You’ve all heard the maxim : “The best camera is the one you have with you.” - but I’ve always liked to reply to people who ask me - “Do you always carry a camera?” : “Its hard to take a photo if you don’t have a camera with you.” - and part of that is my belief that despite the camera that most people have with them : phone cameras - there are still yet better cameras that you can carry with you to make better photographs. Cameras that have more resolution (yes it does matter, and no your phone camera does NOT take 48megapixel photos) and that have options with lenses.
Like most things in life a system is a set of compromises and trade offs, even the basics of a camera itself are a trade off between ISO, Shutter Speed and Apeture. With digital cameras there are trade offs in size of the sensor, size of the body, mirror or mirrorless, fixed lens or removable lenses and other factors that impact frames per second you can shoot, like the camera’s internal memory buffer and the write speed of the SD cards you use. But…..
Sometimes in this digital age of immediacy it is nice to slow things down and using the analog antecedents : film and film cameras. They force you to slow down and teach you things about the various balancing trade offs in photography - when you only have 24 or 36 photos you can take - it makes you stop and consider things more. Joe Grant, has been one of my inspirations about shooting film. He has written about this in 2018 on iRunFar.
I needed to learn how to look, to observe, to pay attention to a scene, emphasizing the importance of composition. … I needed to practice… [to] … spend time learning the craft, underlining the value of the process.
I also been inspired by Seth always carrying a film camera on our adventures. I once did the Foss Lakes Traverse with just a film camera as my main camera. And have an idea banging around in my head to shoot a trail race entirely on film. I’ve been buying some (more) old film cameras from eBay and when I mentioned my film race idea to Ryan Thrower, he said he plans to shoot a roll a day on Mammoth this year and he asked for some advice on what film camera to use.
So…. here is my take and advice.
First of all decide between fixed lens point and shoot or standard film camera with removable lenses. Assuming you don’t want to really get into the range finder era, and stick with standard 35MM - I think the lightest and best option is the Olympus OM-2 - which has an aperture priority mode - and you could put on a 50mm f/1.8 or a 35mm f/2.8 - but then you have to focus and your not really getting something that is pocketable.
Here is an Olympus OM-2 with a 50M f/1.8. They run around $200-300 on eBay.
There are other “famous” brands in this same category - Nikon and Canon and Pentax and Minolta but they all are larger.
Then you have a myriad of true point and shoots. I think this what you want because this is truly “pocketable” - its a fixed lens with auto focus. Here are 3 that I own.
Pentax PC35 - 35mm f/2.8 - they run about $120-150 on eBay.
This is a Minolta TC-1 28mm f/3.5 - they run about $900-1100 on eBay
And finally my personal favorite the Olympus StylusEpic DLX 35mm f/2.8 which runs about $250-350 on eBay.
It’s teeny bit longer that the Minolta - but is thinner (and less expensive) and due to its shape seems to slide in and out of my pocket better, and the manual slide open feels a bit more robust that the beautiful magical electronic shutter on the Minolta.
The other two things to consider are, you really want a “slide open shutter” - nothing with a lens cap - as that is just gonna get lost and risk getting your lens dirty. And finally remember there is a lot of moisture when running - water from the elements, sweat from exertion - so you want to have a way to keep the camera dry. I have the original soft case for the Olympus and then keep it in ziploc.
Here are a few more pics from that day in the Alpine Lakes :
