If you follow film photographers on Social Media, you will undoubtedly see them wielding top notch gear, but do you really have to spend hundreds of pounds to get a camera? The simple answer is no, there are thousands of second hand film camera bargains to be had on eBay. To prove this point here is what I’ve picked up recently - and all for less than £5! Just think about that for a second - that’s less than a pint of beer these days.

Starting with a point & shoot, this Canon Snappy 50 was snagged for £3.83!

It is a very simple thing, but the styling is so wonderfully Eighties. The only user input is a choice of ISO 100 or 400, and do you want the flash on or off. Amazingly it works perfectly so has to be a bargain in anyone’s eyes. The shutter speed and aperture look to be fixed from what I could see, only changing with the ISO adjustment so very limited unless you plan to shoot the whole roll in the same conditions, but as long as you are aware of the limitation it’s workable.

If you want more features, then how about this Chinon 358RZ

To give it it’s full title the Chinon Reflex Zoom 358RZ is basically the Genesis I for the the US market. I do like the green detailing of the buttons and feel of the camera, but it does fall into a grey area in terms of what is useful and practical. It is a cross over between a point & shoot and an SLR. It doesn’t have the control of an SLR, but does have the essential internals that make it an SLR such as the mirror and shutter mechanism. It is a step up in image quality from the basic compacts and it only cost me £4, and as with the Canon it works perfectly. The Genesis is a capable camera with a manual zoom lever on the side, flash modes, timer, continuous shooting and more. Image quality obviously depends on your film choice, but the lens is fairly decent. I feel it is more of a gimmick fun camera though - it does everything it is supposed to, and has a great shutter sound.

Moving up to proper cameras with full creative control, the next one is actually a rather rare beast…

Not rare as in it is hard to find one, but in my experience it is rare to find one that actually works! I have had several in the past and none worked. There are scores of faulty ones online, so it came as a huge surprise that this £4.20 example not only fired, but fires accurately across the speed range plus the meter works and is still spot on. In terms of condition the only flaw is the tiny ding on the top of the prism - otherwise it could be described as ‘near mint’. I will be very careful with it, as they do appear to be fragile, so I’m half way through probably the only roll of film I will shoot with it. It is fully mechanical only requiring a battery the the needle meter in the viewfinder.

Moving forward a couple of decades from the Kowa, I have just received this in the post…

Costing the whole £5, this lovely little Miranda MS-2 Super is rather charming. I like the size and feel of it and the red lettering against the black. And again it is in full working order! Yes, the rubber grip on the focus ring is missing, but who cares for a fiver. I am looking forward to shooting it when I have finished off the film in the other six loaded cameras I’m using at the moment! One quirk I have noticed already is the shutter - it is violent! The camera is so light and made of plastic, yet the shutter sounds like a sledge hammer - it is not subtle.

Using two LR44 batteries to power the meter and shutter, it is primarily an aperture priority camera - it does have manual mode, but is a bit fiddly, so I’ll stick with the semi-auto mode. Yes there are far better options in the category, but that is not the point.

The whole point of sharing this is to prove that you don’t need a £500 Yashica T5 or a £300 Nikon F3 to enjoy your photography. For the price of a fancy coffee you could have a new camera. I see all over the internet people saying how expensive film photography is, but in reality it is not. You can buy a camera for £5, and the same for a roll of Kentmere black & white film. How else can you get this level of enjoyment on the same budget? Obviously the sky is the limit if you have no limitations, but it is the experience we all crave surely?

Don’t fall into the trap of copying the guys and gals’ choice of gear online - do it for yourself and go your own way.

What does £5 on eBay get you…

The Severn Bridges…