Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi This may already have been done to death but I think that if the child is keen to get into photography one would really be better off with a manual camera. My first camera was a kodak box camera when I was about 7 or 8. It was disappointing because the lens was pretty bad but it gave me the chance to develop my own films in the darkroom. My next camera, about a year later, was a Yashica twin lens together with a little sekonic lightmeter. I had such fun with that camera and by the age of 11 or 12 I was doing all my own monochrome darkroom work and really fell in love with the darkroom experience. By that stage I already understood F stops and speeds, was pushing film and trying out all sorts of things. Some kids thought my all-manual "ancient" camera was quite amusing until I won all the school photo competitions and then a couple of them went out to find a similar camera for themselves!!! I really think that at this stage in the developmetn of photography a manual 35 mm camera is the way to go. Good user Nikons are quite cheap, early Olympus OM series even cheaper and the quality of the second-hand optics for both series is quite staggering considering how little they cost. Just my 2 cents Harold