In a message dated 6/21/00 8:27:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< A young member of the extended family recently asked me if I could teach
him a bit about making "good pictures" - including everything from the
camera to the darkroom - and at the same time assist him in finding a good
beginners camera. >>
Thomas:
Here's my two pence: I think that an OM1 or OM2 would be close to ideal for
that young kinsman of yours. Firstly, there are still plenty of them
available on the market, at reasonable prices. Secondly, there certainly
aren't "wonderbricks," in that they focus, set exposure, advance and rewind
film, and program your VCR through an infrared port. Thirdly, they are
rather bulletproof.
I wish I had started out on an early OM, when I was still wet behind the
ears. I predate the OM series by a couple of decades. I started out with an
inherited Argus A-Four rangefinder, sans instruction book or light meter. My
confidence in picture-taking eventually evolved when, as a 12-year-old, my
family-vacation photos were demonstrably better than those taken by my
parents with their Instamatic. Learning the simple f-stop/shutter speed
principle was a good grounding for my later magazine work.
Best of luck,
James Lawson
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Subject: |
[OM] What to reccomend: beginners camera? |
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From: |
T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
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Date: |
Thu, 22 Jun 2000 02:14:33 +0200 (CEST) |
Hi all,
A young member of the extended family recently asked me if I could teach
him a bit about making "good pictures" - including everything from the
camera to the darkroom - and at the same time assist him in finding a good
beginners camera.
Now, the techniques I may be able to pass on, but I do not have creativity
in excess (I barely have enough for myself) - so on that side he'll have
to find his own. And as for assisting in finding _the_ good beginners
camera, I turn to the list for oracle-advice ;)
He stressed that he did not want a "wonderbrick" - for amongst other
reasons that they are expensive to buy & maintain and also that they are
"too automatic". He also stressed that he wanted a single lens reflex
camera. Luckilly, this leaves the selection of OM's for him to choose
from, but what would be the best start? I do possess (and treasure) a wide
selection of OM-bodies, however the only one I could imagine parting from
on a permanent basis is the OM30 - not exactly what I would reccomend
myself for someone to "learn the basics" (imho it is a bad camera that I
only rarely use).
I had envisioned something along the lines of an OM1 or OM2n - being
fairly cheap (I suppose), durable, available and offer full manual control
with a decent viewfinder image. I'd lean towards reccomending the OM2n
myself - on the basis that it may be usefull as a "point-and-shoot" device
in auto-mode also - plus that I think it integrates better with the
T-series flash, which I suspect he will get to use at some point or
another.
So off the top of my head I would try to go help him find an OM2n with a
shoe 3 or 4, a T20 flash (or something equivalent) and some zuiko-glass
(or I could just hand him an excess 50/1.8 for starters?).
Does this sound like a reasonable kit? I'd rather stay with the
single-digit series than going into the OM10/20/30/40: I am under the
impression that the single-digits age better (to put it nicely) and I
find the viewfinder information to be more usefull when in manual mode.
Also, what would be a reasonable price for him to expect to pay for
such? My own OM2n was bought as new for a small fortune ages ago (and is
being overhauled atm, btw) and I have no idea what a good 2nd hand body
would be like, let alone what a T20 (or T32) might cost these days?
Any comments (also those saying that I am mistaken in my
reccomendations) are most welcome.
Thanks in advance
--thomas
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