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Re: [pct-l] Lightweight SLR cameras?

At 12:08 PM 3/13/98 PST, Ken Marlow wrote:
>I've been using standard (and lightweight) instamatic style cameras, the 
>past few years, in an effort to reduce pack weight. I've been generally 
>disatisfied with the pictures though. They never had the clarity of those 
>taken with my old SLR. Any ideas out there for a lightweight SLR. I'm 
>narrowing my search to a fully manual camera. It's my understanding that 
>there is less electronics to fail, less battery drain and are more 
>dependable in colder weather. 

Ken,

Looking at your organization, I'm guessing you probably know a lot more
about photography and photo equipment than I do, but here's my two cents
worth anyway.

You might look at an old Olympus or Pentax MX.  The MX (I have one) with
the 40mm F2.8 lens is remarkably small, but still weighs a LOT more than a
little point and shoot.  I wonder if you can even find a fully manual SLR
anymore!

Another camera that people seem to swear by (I've never used one) is the
Olympus XA.  This is NOT an SLR, but had a very good lens.  You would only
find it used... and apparently you want the original XA.  There were
several later models that are supposedly inferior (they were cutting costs).

If I was to buy another camera though, I'd probably get the new Olympus
Stylus Epic or the Yashica T4.  Both are fully automatic 35mm cameras with
quite fast and very sharp (F3.5 for the Yashica, F2.8 for the Olympus)
fixed focal length lenses.  Both are "weatherproof" (whatever that means).
Best of all they are very light... the Olympus weighs under 5 oz.

So, if you don't need multiple lenses or a zoom, you might take a look at
one of those two.  You could carry a whole pocketfull of spare batteries
and still come out ahead ounce wise.

As a disclaimer, I researched these cameras a bit.  I haven't used them, so
can't say definitively how well they work.  My current trail camera is a
Canon ELF (an APS camera).  It takes nice snapshots (which is what I bought
it for), but I'm not really happy with the support Kodak has been giving
APS.  Processing is still expensive, and services (like Photo CD) were late
in coming and overpriced.  Still, the ELF is probably the cutest camera on
the market!

Good luck.

-- Jim Mayer

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