Cosina CT1G - Probably a very stupid question

RDM_83

ok this is probably quite a silly set of questions. I was looking at Buy and Sell today and noticed that someone was selling one of these cameras (Cosina CT1G with a number of lens)
I am considering getting it because been meaning to get into photography (used to mess around with my dads old slr when i was younger) for a while (and too broke to buy digital prosumer/dslr ones)
Anyway after looking on the internet all i can find out that is Cosina made camera bodies and that this camera is described as a full manual.
I presume that this means that it has a light meter? but has neither shutter priority or aperture priority settings.
Any feedback on this camera would be greatly appreciated, my basic idea at the minute is to buy this camera and be forced by its lack of automatic features to learn how to use a camera properly (and if I decide against it I've only lost a small amount of money also started a postgrad in UCD so hopefully there's courses available there)
sorry for length of post.

sineadw

I don't know that particular one, but I started out with a cosina C90 and a cosina C1. Both really great cameras. Not least because they cost me a grand total of 36 quid

Yep, all totally manual. You get a light reading of sorts (a little light in the corner of the viewfinder that goes from + in red to - in red to a little green dot if you're spot on. The viewfinder is huge compared to most DSLRs, with the prism thing I miss so much. You'll have to wind the film on manually, focus manually, set aperture manually.. that's if its the same as my old ones. Which I suspect it is.

You'll probably be using pentax K mount lenses. You can pick them up for very little in the camera exchange and online. Not as easy to find as some of the bigger brands but they really do make quality glass.

They do indeed force you to learn how to use the camera. The only thing I will say though is they're expensive to run. Film processing is not cheap. So its a slow learning curve compared to digital.

RDM_83

Thanks for the advice, bought it this evening and have just managed to load a film :-) (after lots messing around that probably ruined half of it!) would you recommend Boots as a decently priced place to buy/get film processed I'm in DUblin city centre and know a lot of the photoshops seem to be very expensive for it (presumably cos of tourist etc)

sineadw

A friend of mine just got charged 135 quid for 11 rolls of film in boots! He didn't even want prints - just CDs. They said it wasn't an option. That's a ridiculous price.. I'd go with Camera Exchange or Gunns for processing TBH. They do a good deal and they know what they're doing. And you can often pick up lovely film thats out of date for next to nothing.