The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
Third Party Battery Paranoia
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
Picking Out Vintage Lens Winners
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
Canon sold over a million AE-1’s from 1976-1984.
The FD-mount was discontinued in 1987. All of the lenses available are 30-40 years old. Lens condition is the most important consideration.
The most popular lenses were targeted at consumers that wanted small, lightweight, easy to use, and fun lenses. These are still easy to find today in good condition.
Lenses targeted towards professionals are harder to find, and often significantly more expensive.
The Olympus E-M1, the original from 2013, uses SD memory cards. It is compatible with memory cards up to 2TB in capacity.
Any card with UHS-I will be more than fast enough to handle recording video. It will have the best compatibility with other cameras and devices.
There’s almost no price difference between 64GB and 128GB cards. Both of those are more than large enough for most needs.
Don’t overpay for an SD card because it promises to shoot fireballs in holographic text.
The Olympus OM-1 originally used a 1.35V MR-9 mercury battery, which has been banned.
Mercury is terrible for the environment. If you have a mercury battery that was left in the camera, please dispose of it properly.
There are three types of batteries that can be used as replacement. Each has trade offs.
Battery Type Voltage Stability Availability Zinc-air 1.35V High Limited Silver oxide 1.5V High High Alkaline 1.5V Moderate High There are 386/SR43W silver oxide battery to MR-9 adapters available.
The Nikon D3500 uses SD memory cards. It is compatible with memory cards up to 2TB in capacity.
In order to record video, get a card with a Class 10 speed rating. I suggest getting a card with UHS-I, as those cards are way faster than Class 10. They will have compatibility with as many cameras and devices as possible.
A 64GB SD card will be plenty of storage for most needs.
The Nikon D3200 uses SD memory cards. It is compatible with memory cards up to 2TB in capacity.
In order to record video, get a card with a Class 10 speed rating. I suggest getting a card with UHS-I, as those cards are way faster than Class 10. They will have compatibility with as many cameras and devices as possible.
A 64GB SD card will be plenty of storage for most needs.
The Nikon D3100 uses SD memory cards. It is compatible with memory cards up to 2TB in capacity.
In order to record video, get a card with a Class 10 speed rating. I suggest getting a card with UHS-I, as those cards are way faster than Class 10. They will have compatibility with as many cameras and devices as possible.
A 64GB SD card will be plenty of storage for most needs.
