Picking your FIRST FILM CAMERA for the BEST analog experience.

There are SO MANY cool and specialized film cameras out there, you can pick according to the type of photography you want to do. You might be surprised that even today, film can show digital a thing or two.

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Lost the leader in the film cassette?

[dunnymonster]

I still shoot film from time to time and have accumulated many film cameras over my years of photography. My shooting style is very different to how I use digital. As you mentioned, I have to be careful using my Nikon F5, it's capable of up to 8 FPS so you can easily eat up a 36 exposure film in just a few seconds!

[chenmunn]

You're the Gaviscon/Peptobismol remedy for GAS. This particular video helps put some perspective for aspiring film camera photographers who intend to step up the ladder towards an almost bottomless pit of film photography. While it helps to narrow down choices (and put sense into GAS), 'acid reflux' still comes back in the middle of the night. All it takes is something to tease me, and then it snaps. I'm off to ebay for 'research'.
My first acquisition was an Nikon FM3A - a supposedly natural progression to the FM2 I've been using for more than 25 years. "Several" cameras later, I'm in the danger zone aka Leica.

[Lysander-Spooner]

Fil, great video. I started with film back in the mid-20th century because there was no other option. Still have my Nikon F from 1969. Also the Nikon F4 and F100. Did my own darkroom work. When I moved to digital and no longer needed a room full of chemicals life was good. Never going back. But I have shot a few rolls of Portra 400 for old time's sake.
You are right about the later film boides. The F100 is really no different from the digital cameras Nikon released before the Z series.

[acrummey]

A Kodak X15 126cartridge camera was my first, a Pentax ME Super was my first "serious" camera. When I shoot film now it is with the ME Super or a much older Pentax KX.

[tompwilliams]

My first camera was a Kodak X-15 at 10 years old in 1972. It shot 126 cartridge film. Three years later I received a Yashica TL Electro SLR for Christmas. Since then I’ve shot 110, 35mm, and 120 cameras. Currently I’m shooting with a Hasselblad 500 CM and a recently obtained point and shoot Olympus XA. I’ve been shooting film mainly because I enjoy using and collecting vintage cameras. I use film for personal, not my professional work.

[trevorbrooks]

I'm really old and the first camera I had experience with was the family box Brownie, followed by another family Brownie, the bakelite 127. Once out on my own it was a long list of the usual 35mm slr suspects until I joined the commercial photo world and used every film and format you can think of. A change of direction and all my slr's went. My last personal film camera back in the mid-1970's was an Olympus 35RC, my girlfriend at the time was using a Kodak 110 pocket Instamatic. Fast forward through a few decades and alongside my digital cams is a Pentax LX and a couple of point and shoots from Nikon and Olympus, one with a zoom the other a fixed fast lens. For me a point and shoot needs to be reasonably compact and simple to use, even if there are some settings options; auto focus, auto exposure, auto winding maybe, having put in the film you must be able to simply point and shoot. Thanks for another interesting post.

[bggjoe]

My first film camera was a brand new Canon FTb with a 50 mm f1.8 in the 70's. I have a new Fuji X-T4 26 Mpix system with primes and zooms and i bought the system because of the old school dials and analog feeling. I still long for the commitment in each frame of film and the way it slows you down so I'm looking for another 35 mm film camera. Your videos are excellent and capture photography the way it should be.

[TCMx]

Lot of good advice here. While my first film camera was an OM-1 (via my father and his father), if I were starting today my advice would be a 35mm manual focus SLR with an electronically controlled shutter. Mostly because if it works at all, you can be pretty confident the timing is going to be right. CLAs often cost more than the camera itself, often multiples of the camera's value. Hard to swallow. I have since moved to an F3HP and an OM-2SP. I feel that these, OM-4s, FE2s, etc. are all great choices. The meters are accurate enough for b&w and c41, and they will be accurate enough to use with an off-camera meter for slides. Just my take though. I appreciate they can be a bit pricier, but I think it's worth it. Medium format is awesome but will bankrupt you quickly lol.

[lifetimesofamultiplemediam]

Russian Zenit EM with Helios 44M, back in 1980… I shot that SLR for years, the last time being for a project in 1999, after that I got into video. Returned to digital photography in 2013 with a Canon 50d. I've just recently got back into shooting film, reusing those Canon lenses, via the EOS 600, as well as a EOS 1n film bodies… However, I enjoy shooting film, I'm finding that it is just way too expensive for me to do on a regular basis… 🤔

[johnmehalick]

First film camera was 110 don't remember the name of it. I bought it in a drug store in the USA when I was 16. Then came a canon A-1 which I still have and went back to using color film in. I left it sit too long and most of the lens went to the fungus side. 1990's Photograph went on the back burner. 2015 Kids in high school bought a Nikon Coolpix to take pictures and videos. I then started to edit the digital pictures. Realizing I wanted a better picture. Sony A6000 first RAW camera. Then went full frame with three different A7 type. Now I am going back to film. Trying Pentax Spotmatic and mamiya/sekor 500 35mm. I like the M-42 glass. But the cameras have no meter and the film gets stuck or breaks when I rewind.
Newer film camera a Nikkormat FT3 with a zoom lens 35 to 70mm. Bought it because the meter and light seals were in great shape. First roll of B&W came back dark? Testing another roll of B&W at the time this is written. Film I am use is 400 Ilford HP5.
Bought a hot shoe light meter. It seams to read the same values. Now working the bugs out of the Nikkormat.
So where I am at now a days with film. Thinking going to stick with the Nikkormat. I always have the A-1 which is reliable. I average about a roll of film a month. I have adapters for my old lens which I use on my A7IV. I just need to stop myself from buying old glass. 🤣

[paveloleynikov]

Also, while it is not film photography in any way, even experiencing old mechanical lens on digital body (like old Helios lens with M42 to nameyoumount adapter) could be really interesting. That feeling of metal controls, trully responsive, very real and imperfect in same time could be breathtaking.

[robduf]

Strangely enough, my first film camera was a Nikon F6. I'd been using a D850 for years and wanted to repurpose all my glass.

[TheRealMarxz]

started photography as a kid in the mid 1980's on budget SLRs (Pentax MG and ME, then Nikon F3 then Canon EOS)
"returning" back to film (this is a lie as I still owned my canon EOS SLR, just stopped using them much after buying the Canon DSLRs... had a couple old specialist fisheye lenses that would not work on the ETTL2 DSLR bodies ) was the Cosina/Voitlander Bessa R2 and was a deliberate decision to change both camera and shooting style next was a almost complete RB67 Pro S kit with multiple backs and 5 lenses for almost nothing (sub $300 USD) - again a different style of camera for a different style of shooting - the Bessa has mostly been replaced with a Leica M3 I inherited and a Mamiya 7 I got for a song (with the 80mm f/4 lens best film camera EVER for travel, and that's a hill I'll gladly die on)

[kingmezs]

My first camera was a Pentax P30t, I did really fantastic B&W work in the darkroom using a really sub-par lens. Got into digital with a bulky 2nd gen digital, hated it, and fell out of love for the medium. Just got a Minolta Maxxum, fell back in love with film, and i can see myself getting an sony a99 in the future to continue doing full frame but digitally with my lenses. Full circle. Highly recommend going backward compatable on your first body, film is fantastic and should stay alive but digital isnt bad in its own right.