Advice on buying a 35mm camera

[mjs]

Great information; thanks, I really appreciate it. Can someone briefly tell me what kind of batteries the Nikon FM, F3, and the Olympus take? It sounds as though the Nikons take silver-oxide batteries while the Olympus needs an adaptor?

I remember reading somewhere that Olympus cameras were generally smaller and lighter than much of the competition, also that that they had some oddities in the way they operated. Can anyone elaborate?

Mike

[janimir]

I still have Varta V 625 PX (1.35 V) in my OM1, and in F2 (the last remaining Nikon in my collection) use two (FDK) LR44 batteries (1.5 V), and if I remember correctly, same batteries were in FM (or one of 3V, but I have forgot which one that was). 625PX might be a problem, but not too hard to find (mr. google will find one for you )
As for Olympus oddities - I have found two of them, but I won't tell that I didn't get use to them. 1st one is that exposure times don't have dial on "normal" place, but you have thin ring around camera/lens mount with shutter speeds dialer. (sorry on my clumsy english). The second one was always a sort of problem to me - as a Nikon user it was normally to me to turn the lightmeter on/off simply by opening/closing a film advance crank (is that proper term?), but on OM1n you have on/off switch... and I did forgot to turn it off many times... so battery died... that is the only minus I can tell about Olympus. A lot of people used to call OM cameras "mountaineer's cameras" due to theirs small size and small weight but solid build.
Hope this helps.

[Bandicoot]

There are some manual focus Pentax bodies that are also non battery-dependent, rugged, and compact. And they take some great glass.

The LX is overkill for this application, and while I love the MX as a lightweight backup camera, they can be expensive. (On the other hand, older MXs sometimes have a faliure in their flash synch. circuit for which there is no spare part now available: such a camera may be a bargain for an application that doesn't require flash.)

Other Pentax models to consider for this type of use are: the KM (like a K-mount spotmatic, nicer and cheaper than the K1000) and the KX (similar but adds MLU). (The otherwise rather nice K2 is too battery dependent for this application.)



Peter

[dslater]

Great information; thanks, I really appreciate it. Can someone briefly tell me what kind of batteries the Nikon FM, F3, and the Olympus take? It sounds as though the Nikons take silver-oxide batteries while the Olympus needs an adaptor?

I remember reading somewhere that Olympus cameras were generally smaller and lighter than much of the competition, also that that they had some oddities in the way they operated. Can anyone elaborate?

Mike

The F3 takes either 2 S-76 silver-oxide batteries or 2 LR44 alkaline batteries. If you don't wear glasses, then the non-HP version of the F3 is a bit less expensive than the F3HP.

[IloveTLRs]

I vote you get a Pentax K1000
OR, get a Pentax SL which doesn't even NEED batteries. Hardcore!

[bdial]

The F3 will also take a single 3 v lithium, I don't know the number offhand though. The lithium might be a good choice for this app, due to their long shelf life capacity.

[keithwms]

Nikon fm3a. Lots of other wonderful suggestions up there ^^^ though.

Let me also suggest considering medium format, i.e. a good AF 645. Kindly don't throw eggs at me, I now this is the 35mm forum, I am just saying what I would do right now.

[Daniel-OB]

Nikon F3(hp) or FM3A

[waynecrider]

A long time ago (and far far away) I read an article by a photographer who photographed in extremes. From the bitter cold to Death Valley heat and his pick of the best was a Canon FTB. Same stuff with mercury batteries tho, but it does have mirror lockup.

[keithwms]

Forgot to mention, the fm3a can operate with no batteries, the shutter is hybrid mechanical. You wouldn't have exposure readings without batteries, of course. It does have aperture priority, when you have batteries.