Classic film camera appreciation thread

In My Humble Opinion
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Generic thread for talking about your favorite cameras of yore. Brag about your collection, pine away about what you used to have, look with envy at other people…

Just keep digitals away from this thread. yeah, I’m into digital now, but not in this thread.

Ah… my Leica M3. Only got the two lenses, 35 summicron and 90 elmarit, but man is this a sweet set up. Quiet, quality, smallish, did I mention how quiet it is? No, I will not ever be a Leica snob. I have taken gorgeous pics with other 35mm cameras, but something about loading up this baby with some B&W film, going out into the street, and just being Henri-like… Yeah, it feels good.

I owned an R-3 set up for a while, too. And then I switched to Canon. The original F-1. can we say sledge hammer ruggedness? I really liked that sports finder, too. And lenses. Just how many lenses did I own with that puppy? I honestly can’t remember. Had an AE-1 with that outfit. Fun! I felt like Stevie Wonder.

can’t mention Leica SLRs without talking about the Minoltas. Not Maxxums. X series. SRT? Didn’t like it. XE-7? Liked it. XD-11? Pure sex, baby. This company also made some of the coolest lenses. How about the 250mm f/5.6 mirror lens? Super small. Great quality. Sold it for about 10 times the price I paid for it to a collector from Japan.

And my Olypus fetish still exists. From the OM-1 I had in high school to the OM-1n I just recently purchased on eBay, this camera is also a work of art. Small, quiet-ish. Extremely high quality. Who needs batteries, anyways? My gut and my Gossen are usually good enough. And nothing beats an OM-1 or OM-2 attached to a telescope. The perfect astrophotography camera.

Did I ever mention that my first camera all of my ownsies was a Baby Rollie? Six years old, buddy! And with my very own TLR. Yeah!

Sure, I used Nikons and Hassys when I was making money in photography, but something about these guys I listed above just brings out the nostalgia and admiration. Still have a Hassy 500CM somewhere… Never much into Pentax or Contax. Is it the AX that puts me off? Hmmm…
So, come on, classic usuers/admirers! Fill up this thread with cameras!

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Sitting in front of me is my OM-1, that was my dad’s when he was in college in the early/mid 70s.

Lenses are a 55mm, a 28mm wide-angle, and a 135mm that I love for close-ups on faces.

I’ve taken many a great picture with this camera, though I admit that the film processing after my trip to Europe last year was a bit pricy.

I’ve also got a few pentax lenses in a case, but no camera to go with them, more’s the pitty.

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I had a Yashica 35 mm with a few nice lenses. I am not a camera buff, but I really liked that camera.

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Do you remember the model? Was it a screw mount or bayonet lens system?

I have to admit that I’ve always liked the older (pre 1975 or so) Yashica, Fuji, Mamiya, Chinon, etc cameras that used the UM-42 screw mt lenses. They seemed to put a lot of neat stuff into those chunky bodies.

In 1974 (iir the date c), the average photog Joe was surprised by the teaming up of Carl Zeiss of Germany with Yashica of Japan to manufacture one of the coolest 35mm SLR systems ever, the Contax RTS. I never had one, something about the AX in the name I’m sure, but those cameras sure were interesting. Very full featured and sexy as hell to look at. Amazingly cool ads, too.

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Bayonet, I think. Push lens on and maybe 1/4 twist? I have the camera body at home, I think I’ll look for it. I know I got it when I was a kid (used) in the early 70s.

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I primarily use a Canon AE1. I LOVE IT. It feels good in my hands, and is sturdy as hell. I just had all of the bits and nubbins (the foam, I guess is the right term, but I like “bits and nubbins” better) replaced about 6 months ago because it was leaking light, but that’s the only problem I’ve ever had. Well, that and I can’t get it to talk to the speedlite flash properly, but I think that’s user error. I usually just shoot using a 50mm lens and B&W film although I do have a small zoom lens for it. I’m going to start saving up to get a nice portrait lens one of these days.

I also have a Pentax K1000 with a 50mm lens, a 22mm wideangle(I think), and a 200mm lens. When I take the time and set up my shots, it takes lovely pictures. However, I have a hard time working quickly with it, so I only use this for taking pictures of things that don’t move.

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I’ve got a Pentax (the body says Honeywell-Pentax) H-3 that was my dad’s camera when I was born in the mid-60’s. My dad was in the military, so that camera has probably been around the world at least once, I know he’s got pictures from Thailand and Australia. I shoot mostly slides.

Four lenses, most of them I found on eBay just within the last few years. 28, 50, 85 and 300mm, I think. Saw a 1,000mm lens once on eBay; not a compound, it was a meter long.

I got a 35mm slide/film scanner a while ago. Some of the results are here. (The colors aren’t very vivid, click the “enhanced” folder for slightly better results.)

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I’ve got two vintage 16mm motion film cameras.

They need a good display area.

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I, too, have a Honeywell Pentax. All manual and takes great 35 mm pics.

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When I was in Japan in 1949-51, I fell in love with the first really excellent cameras that were affordable. Started with a twin-lens reflex, got a couple of 35 mm, all of which had outstanding lens quality and were well built.

Back in the US, a while later got a job as a photographer for a state promotional agency. They had a 4x5 Speed Graphic and a Rollie, both wonderful. Had all sorts of my own too, and dollar-for-dollar, one of the best was the Pentax K1000. Also used the body for astrophotography.

The Speed Graphic was huge, but you could use it with the between-the-lens shutter or the focal plane shutter. Just had to remember to keep the one not used open. :smiley: And, it looked like a professional photographer was behind it. Another advantage: at big events with hordes of other photogs pushing ans shoving, a bop on the head with that camera of somebody standing in front of you opened a wide field of view.

I have used everthing from a mini-camera up to an 8x10 view camera, but I can say without any hesitation, that I feel the best, most versitile and finest camera I ever used was the Hassleblad. Interchangeable lenses and film backs, and as the British say, “it fits nicely to hand.”

Now I’ve gone digital, but if I could afford a Hassleblad, I’d still use one.

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Old Polaroid’s are my thing.

95a
80a
J66
110

Those are the roll film units I own.

I also have a 100 Automatic. Pack film

I shot so much during my high school years. I got good with experence.
Then I discovered a Minolta SRT 101. I learned much more.
All my cameras are over 30 years old. They need a good cleaning.

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Right now I have two film cameras A Cannon A1 that I have owned since it came out, and a EOS Rebel.
Both take superb pictures.
I need to go do some EBay snoping and find some additonal lenses.

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I’ve got a a Crown Graphic (Graflok back) and a Speed Graphic (spring back), both Pacemaker models. I keep meaning to put them on Ebay, but I just never seem to get around to it. The Crown in particular looks brand new. But I rarely use it, even with the 120 roll film back. I just like handling it I guess.

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In 1960, my Dad gave me his old fold out Kodak that I took to Mexico with me. I still have it and it still takes good pictures.

In 1963 I got my best film camera, a Minolta SR-1, yep could drive nails with it if I forgot my hammer.

I have 52, 140 slot carousels of slides that I have kept using that camera alone.

Had an Olympus and three or two others over the years.

Here is a picture of my second favorite type of boat I took with the SR-1 in New Orleans in 1966.

I have several rolls of 9" X 100’ negative film of stuff I saved from my mapping days…

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Oh, specs on the tug picture = KodaChrome ASA 25 slide film in the SR-1

Projected on to poster board and then shot with a old Sony Mavica digital.

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I have a 1970 Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic, with 35mm, 55mm and 135mm Asahi lenses - 42mm screw thread mount. In 36 years, I’ve had the camera taken apart and cleaned 3 times (I have it done once every ten years). It still takes photographs as beautiful as it did the day it was new. I love it!

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I still have my Leica R7, which was a graduation gift from my dad. (He having got it many years before.) I have three of those fantastic heavy-as-a-brick Leitz lenses for it too. A superfast 28mm, a 50mm, and a 70-210 (or thereabouts) zoom. That zoom is incredible. Even at the extremes of the range it looks fantastic.

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Olympus bigot here - Have an OM-1, an OM-1n, an OM-2, and an OM-4. Great cameras.

A friend had a Minolta XD-11. Nice piece of gear there, but the Olympus was more compact & lighter.

Ahh the sweet smell of chemicals in the darkroom. Anyone ever mix the wrong ones in the drum like I did? Cool prints, but I do wonder if the asthma I developed as an adult was somehow related to that little mixup.

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I have a small collection.
[ul][li]Nikon FM-3a[/li][li]Olympus OM-1N[/li][li]Canon AE-1P[/li][li]Pentax K-1000[/li][li]Argus C4[/li][li]Nikonos IV-F[/li][li]Nikonos V[/li][li]Nikon EM[/li][li]a box Brownie[/li][li]Minolta 110E Autopak[/ul][/li]And also ‘film cameras’, though not what the OP intended…
[ul][li]Aaton LTR-54 super-16[/li][li]Éclair NPR[/li][li]Arriflex 16.S[/li][li]Arriflex 2B[/li][li]Bolex H16-M5 (w/dogleg reflex zoom)[/li][li]Bolex H16 Rex 1[/li][li]Bolex H16[/li][li]Bolex H16 in Paillard underwater housing[/li][li]Krasnogorsk 3 (two of them)[/li][li]Elmo 1000.S[/li][li]Beaulieu 5008.S[/li][li]Another Elmo[/li][li]Qvartz wind-up Russian super-8[/ul][/li]Tobin crystal motors for the M5, the Rex, and the Arri 16.S; crystal motors (of course) for the NPR and the LTR-54.