Cameras Used on One of Us Documentary Review
The best picture cameras in 2022: how to recapture the magic of picture show in the digital age
The best film cameras are the perfect fashion to ride the wave of analogue popularity in 2022 and beyond. Once thought dead, moving-picture show has made a hell of a improvement in recent years, largely buoyed past Instagram, every bit more and more photographers detect the addictive pleasures of analogue shooting, an alchemical thrill that can't be replicated in megapixels.
Why do people withal shoot film? In that location'due south a lot to dear: the concrete permanence of information technology, the excitement of trying dissimilar film stocks and seeing how different they look. And there'due south also the delayed gratification, which may seem a strange thing to say, but there is something exciting about the unknown quality of shooting film, and the delay between pressing the shutter and really seeing the image yous captured. Information technology'southward exciting! So there'due south also the fact that many pic cameras simply look cool, and are congenital with a metal immovability that's arguably superior to the disposable plastic of today.
• Nosotros've been kicking off a serial of retro camera reviews for those who tin can't get enough of analogue shooting. Nosotros've already examined the ground-breaking Catechism AE-1 , the mechanical Nikon FM2 and the students' favorite, the dependable, no-nonsense Pentax K1000 . These cameras were popular on release, but take since go legends in the film community, and you'll see them deservedly feature in this guide.
Buying used film cameras is a bit of a minefield, only like pic shooting itself, is a lot of fun for its unpredictability. You lot can't rely on warranty and digital retailers, and instead accept to become a savant at sorting the deals from the dross, using eBay and other 2nd-hand sites, and perhaps even rummaging through a car boot sale or flea market. Nosotros've kicked off our guide with a section all about the best used movie cameras, to give you lot some pointers on what to expect for.
Of course, you aren't limited simply to buying second-hand. In that location are relatively new film cameras being made, and while they can be a little specialised and come at high price tags (the people who brand them know they're the only ones in the business), if you're willing to spend a little, you can get a truly modern analogue experience. The modern Leica K-A hearkens back to classic rangefinders, and gives them a contemporary touch.
Beyond 35mm picture, at that place are also big-format 'view' cameras. These take larger picture show formats like 120 and sheet motion picture, and though they're slower to shoot and more expensive to testify, they deliver image quality that's pretty much unrivalled, with astonishing depth of focus and gorgeous latitude.
Some manufacturing take likewise been focusing on ways to synergise old and new. We're talking in particular about Hasselblad here, who have made something of a splash with the Hasselblad CFV II 50C, a modular system that tin fit straight onto the archetype Hasselblad 500 c/k (one of the cameras on our list beneath). Information technology uses digital engineering science to requite these quondam film cameras a new lease of life, and is an heady glimpse of the ways analogue and digital might continue to meld in the futurity.
• The best 35mm film, roll film, and canvass film to purchase
Another gimmicky player in the analogue space is Lomograpghy, who produce a tonne of old-way cameras, lenses and films all based around recapturing an analogue experience. We've included a section dedicated to the best Lomography cameras which includes loads of resurrected old camera designs as well as newer models, using different film types. These aren't the cameras you want if you're hunting for technical perfection, simply they're huge amounts of fun.
In that vein, remember disposable cameras? Single-use cameras are still fantastic for holidays, family unit time, parties and more, and these days you tin get cheap dispensable cameras loaded with full 35mm film, giving you existent quality at your disposal. One is even underwater, and however good digital may be, it can't give y'all an underwater camera for $fifteen/£15.
Nosotros've collected it all for this list. One thing to note though is that if you're looking for the knockabout fun of instant film, Polaroid-style, then our dedicated guide to the best instant cameras is where you desire to be. Then without further ado, let'southward crevice on with the best moving picture cameras you can purchase.
The best picture cameras in 2022
All-time used 35mm picture show cameras
We've picked out x 'classic' film cameras you lot can all the same find in skilful working condition today – that's an important factor, because the best film cameras are the ones that are however working! There are many more than we could take included, but these are based on popularity, reputation and toll, with a few near-forgotten masterpieces thrown in. The first v are 35mm cameras, the 2d five are medium format whorl movie cameras. And yes, yous tin buy both types of film quite hands fifty-fifty today.
The Canon AE-1's plastic construction kept the price affordable for novices and enthusiasts, while its electronically controlled cloth focal aeroplane shutter offered a wide and repeatable shutter speed range. This meant it needed a battery to power its functioning only offered more potential consistency than mechanically operated shutters. The AE-1 used Catechism's FD breech-lock bayonet mount, which has since been superseded by its EF lens mount, though adaptors are available. Metering was carried out past a unmarried silicon photocell offering middle-weighted meter. The AE-1 was unusual for offer shutter-priority automation at a fourth dimension when most makers favoured aperture-priority performance. The AE-1P was a later variant that added a program AE mode.
Read more: Canon AE-1 review – we revisit this groundbreaking legend.
• Used Catechism AE1 deals on eBay.com
• Used Canon AE1 deals on eBay.co.uk
The Nikon FM2 came out at a time when other makers were bringing out smaller, cheaper SLRs and new electronic controls, so it seemed a fleck of a throwback even and so. But its handsome looks and its reputation for longevity and immovability drew lots of fans and kept it in production right upward until 2001. If you lot think the current Nikon Df looks good, you lot need to pick up an FM2. It used a vertical metallic shutter rather than the horizontal rubberized cloth shutters in most rival DLRs but it was fully mechanical so the FM2 could piece of work without a bombardment – this was only needed for the internal light meter. Its one/4000sec height shutter speed and tough copper-aluminum-silicon alloy body made it sought afterward amidst pros, not just enthusiasts.
Read more: Nikon FM2 review – affordable for amateurs and loved by pros
• Used Nikon FM2 deals on eBay.com
• Used Nikon FM2 deals on eBay.co.united kingdom
The K1000'southward reputation has developed through what must have been seen at the time equally simple toll-cutting. It was the cheapest of Pentax'southward DSLRs and fifty-fifty had the cocky-timer and depth of field preview on other models removed, but to salve money. It's an entirely manual camera, and although it does need a battery for its meter, the mechanical shutter will operate without one. Generations of students accept come to dearest this camera for its depression cost, simplicity and durability, while generations of lecturers have chosen information technology for its purely manual controls and the way it forces you to learn exposure theory. The K1000 uses the Pentax K bayonet mount all the same in use today (though with some revisions for autofocus and electronics).
Read more than: Pentax K1000 review – a no-nonsense transmission classic
• Used Pentax K1000 deals on eBay.com
• Used Pentax K1000 deals on eBay.co.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland
The 1970s were a gold age for 35mm SLRs and 1 of the tiptop models of the time was the Olympus OM-1. Information technology was a purely manual SLR, flanked past a more expensive OM-two and cheaper plastic OM-10 with added aperture-priority exposure modes. The OM-1 was designed by the same team that produced the PEN and PEN F, the models that inspired today'southward digital PEN models. The OM-1 was tiny compared to other bigger, heavier SLRs at the time, nevertheless withal boasted a big, bright optical viewfinder which even had interchangeable focusing screens. Unusually, the shutter speed was adjusted via a band around the lens, while a big dial oin the tiptop of the camera was reserved for setting the ASA (ISO) value for in-congenital light meter – this was before the introduction of DX coding on film canisters.
• Used Olympus OM1 deals on eBay.com
• Used Olympus OM1 deals on eBay.co.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland
The Nikon F5 is the last professional bodied, fully autofocus moving picture SLR that was produced by the company. Today, it is your best bet if yous are looking for a truly advanced flick SLR that features slap-up autofocus, aperture and shutter priority modes, equally well every bit being able to utilise fully manual lenses. The F5 also automatically reads your film speed so non dialling in your ISO manually. With all theses avant-garde professional features and pro body styling, you exercise sacrifice portability slightly, the F5 is built like a tank, but that means it is a rather weighty photographic camera that wouldn't necessarily be a top choice for a travel camera however, for anything else it would exist the best "become to" for the job.
• Used Nikon F5 deals on eBay.com
• Used Nikon F5 deals on eBay.co.uk
Leica M rangefinders volition always be controversial and tin have a fleck of getting used to. However, the rangefinder focusing is fast and precise in the correct hands merely takes some learning. Merely once mastered the M6 can produce some fantastic results, it has been a fan favourite for some time, and now has a rather cult post-obit in the movie community, so you lot will have to pay a hefty price to get a good one. This is only the showtime, considering Leica lenses are equally expensive. But if you similar your film photography to be stripped dorsum to its basics, the M6 will oblige. You'll need to utilise the settings yourself and y'all'll need to focus yourself, simply for Leica M fans that'southward what it means to be a photographer.
• Used Leica M6 deals on eBay.com
• Used Leica M6 deals on eBay.co.united kingdom
Best used medium format film cameras
If you asked any professional photographer in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s which was the best film photographic camera, they would have said a medium format photographic camera. This might accept been a twin-lens photographic camera similar a Mamiya C330 or a medium format SLR like a Hasselblad 500 C/Thousand. For pro photographers, medium format cameras were the standard, big format was for 'expensive' clients and 35mm was for amateurs. Probably!
The bang-up matter about film, and particularly medium format 120 roll movie, is that it's so flexible – both literally and metaphorically. The movie rolls are 120mm wide, but it's upwards to the camera maker how much width they want to use. six x 4.5cm medium format cameras shot rectangular images 'sideways' on a coil, regular 6 10 6cm cameras shot square images and so information technology didn't matter which style you turned the photographic camera, merely other cameras like the RZ67 above and the Fuji GW690 shot actress-wide images. You got fewer exposures on a roll, merely extra-large negatives and transparencies. The GW690 is a no-frills fixed-lens manual exposure photographic camera that offers huge images in a insufficiently portable package.
• Used Fuji GW690 deals on eBay.com
• Used Fuji GW690 deals on eBay.co.uk
Twin lens reflex cameras use a unique double-lens blueprint, with the camera and its taking lens in the bottom half and a matched lens for viewing and composing photos in the top half. The viewing lens projected an prototype of the scene on to a basis glass screen viewed by flipping upwards the chapeau, which sprung open into a kind of lightbox. The image was reversed, which took a bit of getting used to, merely the combination of a square image (long before Instagram!) and waist level viewing encouraged compositions and angles that you just don't 'see' with other cameras. It's a simple and reliable blueprint that shoots 12 frames on medium format 120 roll film, with shallow depth of field effects we pay a fortune to achieve with modern cameras.
• Used Yashica Mat 124G deals on eBay.com
• Used Yashica Mat 124G deals on eBay.co.uk
Looking at the Hasselblad 500 C/Chiliad now, it's hard to believe this camera design offset arrived in 1957. Its utilitarian box-shaped design looks equally if it could have been designed yesterday, and modern high-finish medium format cameras still use its flexible, modular pattern. The photographic camera is the central box, to which yous can fit a wide variety of lenses, a number of different viewfinder attachments and different flick backs. The interchangeable backs deserve a special mention – yous could swap backs in moments, with your banana loading new films into a spare back as you lot shoot, swap betwixt the square 6 x 6cm or 6 ten 4.5cm formats or even prune on a Polaroid dorsum to test lighting and composition – this was instant playback (or near it) earlier digital capture was even invented.
And best all the same, new life has been breathed into the Hasselblad 500 C/K with the release of the Hasselblad 907X 50C, a state-of-the-art digital dorsum that fits direct onto the 500 C/M with a series of satisfying clicks and clunks. A tactile analogue experience meets digital perfection, information technology adds some other point in favour of this fantastic motion picture camera.
• Used Hasselblad 500 C/M deals on eBay.com
• Used Hasselblad 500 C/Chiliad deals on eBay.co.uk
Where the Yashica Mat 124G was an affordable twin lens reflect camera with a fixed lens, the Mamiya C330 was a professional version with interchangeable lens pairs, which was introduced and became popular in the 1970s equally a less expensive and less complex culling to the Hasselblad 500, THE professional person medium format photographic camera of the time. The C330 was a true system photographic camera, with interchangeable lenses (from 55-250mm), interchangeable focusing screens and a choice of viewfinders. It'due south a big old lump to carry around but it's withal possible to run across analog photographic camera fans and photography students still using them today.
• Used Mamiya C330 deals on eBay.com
• Used Mamiya C330 deals on eBay.co.uk
An evolution of the RB67, introduced in 1970, the RZ67 keeps the revolving dorsum that gave the before system its name, and the just-off-square six x 7cm prototype surface area. Only to put this in context, this is far larger than the six x 4.5cm area of the largest medium format digital models today. Like the Hasselblad 500 C/M, the RZ67 is a modular camera with interchangeable lenses, viewing systems and backs. It's a chip big and heavy for extended handheld employ, though, and it's best used on a tripod. High-quality medium format moving picture cameras are holding their prices pretty well at the moment, and you might accept to store effectually to get a practiced working, affordable example.
• Used Mamiya RB67 deals on eBay.com
• Used Mamiya RB67 deals on eBay.co.uk
Mod film cameras are pretty specialised. They're aimed either at analog auteurs who just love the look of motion picture and the feel of pic cameras, or technicial specialists for whom large film formats, extensive perspective-correcting camera movements and the ability to mix and match a wide range of lens, film types and even digital backs is more than important than than the quick-burn down simplicity of regular digital cameras.
The Nikon F6 is like the missing link between old-school 35mm SLRs and modern digital SLR cameras. Many of its specs will seem quite familiar to modernistic digital users, including its full program AE, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and manual modes, powered moving picture advance at up to 5.5fps and an xi-point AF organization backed up past Nikons 3D Color Matrix metering system. Styled by Giugiaro, the aluminum blend body looks a dream, only the v.5fps continuous shooting speed is modest by today'south DSLR standards. Nevertheless, the F6 offers a hazard to go a beautifully designed and made picture camera is as-new working club with modern controls and engineering science. The Nikon F6 is available new in some places, but has been discontinued in many countries.
• Used Nikon F6 deals on eBay.com
• Used Nikon F6 deals on eBay.co.britain
Best new film cameras
Leica M rangefinders will always exist controversial. To some they're overpriced, overhyped throwbacks to an era that'southward long gone. To others they're beautifully made classics of engineering that accept reached a plateau of perfection. The K rangefinders take a bit of getting used to. Rangefinder focusing is fast and precise in the right hands but takes some learning, while the pain of paying for an 1000-A body is only the beginning, because Leica lenses are equally expensive. Just if you lot similar your movie photography to be stripped back to its basics, the 1000-A will oblige. You'll need to work out the exposure yourself, you'll need to utilise the settings yourself and yous'll demand to focus yourself, just for Leica M fans that's what information technology means to be a lensman.
The Cambo Ultima is a modular monorail camera. The Ultima 45 is not a complete camera in itself because y'all'll likewise need a lens plate and lenses and either a film or digital back. It's a very interesting crossover product that handles very high quality large format pic photography but as well modernistic digital backs with much smaller sensor areas. The bespeak about a monorail system is partly its supremely modular and flexible (and, uh, expensive) design, and the way the back and front end plates can be shifted and angled independently for unprecedented control over perspective, depth of field and planes of focus. It's well suited to studio and architectural photography for those reasons, and harks back to the days when acme quality commercial photography was made using 5 ten 4" sheet film.
Some may recall Hasselblad's much-loved XPan panoramic camera and a few more than may know of the Linhof Technorama. Dissimilar the XPan, however, the Technorama is notwithstanding going. The Technorama 617s Three is sold torso-only but a number of different lenses are available. It's a camera for experts, not just because of its manual exposure merely because of the need for precise manual focus (information technology doesn't have a through-the-lens camera) and the need to keep the camera absolutely level for those ultra-broad 17:6 ratio images. The Technorama is designed for loftier-quality technical photography and shows the flexibility still offered by the analog moving-picture show format.
• Linhof Technorama 617 deals on ebay.com
• Linhof Technorama 617 deals on ebay.co.uk
Motion-picture show cameras autumn into unlike size categories, merely as digital cameras to today. 35mm cameras were 'miniature' models, believe it or not, and medium format cameras were called 'medium' because there was a 'large' format higher up that. These use sheet moving picture, usually measuring v x 4", to offer supreme prototype quality. Well, nigh supreme, because in that location is as well a ten x 8" size with four times the negative area. The Toyo-View 8x10 810MII is an example of this camera blazon that's nonetheless fabricated today. You'll need to source your own lens plates and lenses, track downwardly 10 x 8" movie and work out how to carry a camera weighing 15lb on its own, merely with sublime epitome quality and a wide range of lens and camera back movements, it'south a chance to follow in Ansel Adams' footsteps.
Lomography cameras
Lomography'south shops and online store provide an Aladdin's cave of photographic curiosities, from relaunched upkeep snappers from Russian federation to new widescreen wide-angle panoramic cameras to a 35mm kit camera you can brand yourself.
If you bought a Russian Lubitel dorsum in the 1970s/1980s you probably paid about £8 and you lot were probably doing well to nurse it through a couple of rolls of film before information technology packed up. We haven't tried the Lomography version just we promise it volition go on going a little longer – especially at this price. The mod Lubitel 166+ is unashamedly plastic in its construction and unapologetically basic in its features. You get manual aperture control (f/four.5-22), manual shutter speed control (1/25--ane/15sec plus B) and no light meter. Just the Lubitel isn't about engineering science finesse, it's most rediscovering the imperfections and naivety of old snapshot photography.
If the reimagined Lomography Lubitel 166+'s price tag is too rich for your blood, then at that place's e'er the Diana F+. It'south a celebration of brightly-colored plastic and deal-basement features, and a reminder of what cameras used to be similar – and how the conditions had to exist correct for taking a picture. With three-position zone focussing, simply one shutter speed (1/60sec) plus b, and apertures linked to the lighting conditions (pinhole, f/8, f/eleven, f/16), you're going to demand optimism and a willingness to experiment, for sure. On its own the Diana F+ is very cheap, but if yous fancy embracing the total feel in that location is a boxed accessory kit with a flash, cablevision release, interchangeable lenses and heaven knows what else.
• See also Best Lomography cameras
This camera is probably a lot more fun to make than it is to use. It comes every bit a surprisingly inexpensive kit, only there are lots of plastic panels, parts, screws and springs to put together so it's going to take some patience and dexterity. What y'all get is a camera with a plastic lens, a single 1/80sec shutter speed (plus B), a fixed-aperture 50mm f/10 lens and manual (obviously) focusing. You'll need patience to use it, plus some very exposure tolerant film – we'd advise colour negative for its latitude. Information technology does have a very interesting waist-level viewfinder though, with through-the-lens viewing provided by spring-loaded mirror lever.
• See also Best cameras for kids
Yep, it's a lot to pay for a plastic photographic camera, and you've got to exist a fan of the heavily-vignetted, super-saturated, none-too-abrupt Lomo wait, but the Lomo LC-Wide certainly lives up to its name. Its 17mm lens is way wider than the kit lens can go on whatever regular camera and well into ultra-wideangle territory. The LC-Broad has a streamlined pocket-friendly blueprint that looks as gimmicky every bit flared trousers (which is the idea, right) and has the luxury of automatic exposure, with shutter speeds from 1/500sec to (it says here) infinity and apertures from f/four.v-16. It does need three (yes, three) LR44 batteries, though.
Panoramic medium format cameras are typically very expensive, but the Belair X 6-12 is non. It tin can shoot medium format images at three different aspect ratios, including six:6 (foursquare), 6:nine and an extra wide 6:12 ratio. That's the slap-up thing about 120 gyre film, that it has a stock-still 6cm elevation only allows camera makers to choose all manner of different frame widths. The Belair looks very cool, and the Belair trim is only one of several options. In that location's a lot of plastic, though, so don't wait as well much from the finish and feel. This has to be just well-nigh the cheapest mode to get into medium format panoramic photography, though, and it even comes with ii (plastic) lenses.
Disposable film cameras
It's film photography at its most basic – low price, depression risk and, er, perhaps low expectations. Single-use or dispensable cameras come pre-loaded with 35mm film, pack a basic bones lens on the front and accept no photographic controls. If information technology'due south bright outdoor light, you're fine; if you're indoors, use the flash. Annihilation in between – well, you're on your own. The results are variable, simply they're keen for kids, parties, holidays and inexpensive gifts.
•See also Best disposable cameras
Ilford'due south single-use camera looks no more sophisticated than whatsoever of its rivals, but information technology'due south what's inside that's interesting. It's loaded with Ilford'south XP2 black and white movie, which is pretty unique in that it can be developed with regular C41 chemicals which are used for developing color print films around the globe (other black and white films demand chemicals formulated by people wearing thick glasses and lab coats). If you decide you adopt your blackness and white with traditional chemistry you tin use yourself (handily, it works at room temperatures), you tin can get single-utilize variant loaded with Ilford'due south classic ISO 400 HP5 Plus film. There's even a colour version loaded with "Ilfocolor" Film, which dates dorsum to the 1960s and gives a real retro experience.
Yes, it does cost a few pounds more than your usual disposable camera, simply you're getting a waterproof camera, for sky's sake! Fujifilm says its plastic case is h2o-resistant to a depth of 10m, so information technology's likely you're going to be in trouble long before the camera is. The Fujifilm Quicksnap Marine comes loaded with 24 exposures of Fujifilm ISO 800 Superia color negative film which y'all should be able to get developed at whatsoever regular loftier street chemist or online photo lab. Control is express, apparently, in that there isn't any. The exposure is fixed at 1/125sec at f/10 then actually you lot're going to need good outdoor light to get decent results, just that's true of whatsoever single-use camera.
Here you lot get two new adventures for the price of one. You can return to the lo-fi land that time forgot with this super-bones disposable photographic camera and effort out the tonality of one of Lomography's own blackness and white films. You might have to hunt around a picayune to find a lab to do the processing, but Lomography does in fact run its own lab and so you lot can always send the camera dorsum for processing when you lot're done. The camera is cheap, simply analog processing, sadly, is not, but that's the deviation betwixt analog and digital – you're capturing the world on a physical medium, non only as a agglomeration of binary bits.
Kodak'southward Tri-X 400 is one of the well-nigh famous monochrome films of its era, with many photographers falling in love with it for its dramatic, contrast-y expect. Now, it's available in a unmarried-use camera, which may brand for the perfect gateway drug for anyone looking to dip their toes into counterpart photography. Likewise as 27 shots of Tri-X, yous also get what Kodak describes equally the most powerful flash on a disposable camera, which perfectly complements the high-key drama of the Tri-X film stock.
The Fujifilm Quicksnap Flash 400 is pretty ubiquitous and typical for 35mm dispensable cameras. Nosotros've not been able to find out anything virtually the lens merely information technology'due south pretty articulate information technology's going to be a semi-wide plastic lens with a small fixed aperture and a unmarried, fixed shutter speed. This camera likewise comes with a wink, so it's a bit of a mystery how they brand them for this money. The quality will depend on how well y'all choose the lighting conditions – it's going to work best outdoors in good calorie-free, though the flash has a range of 10ft then indoor party shots are possible likewise, but wait eighties-manner blood-red-eye effects and rabbit-in-the-headlights facial expressions.
Fancy trying analog photography merely don't want to commit to an bodily, proper camera? So these re-usable cameras from Lomography could be perfect, especially since you get to endeavour out three different films from the Lomography range. One is loaded with regular ISO 400 color negative picture show, one uses Lomography's Lady Gray ISO 400 black and white moving picture – but the most exciting is loaded with ISO 400 Lomography Purple, which gives images a surreal purplish-green infrared issue... kind of. With what looks like a fixed shutter speed of 1/12sec and an aperture of f/9, it looks similar these cameras will lean heavily on the legendary exposure breadth of negative film, but there is a congenital in wink (with colored gels, even).
Film buyers' guides:• T he best 35mm film
• The best 120 roll motion picture
• The all-time sheet motion-picture show
Read more camera ownership guides:• The best instant cameras
• The all-time DSLRs, whatever your budget
• The all-time cameras for beginners
• The best disposable cameras
• Best slide viewers
• The best Lomography cameras
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Source: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/uk/buying-guides/best-film-cameras
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