First AF Camera FAQ Bo-Ming Tong (bmtong@cs.arizona.edu) Version 1.02 Febuary 15,95 I have discontinued this FAQ and will not work on it any more. It will never be posted to rec.photo.* again and never be updated. 1 THE QUESTION One of the most frequently asked question in rec.photo.* is which camera I should buy as my first camera. Most often the beginner is considering the following choices: US model International Model Canon Rebel XS EOS 500 Rebel II EOS 1000N Minolta 400si 500si/303si Nikon N50 F50 All the above are bottom-of-the-line cameras targeted towards the point- n-shoot market and you'll soon outgrow them and want something better. Of course, if you have enough money, you may consider the following models: US model International Model Canon A2E EOS 5 A2 - Minolta 700si 700si 9xi 9xi Nikon N70 F70 N90s F90X N8008s F801s But they aren't cheap. Is there anything which is both inexpensive and good ? 2 THE ANSWER Yes, you may take a look on the old, discontinued models. If you are patient enough, you can find them new somewhere or find them used. They are usually once the top-of-the-line flagship camera, but now they might be as cheap as the bottom-of-the-line even when new. Some suggestions follows. Minolta 9000 I put this camera in the first place because it is a top-of-the-line model intended for *professionals*. It is robustly constructed with metal and has a vast array of accessories. It is one of the very few cameras with 1/250 flash sync. Uses 2 AA batteries, no expensive and hard to find lithiums. You'll have to advance film manually or buy a motor drive or winder which is attached to the bottom of the camera. Operation is simple and straight forward, but does not offer much automation. As such it is most suitable for the really serious photographer. You'll never outgrow it. It's a cult camera and the favourite of the Minolta mailing list. Disadvantage: slow autofocus. Used: around $300. Minolta 8000i Almost as good as a 9000, with modern AF which is adequate for normal uses. Canon EOS 630 Once top-of-the-line, the EOS 630 is said to be closer to EOS-1 than any other EOS camera (except the new flagship EOS-1n, which is well over $1000, of course). Fatal drawback: extremely difficult to use manual mode. Used: approx $250-300 Canon EOS 10s New EOS 10s are still available around $330. You may want to see a detailed comparison between 10, 630 and Elan (100) in the Canon EOS FAQ. Nikon N6006 (F601) Unfortunately, discontinued Nikon models have almost as high a price tag as current onces. N6006 is still current as of 10/31/94, but it will be replaced by N70. Personally I would not spend money on gimzos which increase cost without increasing useability, so I would choose N6006 over N50 or even N70 any day. 3 NO INTERNAL FLASH ? Most of the abovementioned models lack internal flashes, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage. Internal flashes drain expensive lithiums quickly and give rise to "red eye". Consult the rec.photo FAQ for what "red-eye" is. Most people have the misconception that an external flash is very expensive and cost as much as the camera itself, but you need not buy the manufacturer's top model flash. Usually, a third party TTL flash will do just as fine. To be sure you lose some features (like auto zoom head), but some day if you get serious enough about photography you'll find that the extra features are not as important as you have thought and you'll actually prefer the simpler user-interface of an inexpensive flash than the too high- tech and too difficult-to-use user interface of the $300 manufacturer's flash unit. Anyway, $80 will buy you a very powerful 3rd party flash with TTL capability (which IMO is the only important feature you'll ever need) and it does not take too long for the savings in lithium batteries to cover the cost of the flash itself. 4 OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION If you have any questions try to find the answer in the FAQs first, before asking in rec.photo.help. The other FAQs associated with rec.photo.* are in the following two ftp sites. ftp://moink.nmsu.edu/rec.photo ftp://relay.cs.toronto.edu/pub/acs/rec.photo There you'll find rec.photo.FAQ, Canon EOS FAQ, Camera Feature List, Mail Order Survey, Nikon FAQ, Zuiko (Olympus) Lens Tests, etc, far too numerous to be listed here. If you do not find the answer in the above FAQs, feel free to post your question in rec.photo.help. We would be very happy to help.