Film Cameras, Old vs. New

[takethislife5150]

So next year, I will be in Photo II at school. The photography program at school is all film, all manual. Fun stuff, I've really learned a lot about film, and photography that I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise

I'll admit, I went into the class thinking it would be a bird course, rather arrogant of me.

I want to invest a little bit of change on a film camera of my own, as the school cameras are pretty beat up and falling apart, as would be expected with as much use as they get.

I'm going to stick with Canon, obviously. I was looking at the FD line, particularly the AE-1. My buddy has one, and I really enjoy it. But then I saw that used film Rebels also go for about the price of an AE-1 on craigslist and ebay. I've no experience with purchasing 35mm cameras, I know my way around them quite well, just never purchased one.

Should I just go with the newer models (Rebels) simply for the sake of them being newer, and more "modern" than the AE-1? Or would the AE-1 do me fine? I was pretty set on the AE-1 until I saw the prices of the Rebels.

[Austin_HXC]

I own a Canon Rebel Gii Film Camera, so I guess I'm kinda biased.
The difference between the EOS and the AE line are the mount system of the lenses. The AE line take FD lenses, which are manual focus. The EOS line take EF lenses, which are autofocus (and you can still manual focus with them too). The advantage I see with having an EOS Film camera is that if I buy a lens for my Digital Canohn Rebel XTi, I can put it on my Film Camera. I'd say either are well made cameras, but the Rebels autofocus. But if they are the same price, chances are the AE-1 comes with multiple lenses and the Rebel comes with the Kit lens. So it comes down to if you want Autofocus/ Compatibility with the DSLRs or Lower Price/ Old School Feeling.

[mainak_ch]

As you already have the Rebel XS and a few lenses, I would suggest to stick with the EOS line; you can use all your existing lenses in both the film and the digital camera.

[m.c.adams]

Since you already shooting Canon, a nice film EOS could be a good choice. With the AE, you can pick up a variety of lenses fairly cheap on Ebay. I shoot a Canon XT, but I also have a Nikon FA and an Olympus OM10 that I use fairly often. Call me old school, but their is something about the sound of a film Nikon with a power winder on it that still gets me a photo shooting kind of mood.
Mark

P.S. With a film EOS, you can use EF lenes, but I don't think EF-S will fit.

[inkista]

I'd say whatever film camera you land on, just make sure you can share lenses with your dSLR. Which means, no FD mount bodies. An EOS mount camera is going to give you the best compatibility and autofocus.

But if you don't care about autofocus (and I assume you don't or you wouldn't have been looking at FD bodies) you don't necessarily have to stick with Canon. With adapter rings, you can adapt old manual focus lenses from Nikon F, Olympus OM, Pentax K, and Contax Yashica, (and Leica-R also M42, but then you're into antiques and collectibles) to EOS. If you go with a Contax body, you'll get affordable Zeiss lenses you can put on your Canon. And Olympus OM, being orphaned for digital, has tons of cheap superb glass on the used market.

[OsmosisStudios]

And this is why I love my FE. All my lenses mount

I too got into film a while back. It just works better than digital for certain things. I wanted an old, manual focus, hand-crank camera. So I aimed at the FE-FM2 range.