geez, Easter must be a bitch for you.  Have you talked to a priest?

than

It is difficult to give advice to someone else--especially when I do not
know what his exact requirements are--but you would do well to give the
subject of lens quality a higher weight in your decision.  It is the LENS
that must transform the light from a 3-dimensional scene into a
two-dimensional image focused onto the film plane.  Some manufacturers have
a reputation for contrasty, well-saturated colors and sharp optics that is
better than other manufacturers.

Also, most manual cameras sold in the 70s had pretty much the same feature
set.  There were two brands that I would recommend especially--Nikon and
Pentax--be because they have tons of lenses available used on eBay, and some
of those lenses were true classics.

That having been said, I am particularly impressed with Pentax and their
screw-mount lenses, because of their excellent color saturation, sharpness,
and rendition of out-of-focus objects (what the Japanese call "Bokeh.").
Back in the 70s, it was Pentax and Carl Zeiss that were competing
head-to-head in terms of lens quality.  And many of those classic Pentax
designs can now be had dirt cheap.

If you do decide to try Pentax, go for the Super-Multi-Coated (sometimes
abbreviated "SMC") lenses, rather than the plain Takumars or Super-Takumars.
The multi-coated lenses cost virtually the same on the used market, and they
have the advantage of less flare and more saturated color rendition.  They
are plentiful.  If you buy them, by all means get a Spotmatic-F camera body
(not the older Spotmatic or the Spotmatic-II) because the SMC lenses were
made to couple with the Spotmatic-F for wide-open aperture metering.  The
Spotmatic-F may cost a couple of bucks more, but the price differential is
so small that it makes little sense to buy an older model that does not have
wide open metering, even though the SMC lenses CAN be mounted on older
models.

If you decide to get a newer camera body, that uses the K-mount, Pentax
makes an adapter that will let you continue to mount your lenses on the
newer bodies (they can be used in stop-down mode only).  This is an
important feature, because it means that your lenses will not be obsolete if
you later upgrade to the newer mount.

Contrast that with Canon, for example.  When Canon went from their breech
mount to the EOS mount, they orphaned all of their older lenses.  Canon
customers that wanted to upgrade bodies had to buy all new lenses to match.
Those that were heavily invested in breech mount lenses were orphaned.  And
if they wanted to add to their lens collections they had to decide whether
to keep buying the older-type lenses (on the used market) or start all over
again with the EOS-mount.

To professionals, it was probably no big deal.  But to amateurs, who
typically bought their lenses over time as finances allowed, it represented
a financial blow.

Nikon has pretty much retained the ability to continue using older lenses on
their newer cameras.  There are some exceptions (as there are with Pentax),
but in the main, the lenses remain compatible.  This may be important to you
if you intend to buy several lenses.  If you are going to use only one or
two lenses, it might be irrelevant.  You would know best.

Have a look at the following link for more information and examples of what
I mean.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-02-11-24.shtml

I’ve been seriously studying up on all the early Pentax, and as per
suggestion, the Spotmatic F looks good.  I just won a ME Super, a Yashica
TL-Super, and a Minolta 201.  

My plan is to get the various cameras and play around with them to see what
I like.  I’ve been having a lot of fun checking on resources.  I may start
a museum.  

Well, now that you mention it, that little MX looks good, but what about
the Minolta XE-7 or the MD-5.  Then again, I still hear the FM2 calling my
name.

I hadn’t realized it, but I seem to be boycotting the Canon disjointed
line, although I remember a certain pleasure using a Canon Ftb (?).

I can’t believe that I’ve been looking at those new Voightlanders with a
lustful gleam.

I always assumed that I needed to maintain brand loyalty, but I can see
walking around with half a dozen different cameras, each with a different
lense.  That would be much more convenient than a 15-500 zoom.