>Given the news that the OM-2000 appears to be temporarily or
permanently unavailable (B&H no longer lists it), what are you
advising students who want to buy their first "real camera"?
Question I get asked a lot. They need a fully manual camera - no auto at
all. I suggest an orphan line with decent lenses - Konica T's, Spotmatics
and Minolta SRT's can be had for peanuts and good lenses are available
very, very cheap. A student of mine is using a Minolta SRT101X with 45/2 I
found her for US$50 and it's perfect. Nikkormats and OM1's are good but a
bit more expensive, as are the lenses. Pentax K1000's got overpriced as
schools recommended them and the later ones are Chinese built and not so
reliable. I've seen a student get through senior high and well into her
second year of photography college with just a Nikkormat FT3 and 50/1.4 and
her images are wonderful. She just lashed out on a 135mm! Fancy flashes,
matrix metering, fast lenses, etc. can wait.
For the moment, I'm looking at the Nikon FM10, FM2 and FM3 being
essentially equivalent with the OM10, OM1, and OM2, and I figure if
Oly wasn't available, I'd probably go Nikon (that was my 2nd choice
when I got into photography in the 70s). Is there any reason those
three bodies wouldn't be good starters for serious students?
FM10 is probably too fragile and auto. FM2/3 are perfect but pricey (FM3a
is US$800 here - I could buy 4-6 good student cameras with lenses for
that!) FM3 is not an OM2 equivalent AFAIK - it has no auto does it? More
like an OM3 equivalent? A good Nikkormat FT3 or early K1000 is a good
choice.
>
Please forgive the heresy.
B.B. Bean
To the stake with you!
AndrewF