[Tonto]

Interested in getting a film body for B+W and working on my basic skills is this a good camera?
I have a FA31 and A70-200 which should be great on this.
And while I'm on it whats some good B+W film but relatively cheap its been a LONG time since I bought some!

[blackcloudbrew]

I have one and I think you'll like it. The only thing missing on it - for me - is the depth of field preview button which only comes on the MZ-5n model. The nice thing about it is that it has a lot of modern features but does manual mode nicely too. Good choice.

[titrisol]

please check the camera before you buy.
get new batteries and make sure it works, and does not suffer from the sudden death syndrome that plagues those cameras after a few years of inaction.

[Tonto]

Gonna do a big test on Friday with new batteries and film. Came with a yucky powerzoom Pentax 28-80 with worst MF ring in history!
Looks in creat nick apart from pop up flash doesnt stay up, no biggie.
Should be lotsa fun.

[BillM]

Hi Tonto,have a couple of ZX-L's and a ZX-M + A70-210/4,close enough?
Might give kodak 400cn B/W a whirl,fairly accessible here in the states
easy to find processing for.Not sure about same where your at.
Sort of lets you 'focus' on task at hand with the new rig.
Might check Freestylephoto here for 100 legacy pro,obviously shipping is issue
with you,nice cheap B/W film.Nothing outstanding,but cheap and pleasing.
Conventional B/W processing required,could be sticky to arrange processing
Have a lot on your mind right now,why I mentioned 400cn,its processed
as a color negative but shows B/W.
Sweet on that 70-210,have had it about 28 years.
Ran some 400cn thru Z-bodies & 70-210,was pleasantly surprised.

[womble]

I use Kodak BW400CN a great deal, especially with my FED2. I rather like it and get some nice shots. Being a colour process film you do not get the classic grain look though. As it is a colour process you can take it to your local lab. The prints, however, sometimes come out with a green colour cast because they just use colour paper to make them which combined with the orange film base gives a nasty colour. I use a good quality postal service which gives better BW images.

K.

[violini]

I have a MZ-5N and use many lenses such as FA 43, DA 18-55, 55-300, F35-70, 70-210, DFA 100 WR.

[fearview]

check my flickr.. i taken a lot good pictures with this camera..

..

you wont regret it.

.

[Tonto]

The camera is playing up, thankfully its within its 30day warrenty period from the place I bought it. Shutter is sticking and film rewound 8 shots into a 36 exposure roll
So pretty annoying as I spent $30 on some CR2 batteries for it last week.
Its a cool camera so would great if they could just fix it but was from a general 2nd hand store so not likely.

[violini]

Is the mirror locked at up position? Broken plastic gear on mirror motor shaft and broken plastic pivot in flash pop-up mechanism are the common problems of MZ series. I've fixed quite a few so far. After these two weak points are fixed, these cameras are quite durable.

[Tonto]

It pops back up eithier immediately, after a turn off then on, or just stays closed for ages.
Really gutting as I don't think the retailer will fix it.
So will probably get a refund and keep the batteries/film for another film camera.

On that topic I did want something a little MORE basic, ie no autofocus but still with metering, what would you guys recommend?

[violini]

Since I started learning photography by using digital cameras, I simply won't go back to manual cameras. You can try MZ-S and the latest MZ-6 made in 2004.