[mongo_jones]

for the last couple of years i've been considering get an analog slr camera and experimenting a little with photography as it used to be. this may well be a quixotic desire given the fact that everyone seems to be moving to digital. what's mostly been holding me back is the price of slr's (digital or analog). now my father is offering to give me his old asahi pentax mv1. this is from circa 1979. does anyone know anything about this camera? as far as i can tell, this was a beginner's slr back in the day as well.

is this an offer i should be jumping at? he doesn't have any lenses other than the basic one. am i going to be able to get lenses? how expensive a proposition is that likely to be? would i be better off just spending money on a new digital slr anyway?

[Melonious Thunk]

Why not take it as it is and see how it goes. Maybe buy a good lens that works with it from eBay. What have you got to lose?

There is nothing wrong with the film SLR format except the cost of developing and printing. I have several very good film SLR cameras and lenses that I can't bear to part with or use. I sold two of the very best-Nikon F2s and a Rollie 4x4. If I had a darkroom and did my own printing, I would enjoy the film SLR. But with the Nikon D80, if get pretty much everything I want with SLR and the ease and flexibility of digital. The prints I can make using my inkjet are very good for their purposes, and if I want a better result, I can pay to have the file professionally printed at high res.

As you now, the big advantage of digital is the ability to take many shots to find one good one without spending the money for film, and the ability to to post-production in the computer.

[porkwah]

i'm sure you can get used lenses. there's no expiration date and a lot of people have camera equipment they would be selling.

also, autofocus lenses are made to work with some set of digital SLRs and analog SLRs -- there isn't wide compatibility, but you might, depending on your camera, be able to find both.

[ghostrider]

Pentax was considered hot shit back in the 1960s. Dunno about later on.

If the camera's free, what've you got to lose? A lens or two will certainly be cheaper than a true digital SLR. There are a # of replacement lens mfrs, Vivitar used to be a good one.

The cost of film & processing will add up, of course. I haven't gone digital yet, I've had an Olympus OM-4 & 3 lenses for years now & it's hard to just put that aside, but the ongoing costs hurt more & more. I probably will move to digital within the next year.

[peppyre]

The Asahi's aren't bad cameras to start playing with. I would take it, with just the standard lens and see what you get. My friend and I were talking about our slr's last night as we both really want to try out her dad's Leica III exactly like this one. (He was a professional photographer and artist, so the camera collection is quite something.) If you spend some time with the slr, getting to know the camera, you can get some pretty interesting textures in your photos. I think the pics from my Mamiya have way more depth than what I get from the digital. I don't bother with getting prints when I develop my film. I get the rolls developed directly onto disc and get the disc and negatives for $3.

Mongo, I say go for it and if you like it and enjoy it, then look at an upgrade. I picked up my Mamiya on ebay forr $75 USD (with extra tele lens. Of course, this was also when out dollar sucked ass, so it was more like $100 CDN, but for a camera that sold for $700 in the 70's, I'm OK with it.)

[bloviatrix]

The only thing I have to add is - don't be surprised at the looks you get from shop people when you go to buy film. We have a 25 year old Canon AE-1 that we love. Last time I went to buy film (in a camera shop, no less) the woman looked at me as if I was green or something.

[mcj]

If you spend some time with the slr, getting to know the camera, you can get some pretty interesting textures in your photos. I think the pics from my Mamiya have way more depth than what I get from the digital.

Good points.

It doesn't matter whether we use film or digital cameras, learning the science & art of photography is the key. SLR's have great advantages over the simple point & shoots — namely, you can set various priorities (Aperture or Shutter), automatic everything (various program modes), or completely manual... even going so far as to using your own judgement on the exposure. It may seem quite daunting at first, especially to novices, but elementary knowledge of the basics and plenty of practice makes the learning process much easier and the photography itself then becomes more intuitive.

Basic point & shoots (film or digital) are the most rudimentary cameras, but they're dead-easy to use. Even a hillbilly that's his own slap-happy step daddy could use 'em, but these cameras are only good for a very limited range and they just can't be compared to anything else.

Intermediate digital cameras, however, are becoming more popular since they offer some of the capabilities of SLR's, in a smaller package and with only one built-in lens, usually a zoom. Better ones have 10x optical zoom or greater. Unfortunately, most users don't take advantage of these SLR-like features and keep shooting in a very small number of program modes. If more people would explore the possibilities of the other modes, especially Manual, then I think that their photos would improve enormously.

[mongo_jones]

the lens on this camera seems to have some fungus or something on it. looking on ebay for lenses, i find that used pentax mv1's in better condition are selling for not very much money. if i'm going to have to get a new lens for this camera then it seems to make sense to just buy a camera itself on ebay. i guess i'd hoped that this was a fancier slr than it is/was.

this isn't a purely manual slr though--the aperture priority seems to be automated. (camerapedia page.)

i predominantly use the manual mode in my canon a610. i find myself wishing more and more that i had access to a greater range of shutter speeds, aperture settings, and iso speeds--hence the curiosity about slr's.

[jbh]

the lens on this camera seems to have some fungus or something on it. looking on ebay for lenses, i find that used pentax mv1's in better condition are selling for not very much money. if i'm going to have to get a new lens for this camera then it seems to make sense to just buy a camera itself on ebay. i guess i'd hoped that this was a fancier slr than it is/was.

this isn't a purely manual slr though--the aperture priority seems to be automated. (camerapedia page.)

i predominantly use the manual mode in my canon a610. i find myself wishing more and more that i had access to a greater range of shutter speeds, aperture settings, and iso speeds--hence the curiosity about slr's.

Although you could of course have the lens cleaned it's really not going to be remotely worth the price.

Bear in mind that older electronically-controlled cameras are unrepairable.

The last totally mechanical Pentax was the K1000; although it has a light meter the shutter is mechanical, pretty much bulletproof and will likely be repairable (usually cleaning and lube) for a while to come. Pentax lenses have always been very good glass.
So...if you want to go for it, I recommend a good clean used K1000 with normal 50mm lens. The old manual-focus lenses are so inexpensive these days there's really no good reason to go with an "alternative brand."

I shoot color neg film, usually have it developed (only) at the local drugstore which runs a clean C-41 line (some don't replenish chemicals etc very often and put crud on film), then scan the negs, mess with 'em in Photoshop and make inkjet prints. It's just about impossible to shoot "real" b&w film these days without having a darkroom.

I buy film from B&H in NYC www.bhphotovideo.com or Calumet www.calumetphoto.com and send larger size film to Dale Lab www.dalelabs.com .

At risk of being labelled a Luddite <g>, I can dig out an 8x10 neg from 35 years ago, scan it and print it or have a "wet" print made, while I can't do anything at all with any of the images on the old 5 1/4 floppies, not that I'd really want to.

Good luck!

-jbh-
formerly John's Camera Shop

[rockdoggydog]

I still have my Canon AE-1 as I hate shooting B&W with digital. I was already invested in lenses so that wasn't much of a concern, but if you are at all interested in moving to a digital SLR then you'll be investing in lenses twice. Used lenses are available but they actually aren't as cheap as you'd think. In fact, in the last year or so, Canon FD series lenses - the ones my AE-1 uses, have actually gone up in price. Converters exist for mounting older lenses on newer cameras but none of them can pass through sensor information as the older lenses have no sensors in the first place.

Rocky