I am a complete beginner looking to buy a film camera to experiment with and hopefully achieve a greater understanding of the medium. I was thinking of buying either a Nizo Super-8 camera or a 16mm Bolex or K-3 camera from Ebay.
I am going to finish up at community college and transfer to a school with a decent film program (probably SFSU). For now I am just looking to shoot silent short films mainly to learn and experiment with lighting, editing, and etc. I was kind of leaning towards 16mm because it seems it requires more of an understanding of the medium as opposed to just pointing and shooting.
I have about $1,300 dollars to spend on a camera, film, and processing for a few very short films (black and white to start with). There is someone in the family who has shot on both formats and worked in the industry for many years, he could help me along and get equipment (lights and etc) for me to use if needed. I live about 40 minutes away from Hollywood and go there quite often so there are obviously plenty of labs around to process film.
Before I go out and buy a camera I would like to hear some opinions on what would be a better format to use and what kind of cameras I should look into buying. Thanks!