what is the difference b/t a 35mm SLR, Rangefinder, and Point and Shoot?

Question

I love taking pictures but i know very little about cameras.. i am hoping to buy a 35mm camera, but i want to know all the facts about them before I buy.

Answer 1

I practice photography only as a hobby. Perhaps a pro or semi-pro photographer can come along and give you a better answer.

35mm refers to the film negative size. Film negatives use to vary quite a bit but then 35mm became the standard. The larger the negative, the more you could enlarge the image without graniness occuring. 35mm seem to offer the best compromise. It may also have to do with lens focal lengths and such. If you are going to swap lens as with an SLR or rangefinder camera, 35mm offered a standard value to design the lenses around.

SLR = single lens reflex. A mirror pops up when the picture is taken to expose the film.

Range finder: No mirror

See this website to understand the mechanism: http://www.photozone.de/3Technology/camtec2.htm

Point-and-shoot refers to automated cameras that control the shutter, f-stop (aperature) and focus. You just point and shoot. If you want to get into photography, these cameras may not offer too much in the way of controling exposures.

I use a Nikon D-70s with a Nikor 18-200 VR lens. This is a digital camera system. Digital SLR systems can have dust on the sensor problems but the 18-200 lens is such a great all-around lens, you rarely change it and reduce the chance of dust getting into the camera. Most photography is digital except for professional work I would think. This past weekend I shot 250 pictures at a friends wedding. Of that I got maybe 20 that were really nice pictures. Had I used film, I would have had to reload 10 rolls of film and spend perhaps $75 developing and processing. As it is, I'll give them a CD with all the images and they can do what they want with them. Cost 50 cents.

If you get into this, digital is the way to learn. You can learn more about digital cameras and such at dpreview.com. The fact that you are on a computer to ask your question tells me you already have half of what you need to get into digital photography, your digital darkroom. With the computer you can enhance, crop and do all kinds of post-image processing that you would need to spend thousands on in film photography.

You can get a really nice digital camera for $350. SLR digital cameras will be more depending on your lens. My d-70 is valued at $450 and the lens is $900. It's a lot but to me it is well worth it.

Hope all this helps a little. Have fun! Feel free to email me if you want to talk more about it.

Answer 2

With a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera you see exactly what the lens sees since you are actually looking through the lens. You also have interchangeable lenses for creative control.

With a rangefinder, you're looking at the scene through a "window" that's above and to the side of the lens. This doesn't pose a problem unless you want to do close ups. Then you encounter "parallax error" which means you and the lens are looking at different parts of the scene. Very few rangefinder cameras offer interchangeable lenses.

A "point and shoot" is just that. You have little or no control.

You might consider the MINOLTA X-700 35mm film camera. It offers 3 modes of operation:

Program (P) Mode. Requires MINOLTA MD series lenses. Set it here and the camera chooses an aperture (f-stop) and shutter speed. All you do is compose, focus and press the shutter release.

Aperture Preferred (A) Mode. here you set the f-stop and the camera selects the correct shutter speed.

Manual Mode. You set both shutter speed and f-stop.

The X-700 accepts a true Motor Drive, the MD-1, which allows you to shoot 1, 2 or 3.5 frames per second. It also has Off Film Flash Metering (TTL*) with dedicated flash units such as the MINOLTA 360PX, 320PX, 280PX and the AUTO-MACRO 80PX. Set your X-700 to A mode and the flash to TTL and it sets the shutter speed. You then select a f-stop of your liking and the camera will turn the flash off when sufficient light has struck the film. this is a great feature when using bounce flash or if you need a lot of depth of field.

* Yes, MINOLTA invented this back in the late 1970's. Its now used on most all advanced digital cameras.