Err.. I don't need a very long memory, there's one within arms reach as I type!
Have look over on: -
[URL='https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/talk-film-conventional.56/']Talk Film & Conventional[/url]
On of the more common manual focus film cameras, they were pretty point and press friendly and offered SLR's to the entry level in their day. Still a great device for getting 'in' to film photography;
They have the classic look and feel of a manual focus film camera and enough 'easements' not to make the job too daunting.
As AF came in in the early 90's they were ultra cheap in the 2nd hand shops; that f1.8 Zoiko is however now rather sought after by the adapter brigade, that pushes the price of these up to maybe £50 terratory; but the 'classic' cudos of the single digit OM's doesn't beg much bigger spend. Avoid over inflated prices for examples with the manual adaptor; using the AE to advantage and using compensation on the ASA dial oft gives you much more refined 'control', but unfortunately no option to 'exposure lock'.Stuck mirrors are usually flat batteries.
Plenty of films still available, but trending at around a fiver a roll for the popular emulsions. Pound-Land used and occasionally still stock Agfa Vista 24exp for a quid, which is oft recommended, start place. Plenty of out-of-date or alternative budget films around in the inbetweeie prices.
Remember though you will need to plan on Develop & print or scan. Home Dev is a whole alternative adventure, and not too daunting to get into; you basically need a chemicals kit, a dev-tank, and a possibly improvised changing/loading bag, and a bit of kitchen space ear the sink. You can kit up for home dev for maybe £50 with a bit of cloths-peg and sticky tape improvisation. including a chemkit to do maybe 20 rolls of C41 colour print film, or more B&W. Home printing is another matter altogether, but direct-to-digital via a scanner, may be the answer with cheap web-cam-scan devces startng from aybe £20 on e-bay, and often 'good-enough''. Higher end scanners are better but slower and oft start getting expensive.
Some high-street mini-labs still in operation, and some ASDA stores will D&P a roll for about a fiver, A couple of quid for Dev & Scan or maybe just a quid to dev only for home scan.
Mail order labs, these days seem to have lost the tru-print mass market outfits, so tend to be in the higher price orders, for better quality job.
All in, you can get a heck of a lot of camera for your money, and for not a lot of money.... but shoot like widgetal and start ramping the 'shutter actuations'.. can get pretty pricey pretty quick!
That said....being a little more prudent over wasting frames, and not get too out of hand, and after decades shooting OM's as front line cameras, 'yet aother' broken dgital compact and drop in price of entry level DSLR's saw me buy into electrc-picture-making about five years ago and spend MORE to get the equivalent range and versatility of my film cameras, than I had on film and processing in two and a half decades! Yeah! The notion Digital is costless is a marketing mas LIE! tell you! But still... depends how enthusiast you want to get with it.
It's a different, and oft enjoyable way of working, that can beg more of you the photographer to make more of the ops you are presented with, and stunning results from little more than that extra upfront thought are oft achieved.
Hope that helps.... go for it and see you over in F&C.. just beware the hypo-fumes!
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