How To Buy (and what is) A 35mm SLR Film Camera

So one of the things you'll need for Tech Photography class this semester is a film SLR Camera. What is an SLR camera you may say? Well, to oversimplify it, an SLR is a camera where the user looks through a viewfinder on the back of the camera and sees exactly what will be captured on the film, since the viewfinder looks directly through the lens. One way to tell whether an camera is an SLR or not is to see if there is a viewfinder on the front of the camera as well. In fact, if there's any glass on the front of a camera, besides the lens, it's pretty safe to say that the camera is NOT an SLR.

This camera shown below is an SLR since the only place the user can see through on the front of the camera is the lens.

This camera shown below is NOT an SLR. It is known as a rangefinder camera instead because it has another opening on the front of the camera that the user can see through. We definitely do not want these rangefinder cameras for class because they are not very accurate.

Next Topic: Does your SLR have an adjustable shutter speed?

Shutter speed allows us to have a great deal of control over our photographs. Some SLR's however, have automatic shutter speed controls. This is a feature that we don't want either. Aside from making the whole experience a whole lot less fun, it also prevents you from really learning how to use a camera to it's full potential.

The camera below has full shutter speed control on the left, near the shutter button. Since the numbers here are really fractions, we can see that this camera can adjust its shutter speed from 1 second to 1/500 of a second.

This Camera below, a Canon T50, has no place where we can adjust the shutter speed. This is no good for class. The ring to the right, where we would normally see the shutter speeds, simply says "self, program, L and B.C"

So, in closing, here's some words of wisdom that will help you in buying a camera:

• Make sure the camera is actually an SLR.
• Make sure the camera has the ability to manually adjust the shutter speed.
• Ask your parents or an aunt or uncle if they have a film SLR laying around. If you ask nicely, maybe you can borrow it :)
• Look on eBay for cameras somewhere in the $50-60 range. Remember, you can always sell the camera when you're done and get your money back.
• Read the entire eBay listing, so you're sure that you're buying the right thing.
• Look for a brand name camera. Canon, Nikon, Minolta, and Pentax were all very common during the film era.
• Buy a camera with a lens, not one listed as "body only".
• Look on Craigslist, but always have someone, preferably a parent/guardian, go with you when meeting up with somebody.
• Feel free to email me at mpagliara@upperdarbysd.org if you'd like me to take a look at something online for you.
• Have fun shopping!

Cameras should be brought into class by 9/16/2013. This gives you two weeks to come up with one, which I think is pretty reasonable. If for some reason, this isn't going to work, let me know ahead of time and we'll work something out.