Brian, I may have messed up your poll. I don't know what an S.L.R. kind of camera is, and the only range finder I know of is the one we had in WWII. I have a Miranda 35mm with a "Hot Shoe", (whatever that is), but have never figured out how to use it. It has the only film I ever bought for it, still in it, about 18 years ago. ($475.00) Supposed to be the "Cat's meow" back then, but way too complicated for anything more than a professional photographer to use! So I marked it as the "Other". The photos I have posted on here have all been taken with a Browny type 110 using Kodak 400 film, but seems OK to me, so I marked it as "the Point and Shoot".
Yer poll is a bit skewed... Doesn't accept having no check marks in the secondary camera questions. I don't currently have a secondary camera! I am thinking of getting a digital tho.
Wayne .. Most community colleges offer at least one course on how to use a 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera. I attended such a class at Santa Barbara City College years ago and I can't tell you how much I learned ! I enjoyed it so much I enrolled in an advanced photography class after I moved to Sacramento. It is time well spent and it sure makes using your SLR a lot easier, and efficient. I recommend that you dig that old Miranda out of the closet, dust her off and finish that roll of film .. then take a class. You will not regret it. Good luck
Thanks Bill, I got it to take close up photos with, but I couldn't seem to get a sharp image in the hot shoe viewer thingy. I'll call around and see what I can find out. It has a 50mm lens, but I was told I would have to make a pin hole thing to use it, so gave up.
The hot shoe is that little thingy on your camera that looks like a short piece of track. You can attach a flash unit to it. The term comes from the fact the shoe is wired to your shutter so that the shutter or the shutter triggering mechanism can trigger the flash. The range finder probably works much like the one you used in WWII, only it is much smaller. I would guess it is the "split image" type. When you look through it you will see two images of the same subject. As you focus the camera, the images are brought together. The camera is in focus when there is only one image. The combination is this type of range finder and a 50mm lense are far from ideal for tight close-ups. You probably can get only as close as 2.5 or 3 feet. Any closer and focusing gets very fussy and the margin for error is almost nothing. Now, you said this Miranda was an SLR, which means a Single Lense Reflex. In this type of system, you should be focusing by looking through the lens. This is done with a mirror, or mirrors, which flip out of the way just before the shutter is tripped. Again, however, you still have that 50mm lens that has its close-up limits. The advantage with an SLR, however, is that you can use lens attachments (or interchangable lenses) and see an indication of the result with the through-the-lens viewer.
Wayne .. your Miranda SLR is just fine for any kind of photography .. it's the lens that is the limiting factor. You could opt to purchase a "Macro" lens and extension tubes to bring the subject to 1:1, but as Peirce has already pointed out, depth of field can become a nightmare to even the most experienced photographer. I'm not sure if it is still available, but there used to be a commercial pin-hole lens. If you can find one, you may have to also purchase an adapter for that lens to fit your Miranda. Not a very expensive thing though. Hope you can find a class. You will probably kick yourself for not attending one sooner Good luck my friend
