would hit the back of the lens (no problems with Minolta lenses though). Just be sure to check for chips on the leading edge of the mirror (can mean glass chips rattling around somewhere inside the camera, doing god knows what). The "old school" Minoltas all had that problem.

Personally, if I were going to give her an SLR instead of a rangefinder, and if I didn't want to give her an A-1 or my FM2, then I'd go for a Pentax K-1000. There was a time, long ago, when a Pentax was as good as (and often better than) a Nikon or a Canon. It was a while back, but the K-1000 was one of those. Their company went to hell in a handbasket pretty much as soon as they dropped it from their lineup, but the K-1000 was one of their two best ever. I bought mine new in 1978 and have never had any kind of problem with it even after 30 years of heavy use. They made the things by the truckload, so they have little collector value and can be had for less than a Nikon too.

For the rangefinder, I would recommend a Yashica GSN. I'm assuming that you are looking at ebay, so you can pretty much count on having to do at least some work on any rangefinder you'll buy there. Those that don't require work are rare exceptions. GSNs are inexpensive, they work very well indeed, are easy to use, have great glass, and they are easy to get into working order and to maintain. They really don't have much of a downside.
 
Only a Leica M3 will match the lady. Any M standard lens will go well with it. Heads will raise wherever she goes (if the same is not already happening)! The Queen (of England) uses one.
 
fdigital said:
Heres a picture of her: (incidently taken with a canon AV1 plus the cheapo 50 1.8)
2062859422_0666482558_o.jpg


What cameras can you guys suggest?
Click to expand...

Dude. She deserves the 24K gold-plated Leica M6 with matching pre-asph Summilux.

*but*

If you're low in cash, you can't go wrong with a properly-maintained Canon QL17 III 🙂
 
Look at the Canon G9. Very versatile, easy to use as with manual or automatic controls.
I bought my wife one and she loves it.
Eric
 
Having some experience w/ this question, I'd opt for a Oly Stylus Epic (non-zoom) P&S: stays under the budget, easy for her to use, and most importantly you won't lose much if you split w/ her.
 
Gavin, I'm hurt that you discounted the 35 RC so quickly 😛

An RF definitely has that old-school charm, I'd get one of these three:
- Olympus 35 SP
- Minolta Hi-matic 7sII
- Olympus 35 RD

If you go SLR, consider these:
- OM-2 (the black one can now be had for less than $100)
- Nikon FE (you can share lenses with her)
- Minolta XD-11 (unlike the big/clunky SRT series, this one is sleek)
- Pentax MX (or Chinon CE-4s if she likes to be different than others)

And just to be unique, a TLR might be just the ticket, women seems to like those.
 
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