Its something I've always fancied doing and feeling inspired by a friend I want to buy a decent camera to play around and experiment with. I literally know nothing about photography and don't want to absolutly break the bank on something I'm beginning with
What camera should I buy?

Also I want a polaroid. help me?

If you want to shoot film, definately hit ebay for inexpensive SLR cameras. You can get some decent ones for around £20. I've got an Olympus OM-10 that I got on ebay for £22, it's a great camera and there's always lots of them available. You can also get polaroid cameras on there for next to nothing, the film is a wee bit pricey though.
As for learning about photography, just trawling the internet and getting hold of books from the library is a good way to learn the basics, have a look at Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing. I think trial and error is the best way to learn though, just grab your camera and take lots of photos

^^^ What she said. Ebay, Olympus OM10 with Zuiko 50mm lens, should come in about £20 or thereabouts (lookout for cheap "buy it now" ones, lots of awesome deals). Buy film in Poundland (Ferrania Solaris 200) or Tesco own brand - it's great and really cheap.



As for Polaroids, again - check ebay. Go for a 600 system camera, they're pretty much any one made from about the late 80s onwards I think. 600 film is about the only stuff you can still get. It's hellishly expensive though - works out at about £1 per photo you take (10 shot film cartridge costs about £10-11).

Ones that look like this are the best performing, they come in about a million colours/model names, but are all the same camera. I got one off ebay a year or two back for £4.50, and that included the postage:



These ones are still pretty new (were made in the last few years) and are a lot more portable but not as good:

I want to say ditto to the Olympus. I've got an OM-1n that is 30+ yrs old and I prefer it over my Canon Elan7. The only thing you might consider to be a downside is that it's [Olympus] fully manual. I consider that to be a plus... especially for beginners.

You'll have to experiment to see which film you like the best, but I like Kodak Tri-X for black & white film and Fujicolor Superia for color film. I haven't shot film in forever (4 yrs), so things may be a little different when it comes to the film nowadays.

And of course, shooooooot shoooooot shoooooot. Everything and everywhere. I was just thinking this morning that I need to keep my camera with me at all times because you never know when you might see something cool... like I did today... without a camera.

Film cameras are way better for learning the basics. It forces you to either a) think about your shot or b) waste a lot of money until you can no longer afford NOT to think about your shot. I fourth the Olympus.

Might wanna note that the OM10 varies slightly from the OM1 in that it's not fully manual in its standard setup. It shoots Aperture Priority, meaning you have to set the aperture, and it sets an appropriate shutter speed for you based on the film speed you're using. This is quite good, in that it allows you to see what's happening, but without bogging you down with another adjustment to make. Of course, you can also buy a manual adapter to give you full manual capabilites should you so wish, but since buying one, I've very rarely used it.

The OM1 is definitely a far superior camera though, but is a kinda "classic" design, so generally they cost a lot more second hand than the "poor relation" OM10.

The best thing about old Olympus SLRs though, are the Olympus Zuiko lenses. All very very lovely. The "bog standard" 50mm f/1.8 is brilliantly sharp, and I liked the 75-150mm f/4 zoom that I had (Hellish With Relish owns it now).

As for film, if you wanna shoot black and white, I'd recommend starting out with a "cheat" black and white film like Ilford XP2 or Kodak BW400CN. These can be processed by your local tesco/boots/klick/jessops. "Proper" b/w films like HP5/Tri-X/Neopan are really designed more for DIY processing, and very few labs offer this. There's only one place in Glasgow does it, and I think there's one place in Edinburgh maybe still does it but I can't be sure.

Oops, sorry. I forgot you guys are in a different country than me. It's a shame more labs don't offer T-Max developing there. I just love the tones of Tri-X. You could always send it off, I suppose. Oh well, it doesn't really matter for experimentation.

And yes, the lenses for Olympus cameras are ACE. Honestly, if I could afford to keep buying film and have it processed, I still be using that camera. It's THE BEST CAMERA EVER.

I was just wondering, what makes the older model Polaroids better? Because I think what I need in my life right now is more cameras!

In my experience, my P-cam has a slightly sharper lens (it's still no leica), the light meter is a bit more accurate, it has an exposure compensation feature that lets you make pictures lighter or darker to suit certain scenes, and it has a handy wee "macro" lens thing that slides over the lens to let you shoot much closer, allowing stuff like frame-filling portraits. It also allows you to shoot without the flash, which can be handy when shooting outdoors, whereas the flash on the one600 just fires every time, regardless.

But yeah, it's a pain in the arse not having many b/w processors over here. It wasn't a problem when I lived 5 minutes walk from the lab in Glasgow, but now that I'm out in the middle of nowhere it's a nightmare, I have to travel to get my b/w film developed, especially bad as I don't even have a darkroom any more :-( Thankfully my local supermarket has a C-41 machine though, so it's all good for colour film.

loadsa help
thanks alot