good, cheap, 2nd hand film SLR for n00b?

I'll be the guy to throw his vote behind an older SLR + 50mm lens combo. The manual focus isn't really any kind of impediment at all, and a match-needle metering system is relatively simple, and once you learn it, then you learn very well just how to affect the exposure and depth of field on your pictures.
These older SLRs (your basic Pentax K-mounts, Olympus OMs, Canon AEs etc.) are all pretty affordable (often a camera + lens will set you back only $50-75 total on craigslist or in thrift stores [just be sure to test the shutter and make sure everything is working]) and anyway, they were many n00bs' first cameras for many years! (Including me of course, using my mom's old Pentax Superprogram in high school, which brings up point 2 or 3: many of these manufacturers came out with program- and auto-mode SLRs (still manual focus) in the early 80s that still had the rigid construction of their earlier cameras. I think it was probably 83-85 or so when everything really turned plastic.)

Oh for crying out loud I guess this is a different login than my normal one. Thought I could remember my info at work.

The manual focus isn't really any kind of impediment at all
Packs of blurry-ass sports shots from my young buck days disagree.

OK maybe not for sports then. But hanging around, taking pictures of friends or taking a leisurely stroll? Manual focus is fun! Plus it's probably what aforementioned dad's camera would have been anyway.

i bought my camera for a tenner, the praktica ltl-3

Depends how n00b, maybe? I'd much rather have learned on something like an EOS 5/1 with autofocus and program mode rather than doing everything by hand like I did.

― stet, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 12:44 AM (2 days ago)

lol i feel the exact opposite way as a noob who would prolly have already gotten bored w. the whole thing if i didnt have to figure out all the shutter speed stuff