Requirements for a film camera (eg 35mm)?

So. I'm interested in buying a film camera but I'm really new to photography etc so I'm not sure what to look for in a film camera. Mum tells me the best ones are Nikon, Canon and I believe Olympus. She's done some courses on photography but she doesn't remember much about cameras so I'm referring for help here. First of all, what do they mean by 35mm, 50mm etc? Also, apart from the camera, what else is required? I'm in UK so I'm wondering what would be the average pricing to have your photos developed at a shop? And what kind of shops do they develop the photos? Any other notes would be nice.

Eg;

A film SLR from Ebay will cost around £25
Go for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Minolta,
Whichever you choose do some basic research before buying - find out what sort of battery it uses and try to find one on sale. A lot of the older (pre ca 1990) used mercury cells that are now banned.

35mm, 50mm is the focal length of the lens - the higher the number the closer the camera pulls the image (like a telescope)

Boots, Jessops, Max Spielman sell and process film - cost is around £4-5 for a 36 exposure roll of film and £10 for processing, 4x6 prints and a CD

Why do you want a film camera and not digital?
For a beginner (such as yourself), film is laborious. For a start you can only get rolls of 24 or 36 shots. Then, after taking your photos you have to get them developed (which is quite easy and quick) but it's only then that you see your results. If there are any poor images, then it's unlikely you can quickly get back to the same spot to take another.

With a digital camera, you can shoot hundreds of shots at a time and see each one instantly.So, if you shoot a subject but don't like the look of the image, you can re-shoot straight away at a different setting or different angle.

For the enthusiast there are a great deal of interesting cameras from obscure manufacturers. For an inexperienced photographer, I'd go for an Olympus camera with off-the-film metering which will give you the most accurate exposure in automatic modes, they're also relatively cheap.

An OM-20 will start at around £15, and go to around £25, whilst an OM-2/OM-2n will be around £40-70, and an OM-2SP/OM-2S is around £20-70. You also have the OM-30, OM-40, OM-4 and OM-4Ti which are also good models. Canon's AE-1 and AE-1 Program is a good camera too, Pentax's ME Super is good but has strange ergonomics, and Nikon's film SLRs are expensive but very good (e.g. The FE2), Konica actually made some amazingly good lenses, but they are rather rare, then you have Contax and Yashica cameras with the Carl Zeiss lenses, which are considered some of the best lenses in the world, but again these are rare and very expensive.

As to lenses, this is where the different numbers come into play. There are two key measurements for a lens, the focal length (and in the case of zoom lenses, the focal length range) measured in mm, and the max aperture which is measured in f/numbers.

The focal length indicated the field of view the lens will create. Wide angle lenses tend to vary between 17-35mm, normal lenses (similar to ones eye) are between 35 and 60mm, beyond 60mm are considered long lenses, most of these are telephoto lenses, and are useful for portraits. You should start off with either a 35mm or a 50mm lens as they're most versatile.

Apertures are also important, a wide aperture lets in more light and lets you shoot in lower light. They're measured in f/numbers and the slight complication, the smaller the f/number the larger (better) the aperture, so f/1.2 is immensely hard to make, expensive, but useful, whilst f/1.4 is probably the best compromise between price, and performance for a 50mm lens, and a 35mm lens with aperture of around f/2 or f/2.8 would be around about right.