Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

Many (many) years ago I owned several film slr's Konica, Canon, Minolta. I honestly don't remember much about them. I did a lot of my own B&W processing. Being a bio major i had access to dark rooms at the university.
Now I am thinking about dabbling in film processing again since I have the room and time. And, I love B&W.
Lots of cameras out there. I currently own Nikon DSLR's, 3300 and 7000.
I think with some Fotodiox adapters I could attach my lenses to a Canon (and other film cameras)
What, in your collective wisdom and experience are good film cameras that might fulfill my current needs.
Probably will be shooting architecture, buildings, cemeteries, ghosts.
Thanks

IShootEverything Loc: TN

I LOVE my Minolta XE-7

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAe6NRdIPIw

Hope this helps.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

My philosophy is , if you are going to the expense and time of "dabbling" in film, make it worth your while and at least use 120 film based camera. My recommendation would be the Pentax 645 SLR - which is quite cheap these days ( and so are some of the lenses).

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Jim, If you have Nikon lenses and want to dabble in film use those lenses on a Nikon FM2 that you can get on Ebay for about $200.

If you are serious about dabbling in B&W consider a Rolleicord. I started in 35MM B&W and when I went into a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 (Rolleicord Format)
The Rollei comes with a Xenar 75mm f3.5 lens. My 2 cents.

jsharp Loc: Ballwin MO.

Still have my Canon AE-1, Pentax ME-super and K-1000. But wish I still had my Zenith-B

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

The Nikon FM and FM2 are nice options. They still sell for $200-$300 here in my city. Advantage to Nikon for maintaining the F-Mount

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I tend to agree. Don't overlook the Fujis with fixed lenses. I have a GSW645 rangefinder. Lens is equivalent to 28mm and makes a fine landscape option. It weighs less than my DSLR w/o lens.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

If money is no object, according to K. Rockwell, the Mamiya 6 and Mamiya 7 rangefinders are the best cameras on the planet.

I also like and use the Fuji RF's in both 645 and 6X9.

Bear2 Loc: Southeast,, MI

I currently own a new D7200, and a D7000, but my favorite camera was my N8008 film camera with Kodachrome 64. Maybe because I was younger and did more things and went more places than I do now.

Love the images my new D7200 captures.
Duane

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Oh, I would love to have either of those Mamiyas. My film budget is limited.

;-)

Quixdraw Loc: x

Geez -- there are lots of good F2s and F3s as well as vintage lenses out there for cheap -- why use an Am Cam? Go first class. As to mid format 2 1/4 is great, I do love it, but it is "roll your own" or pay high for processing. Retro also -- Walgreens will develop C 41 (Ilford XP 2) 35mm and digitize. If nothing else, a good self check on commitment. Have lots of fun!

blackest Loc: Ireland

It kind of depends on your lenses which film body you want to go for.
I Have a K1000 Pentax and because I wanted a digital back, I bought a k200d, which takes the same lenses, all my lenses that I have in K mount with the exception of my da 18-55 will work on the k1000 (it has no aperture ring and is designed for aps-c) I also have m42 lenses which can be mounted on either using the same adapter.

I also have a 1D mark II Pentax manual lenses adapt to that with a canon ef adapter but I had to mod a 1.5 Pentax teleconverter to avoid having the metal arm on the back contact the mirror. I have one m42 lens which the rear element can contact the mirror so with the pentax m42 adapter it fits the teleconverter too.

I also have a couple of eos EF lenses the latest of which came with a canon 600 (not D600) film camera. I paid about 35 euro essentially for the lens but I now have a film body which was pretty expensive in its day, and because it is eos film all i need is a 2cr5 battery and it's back in service with as many lens options as the 1D :)

I also have m43 lumix g5 and 2 adapters a tilt with canon eos bayonet fit and a straight k mount. Most lenses I have fit that in manual along with its native 14-42 and a 35mm 1.7 cctv lens (stopless 25 euro new).

So I have a pretty large array of lenses which fit a number of bodies and an array of crop factors m43 is 2x 1x for the film bodies 1.5 for the K200D, and 1.3 for the 1D. plus 1.5x and 2x teleconverters.

So for the fully manual film experience I can go for the Pentax K1000 and for the more modern AF experience I can use the canon 600, probably, I need to buy a battery to test the body I only got that Monday.

incidentally flash I have a pair of yongnou radio triggers designed for canon but work with Pentax I modded 1 to trigger on the g5 so the g5 mod one goes on the m43 body to work the g5 and the standard triggers the flash or I use the g5 modded one for the remote flash and the std for canon and pentax :) fun isn't it.

If I was in your situation already owning Nikon lenses and wanting to use film, I'd be looking for a late Nikon film body that can use your existing Nikon lenses, especially if any are full frame. Any lenses that you buy for a Nikon film body should work on your digital Nikon too.

So you really should be able to scratch that film itch for next to no money while being able to expand your digital options.

I think your current bodies are aps-c so if they have dx lenses they probably will not work well with film due to the size of the image circle.

Photocraig

I like this approach as a start. The Chromogenic films like the Ilford and a couple of Kodak's as well are a great way to get that film look with reasonable processing yielding real negatives as well as a disk with Jpegs.

As far as the cameras go, I love my FM2 but the FE has aperture and shutter priority automation and exposure compensating which might make it more like a modern DSLR experience--since the FM2 is all manual. If you need the auto focus, find an 8008 and you'll preserve your lens inventory and get the automation of the FE. Prices are really good. Adorama, B&H and KEH as well as your local camera store and repair shops should be good places to look.

If you find that you like the film experience, then branch out to medium format. The larger negative really does improve your print quality tremendously. If I still had my Darkroom I'd be all over the great prices for really nice Medium format cameras.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Don't screw around with the old amateur cameras.
Get a Canon EOS 1 through V on eBay and it will use all your modern EOS lenses and shoot almost like a 1Dx!!
Have fun and good luck!! ;-)
SS

corryhully Loc: liverpool uk

there are some absolute bargains to be had in the film camera world. most of the ones already mentioned i now own, but then i am a greedy sod ;) the pentax 645 and fuji medium formats are excellent and are going for silly money.