Cameras and lenses list by price from Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Minolta, Sony, Panasonic, Leica, and Pentax — Buying is the fun part.

We’re In the Golden Age of Digital Photography

Image quality at base ISO has not meaningfully improved since 2008-2013. DSLRs are fun to use. Despite the marketing, new tech doesn’t change that.

Manufacturers have made large improvements in video features, resolution, and image quality. Around 2016 is when good quality 4k at 30fps became widely available in consumer cameras.

The shift from DSLRs to mirrorless has resulted in a selloff of Canon EOS EF and Nikon F cameras and lenses. It is possible to get absolutely obscene price to performance value on used gear. Lens adapters make it possible to use these lenses on mirrorless cameras.

Used Camera Gear Shopping

If you’re looking for your first dedicated camera, it rarely makes sense to buy new. Spening thousands of dollars on new gear doesn’t mean you’ll actually like using it. My two recommendations for camera shopping are:

Don’t discount the importance of size and weight. Smaller and lighter is better.
Think about the lenses you’ll want. Don’t spend your entire budget on a camera body to get stuck with a kit lens.

Just like all new tech, camera gear quickly depreciates. Last year’s best in class camera is often this year’s 50% off used deal. That doesn’t even mean it is worth buying because until you have experience, you don’t know what camera features are actually important to you.

The difficulty in finding deals is that there are hundreds of different camera models. Dozens of them might fit your needs. To make your life easier, I’ve been going through series of models to create used buying guides.

Used Camera Price Lists

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.

Camera Batteries

Have you ever been paranoid about the capacity of a battery? Especially if it was from a third party? I was.

I have figured out how ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. I have written a guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires a screwdriver and pair of wire strippers.

How to Rewind and Remove Film From the Nikon N70 (F70)

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-14

The Nikon N70 (F70) needs power from 2x CR123A batteries in order to rewind a roll of film. Two film rewind rewind buttons need to be pressed to rewind a roll of film. This can be done to rewind a roll of film before all the exposures have been taken. The Nikon N70 needs to have two CR123A batteries to be able to rewind the film. How to Rewind FilmTime needed: 1 minute.

Trio 3D Camera. The camera has three lenses which will produce 3 pictures that can be used to make 3D gifs or 3 dimensional lenticular prints.

ImageTech Trio 3D Camera [35mm Film]

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-14

While the 3D Trio camera does not have any mention of ImageTech, the same person or people were likely behind the company. The company listed on the camera box is 3D Image Technology Inc. When comparing the camera packaging to earlier ImageTech cameras, they look very similar with only minor changes. Camera History 3D Trio 3 Lenses The design of the camera is similar to the three others released under the ImageTech brand, the ImageTech 3D fx, 3D Wizard, and 3D1000.

Here are the top 5 best Minolta SRT 101 lenses with budget alternatives. Get a great MD mount lens for your SR-T 101 SLR camera.

The 5 Best Minolta SR-T 101 Lenses for Photographers

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-14

The Minolta SRT 101 is a classic camera that is a pleasure to use with a great lens. What makes it notable is that it was one of the first 35mm film cameras designed with full aperture TTL metering. It is likely the best-known camera in the Minolta SRT SLR (single lens reflex) camera lineup. The 5 best lenses for the Minolta SR-T 101 mainly depends on price. For every type of focal length there will be alternative lenses at different price points.

Kalimar 3D camera is the same as the ImageTech 3D fx. They are both 35mm film cameras that were originally used for making 3-dimensional lenticular prints.

Everything You NEED to Know About the Kalimar 3D Camera (35mm Film)

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-13

The Kalimar 3D camera is a vintage 3 lens stereo camera. With 3 lenses, the series of pictures produced by the camera would have been used to make lenticular prints, which would have a 3D effect without the need of wearing glasses or using a 3D stereo viewer. The ImageTech 3D fx appears to be the same camera with a different paint job. This would make sense because the Kalimar 3D Wizard looks exactly the same as the ImageTech 3D Wizard.

A 1980's wonder, the Nishika N8000 has quadrascopic lens design featuring four lenses. The four images captured by the camera on 35mm film an be used to make 3D images or animated GIFs.

The Famous Nishika N8000 3D Film Camera

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-13

The Nishika N8000 is a quadrascopic stereo 3D lenticular camera. That is a long way of saying that it has 4 lenses. Can use color or black and white 35mm film Uses 2x AA batteries (not required) Capturing a scene with four slightly different perspectives makes it possible to create “3D” lenticular prints. Lenticular prints were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s. Moving the print will change the image, creating a “3D” effect.

How to Load Film into the Canon AE-1

Nathaniel Stephan published on 2022-11-01

Need to know how to load film into your Canon AE-1? No problem, this guide will make sure that you are successful. Every step will be covered with a few tips and tricks along the way. Before You Load Film Check the BatteryMake sure the battery is not dead. You will need to be able to operate the shutter. If you do not have a battery, you will need LR44 batteries .