Don't diss the pentax!

I have a bizzare loyalty to their old cameras based solely on the fact my dad has had an S1a since long before I was born - and still works fine too.

The rangefinder is a Voigtlander, really Cosina. It uses the Leica M mount and, the good part is that new with a 21mm lens it's around half the price of a secondhand Leica M6 body. At least in my part of the world. Fully mechanical too, with a metal body. Batteries only needed for metering.

I don't mind old pentax cameras, it's their lenses that kinda bother me.

I dig Leica though. Wish I could find one of them cheap, like you said :(

Though I must say my heart is true to Canon.

All day Junkyard Wars marathon is almost over. :(

The Leicas, pre M8 anyway, are just perfect. I'd love one but I don't think I could ever justify the money. But if I ever did get around to buying one, I'd probably be too wary to use it properly on the street.. thereby defeating the purpose.

Bleh.

I want the 40mm lens above to go with my mx, it makes for a great combination:

Yeah, they're crazy expensive :( I've thought about either getting an old pentax or maybe a minolta. Only thing is the lenses are crazy hard to find for old minoltas, even for new ones, since they went outta business.

Yeah, it's sad what happened to Minolta - and unfortunately the same thing may be on the cards for Pentax. They have been bought out by another Japanese company called Hoya, that deals in optics for medical devices, contact lenses and the like. Even before that, pentax were trying to shift further into that market themselves.

So it remains to be seen whether they'll do a Konica on Pentax or not.

What sort of Minolta were you looking at? The Srt-101/201? I've never held one, but they look a nice camera.

The MX is cheap, I picked up a body in perfect condition for €100 here, and seen MX+Lens for $150 on some US sites.

We have some Hoya filters. We have an old Pentax ME Super camera, but I don't really use it because - gasp! - digital is so good. I have been utterly converted. Pentax have been a really good brand; it will be a shame if they fall.

Digital is great, I'm just a sucker for the clockwork cameras

Digital scores on so many fronts that I have basically given up on the old cameras. They are lovely though; I like all those old Russian ones.

:( Gawd, it seems like every camera company besides the 'big' ones are starting to just give up or be bought out.

Yeah, I was looking at the SRT 101. I've shot with one a few times and they're just excellent cameras. I like my current film camera but it's super noisy and bulky, so I'd like a smaller one.

Because of digital, I do question the long term viability of the camera makers. There will presumably always be a market for SLR's and the like.

But with cameras being integrated into phones, and the technology being refined month on month - how many people are going to bother going out and getting a point and shoot jobby if their phone does it just as well?

I have to say that our digital point and click (a Pentax!) is inferior to some mobile phones (it takes some great pictures though), but the digital SLR (Sony A200) is wonderful. We bought the 75-300 lens for it a couple of weeks back, and it slaughters the pictures we used to take on the old ME Super.

My dad got a Nikon D300 a few months back and the results are brilliant.

I'm not someone who thinks film is vastly superior or anything, like I said, I just prefer the old cameras for whatever reason.

I'd actually love to see someone make a manual dslr - no auto modes and a metal body

That would be nice.

Melly likey digital photo talk

Digital > film photos, taking them to be developed, and realising that I've fucked up every goddamn picture! Argh.

(Seriously though, I have mondo respect for all the "proper" photo takers here - you rule bigtime.

I love film as long as I get to develop the film and photos by myself, and not leave them in the hands of someone I don't know.

Digital is good if you're experimenting with various techniques cause you don't have to worry about wasting film.

I dunno, I love both.

Yeah I always thought film was stupid, but my ex developed her own stuff and it's way better when the person knows what they're doing.

I don't, though, so I stick to digital.