I got some very decent results with the 1st camera I got: Zenit 125 TTL
Very old fully manual, used it with and external flash and learned how to get rid of reflections the hard way, also learned how to manually focu with it even if most of my sucesfful shots were taken by focusignn on an area and waiting for the fish to come in frame. Used to document each pictures: Aperture, Shutter speed, flash position,... and eagerly wait for the processing of the film.
I used a canon Eos 300n after it, didn't use it much but was more pleased with the speed of the Zenit lens I had as it was a 50mm 2.0 whereas the canon came with a 28-80 kit lens. not really bad but not just as fast and for sure not as sharp as a 50mm prime lens.
Years after going digital I found a Nikon F100 so I bougt it. Still have to shoot some tank shots with it however I'm very pleased with the results I get from it even though it doen not get used as much as the digital one.
Afterall you can buy whatever 35mm SLR you want and just buy a 50 mm for it as it will not cost too much. Most important is to buy from the same brand (Nikon, Canon,..) that you will be using in the future even if on digital as you can make use of the lenses you have as well as flashs and other accessories. it can always sereve yo uas backup body in the future so you better buy a good one especially that the pro SLR bodies sell for cheaper than some of the digital bodies meant for hobbyists now.
