Every beginner asks the same question before getting into film: which camera should I buy? It is the wrong question. The camera is the cheap part. A used Pentax K1000 or Canon AE-1 runs about $90, once. The film habit is what actually costs money.
Here is the math almost no beginner guide shows you: a roll of film is $10-15, developing and scanning is another $8-20, and at a roll a month that is roughly $360 a year. Somewhere between 50 cents and $1.30 per photo. The body is a one-time $90. The film is forever.
Which is also why the hyped point-and-shoots are a trap. A Contax T2 got celebrity-hyped to $1000+, but it is aging electronics that cannot be repaired when they die. A $90 mechanical SLR shoots just as well and you can fix it. Spend less on the body, shoot more rolls. That is the whole secret.
I wrote up the honest cost breakdown, which cameras to actually buy, and a 7-point checklist for not getting burned on a used camera, over at Better Photos Guide.










