Canon Canonet QL-17 GIII

This slick little rangefinder is "findable" and popular for its nice 45mm f/1.7 lens, good looks, auto exposure, and its light quiet and compact nature. The QL-17 GIII is probably the most popular japanese rangefinder except for the Nikon rangefinders, which are way expensive. The only real problem with this one is the lens is not detachable. Also the light meter is a bit over-sensitive with the newer 625A 1.5v alkaline batteries. I tried shooting on a sunny day with 800 (it was already in the camera) and it was a total pain in the ass. Now I realize I could've pushed the film by adjusting the ASA knob like it was an exposure compensation control like on the Pentax ME Super. In completely unfair comparision (besides price), I'd go for the ME Super because it's also small, light and has auto exposure but it's an SLR (a plus) and it has interchangeable excellent lenses. The Canonet is basically a really nice point and shoot. The QL-17 GIII is the only valuable version of Canonets (the QL-19 to a lesser degree), partly because it's the best of them, but also because it was popularized by the movie "Pecker". As far as cool 35mm rangefinders go, I'd have to say my Kodak Retina IIa is a lot cooler because it folds and because of the Schneider lens which is crisp and takes wonderful pictures.

Canon AE-1, AT-1 etc.

The Canon AE-1 is a very popular camera, maybe just because the Canon logo is pretty cute looking. Personally I think it's a pretty good camera. The AE-1 is your typical full featured SLR from the 70s but what sets it apart is having an auto aperture mode which is unusual because it is an unnatural auto mode. Usually cameras only have auto aperture (shutter priority) if they also have aperture priority. One of the main benefits of this camera is the extremely available and high quality Canon FD mount lenses. There are a couple of downsides. The camera cannot be cocked without batteries, which is an annoyance in itself. This is also a problem because you can find them often at thrift stores and flea markets and you want to be able to check the shutter and shutter bearing which becomes ovoid over time and the camera becomes trash. This happened to a friend's AE-1 that used to belong to her friend. So if you find one, you basically don't know if it works unless you bring a battery. I prefer the AT-1 version of this camera which doesn't have the shutter priority mode and has "match needle" guages for the light meter instead of LEDs. For a camera that goes for about $80 on ebay with a standard 50mm f/1.8 lens, it wouldn't be my first choice in that price range. In the under $100 category, there are a lot of excellent options; such as the Miranda EE Sensorex (auto) with a few good miranda lenses, the Canon Canonet QL-17 GIII rangefinder, maybe a Pentax ME Super with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, or a Kodak Retina IIa folder rangefinder with a light meter and a Schneider f/2 lens.

Olympus OM-1

The Olympus OM-1 is a small, cute, and a bit quirky but similar to any 70s manual SLR. I always grab them when I see them as they are good for 60-150 depending on the condition, color (black being more) and lenses, preferably the Olympus Zuiko OM-System matching lenses. Benefits of this camera are being light and handsome, having mirror lockup and easy double exposure, and having a f/1.4 50mm lens that has a very short depth of field - the shortest I've experienced of this length and fstop but close to the Pentax (the Nikon is closer to the Miranda). Downsides are it's hard to find lenses at thrift stores (you basically only find lenses on the camera or in a bag with it) and the foam around the prism likes to degrade over time and take the prism with it creating green bubbly stains on the reflective surface of the prism. I also don't like replacing the mirror dampening pad because it is two tiny L shaped pieces of foam, much different than the straight and easy bar of the Canon AE-1. Overall good features, affordable, a little lacking in the lenses, very portable. I would recommend this as an adventure with friends camera because of it's features and low profile that won't restrain your rabid vividness

Pentax MV-1, ME Super and Pentax KM

Here are a few of my favorite Pentax SLRs under $50. The MV-1 is cool because it's dirt cheap, has a corny red-green light instead of a real meter, and will have the shutter open as long as necessary for proper expose. No settings, just set the aperture. Very light and compact and takes excellent pictures with that 50mm f/1.4 lens I keep talking about. This is a fun camera for night pictures because you don't have to fiddle with anything but aperture and focus


Another favorite is the Pentax ME-Super which came out around the same time as the MV-1 but has much fuller features including a top shutter speed of 2000 (better than the MV-1 for daylight photography with a fast lens) and shutter and aperture priority. But still no aperture priority - really the only downside of this full featured, light, compact and nice looking camera.


The Pentax KM is like the K1000 with a self timer and an aperture preview (FINALLY). It's basically a Nikkormat/Nikomat FTn but in K mount (I'll get to the Nikkormats later). Also under $50 for this gem which is about half the price of the less-abled K1000.


A shoutout to the Pentax LX for being sexy. Too bad you won't find this one under $50

Asahi Pentax K1000, Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic, and other Pentax mount SLRs

I came across a Pentax K1000 camera at a thrift store near my college house, and thought it was the spitting image of the classic SLR with simple yet elegant lines. I shot a roll with it and I didn't care for it because it had a lot less features than my Miranda Sensorex (I couldn't get over the missing aperture preview!) and it took a lot more straight forward and boring pictures. It had the slight warmth of film but without the intensity of the Miranda's color. The Pentax K bayonet mount, however, has some impressive offerings and can be used on 60s SLRs as well as new Pentax dSLRs! I really love the SMC Pentax f/1.4. It is crystal clear, very fast, and has wonderful bright colors! Some of the best photos on here were taken with that lens. The Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic has the 42mm "M42" thread mount is also very common and has many of the same lenses available. The M42 lenses also are used on the manual Sears and Mamiya/Sekor cameras, like the cool Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL which was the first camera to have spot and average metering which was impressive for the time. Unfortunately, the meters are often broken in these now. An extra cool lens for the m42 mount is the Sears 50mm f/1.4 which competes very favorably to the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 which is 4x the price (but still pretty cheap at about $80+ used).

Miranda Sensorex

The lovely Miranda Sensorex is responsible for getting me into photography. I had always been interested in a fully manual SLR but I never really knew anything about getting one or ever got around to it. Then while hitting some garage sales with my friend Alexis, I came across a lovely Miranda Sensorex from Japan (1967). This camera is built like a tank and is still working great! The color inaccuracy, combined with strange settings in my inexperienced hands, along with encouragement from my friend Ethan, helped me dive right into the world of photography with exciting results! The Miranda, although little known today, was actually a pro-sumer model of it's day with more features than many other classic cameras that became more popular. It had average features like match needle metering and B-1000 shutter speeds, but had other bonus features like aperture preview (missing on the classic Pentax K1000 and Spotmatic), a self timer (also missing on the Pentaxes) and a removable prism with 9 different viewfinder options! The lenses for the Mirada bayonet mount are definitely decent as well, characterized by their especially warm colors. Some med. fast lenses were offered, such as the 50mm f/1.4 and the 135mm f/2.5, but don't expect the 50mm f/1.4 lense to actually be as fast as, say, an SMC Pentax 50mm f/1.4. All in all it's a great system, and wonderful examples of Miranda cameras with fast lenses can be had for $25-40 dollars, which makes it MY NOMINATION FOR BEST CLASSIC SLR UNDER $50! Almost all of the pictures posted before 11/06/08 were taken with the Miranda... it's only recently that I've started to actually want to use other cameras outside of just a test roll which usually just made me want to go back to my Miranda