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There’s bags of stuff on eBay, and that’s probably the first place to start. A 35mm single-lens reflex (SLR) camera would be your best bet.
Opt for a model from one of the big five brands from back in the seventies: Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus or Pentax. They’re all basic, hardwearing, top quality and shouldn’t come at too much cost. 35mm film cassettes can also be bought cheaply on Amazon.
You can pick a classic, pre-owned Canon A1 up for around £80, or an AE-1 Program for slightly more, and they can do everything. But any camera with a program mode is good for a beginner. Program is an exposure function that does all the hard work for you, until you feel ready to manually alter your shots.
Famed for bridging the gap between photographers and hobbyists in the seventies, both Canon cameras come fitted with ‘shutter priority’, which means you can choose your shutter speed, and your camera will automatically choose an aperture. Other great options include the (almost) indestructible Pentax K1000 and the Olympus OM-1.
If you want to get your hands on the camera before you buy, then check out vintage markets – but without the safety net of eBay or Amazon, you have to know what to look out for. As you pick them up, go through all the shutter speeds and make sure they're not sticking - that is, opening but not closing. That's your first port of call.
It's also worth checking if replacement batteries are still available for your chosen camera. Mercury sales were deemed a bit dangerous in the late eighties, so many batteries have been discontinued. Give it a Google before you buy, just in case.
So now that you have a better idea of what film photography is, how the different cameras work, all the different types of film formats and cameras, you can go to our cameras page to find the best camera for you.