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[OM] What to reccomend: beginners camera?

Subject: [OM] What to reccomend: beginners camera?
From: T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 02:14:33 +0200 (CEST)
Hi all,

A young member of the extended family recently asked me if I could teach
him a bit about making "good pictures" - including everything from the
camera to the darkroom - and at the same time assist him in finding a good
beginners camera.

Now, the techniques I may be able to pass on, but I do not have creativity
in excess (I barely have enough for myself) - so on that side he'll have
to find his own. And as for assisting in finding _the_ good beginners
camera, I turn to the list for oracle-advice ;)

He stressed that he did not want a "wonderbrick" - for amongst other
reasons that they are expensive to buy & maintain and also that they are
"too automatic". He also stressed that he wanted a single lens reflex
camera. Luckilly, this leaves the selection of OM's for him to choose
from, but what would be the best start? I do possess (and treasure) a wide
selection of OM-bodies, however the only one I could imagine parting from
on a permanent basis is the OM30 - not exactly what I would reccomend
myself for someone to "learn the basics" (imho it is a bad camera that I
only rarely use).

I had envisioned something along the lines of an OM1 or OM2n - being
fairly cheap (I suppose), durable, available and offer full manual control
with a decent viewfinder image. I'd lean towards reccomending the OM2n
myself - on the basis that it may be usefull as a "point-and-shoot" device
in auto-mode also - plus that I think it integrates better with the
T-series  flash, which I suspect he will get to use at some point or
another.

So off the top of my head I would try to go help him find an OM2n with a
shoe 3 or 4, a T20 flash (or something equivalent) and some zuiko-glass
(or I could just hand him an excess 50/1.8 for starters?). 

Does this sound like a reasonable kit? I'd rather stay with the
single-digit series than going into the OM10/20/30/40: I am under the
impression that the single-digits age better (to put it nicely) and I
find the viewfinder information to be more usefull when in manual mode.

Also, what would be a reasonable price for him to expect to pay for
such? My own OM2n was bought as new for a small fortune ages ago (and is
being overhauled atm, btw) and I have no idea what a good 2nd hand body
would be like, let alone what a T20 (or T32) might cost these days?

Any comments (also those saying that I am mistaken in my
reccomendations) are most welcome.

Thanks in advance

--thomas


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