From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!alice!rabbit!jss Newsgroups: net.rec.photo Title: reply on novice camera request Article-I.D.: rabbit.576 Posted: Tue Jun 29 13:06:49 1982 Received: Wed Jun 30 01:31:31 1982 Subj: New Camera I'm a more or less experienced SLR shooter. I periodically will photograph a party for a friend, etc., but frankly most of what I shoot is for me alone. So: a brief summary of camera brands and some tips I hope will be valuable: NIKON: Generally good, though I'm told prone to breakdown. Is a status simbol (sort of), but leaves you in the lurch in terms of flexibility, as they de- liberately made their lens mount different from everybody elses, which to my way of thinking is an attitude which does not bode well for the company. Reality: you dont need all of the fancy add ons for good pictures. Most people can't use them effectively anyway, they are just not that good or hypercritical. Face it, a 1/2 f stop screw up can and should be fixed at the enlarger. Further, NIKONS are dependent on their batteries, which leaves you really screwed when you're shooting in the woods and it dies. Olympus: These are generally more expensive than they are worth unless you are a professional who is really fantastic. My advice is forget it. Konica: Their breakdown rate is phenominal and they can't be fixed correctly by anybody I've ever met, including the konica company. The only one which is solid is not SLR, which you will want given that you shoot two vastly different types of shots. Cannon: More adaptable than NIKON, but generally the same things apply. Also battery dependent. My personal favorite is the Pentax K1000 or the Pentax K1000 SE (special edition) These cameras are simple (no fancy useless add ons) are not battery dependent, and are uniquely rugged. Reality is that a camera is a delicate piece of precision equipment. It isn't theoretically designed for backpacking. Fortunately, the K1000 series seems to be virtually indestructible. It is the camera most photo course teachers will purchase to loan out to a class with people who dont own their own cameras. The base price is reasonable, and the lens mount is normal, so you can shop around when you eventually decide you want to expand. If you plan to use it as a +1 cudgel, I would reccomend you burchase the metal case version, as it is even more indestructable than the normal one. To give you an idea of how good these things are, I know of one (metal case) which has been abused by high school students for 12 years, has gone n for routine maintainance once, and is still as good as ever. This seems about typical. For an individual who is halfway careful; it should last damn near forever. My bet is you could safely will it to your grandchildren and expect it to be viable. Getting the picture...? For the kind of shooting you describe, you would want to buy a wide angle lens in addition. These give some great effects. Drop into your local bookstore and pick up a camera book and look. The K1000 SE has an extra (and I think useful) additional focusing mechanism. I reccomend it over the normal. Besides which, the warrantee is twice as long, always worth the extra $15 you may pay for it. It turned out that when I got mine (the SE) it was actually cheaper than the standard, so... A note regarding blow ups, etc. If you shoot with a 110 instamatic, forget it. The negative is just to small to get good resolution when you blow it up. Grain is not a linear effect. You are blowing up an area, not a line, and its therefore exponential. Even with the best of cameras an 8 x 10 will show grain under ideal conditions. For that you're getting into a whole new and expensive line of specialized cameras, but for the number of pictures people want to blow up to 8 x 10 in the normal lifetime, dont bother. Further, the machine processing done by kodak or anyplace else is MURDER on film. It leaves incredible SCRATCHES, DUST SPOTS, etc. If you really get serious about quality, shoot black and white and have a friend develop it. Generally if the person has experience he will get better results than kodak, and he will know how to optimally develop a given picture and will be willing to give eaach one a look which the machines dont do yet. With regards to flashes: DON'T BUY VIVITAR. I personally reccomend any Sunpak flash. If you are willing to spend the money, the Sunpack 422D is excellent and allows for future expansion/changes. As this article is admittedly not without slant, I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone else who disagrees, has comments, etc... --Jon Shapiro, Bell Labs, Murray Hill N.J.