Favorite camera you've ever had?

Unimaxium · Dec 6, 2004

No, this isn't another "which camera should I buy?" thread. Well, for the most part it isn't. This is asking more for your personal opinion about what you like in a camera, rather than what you might be right for someone else. As we all know, a lot in photography has to do with the photographer's use of the camera as well as personal opinion, so I would like to know what your opinion is about good cameras out there.
So then: what is your favorite camera you've ever had or used? Also, what is your dream camera that you wish you could have? This can go for both digital and film, compact or SLR, 35mm, medium format, large format view camera, whatever. I hope this kind of thread hasn't been posted before, but I did a small search and nothing like this topic seemed to pop up so I decided to post.

MDowdey · Dec 6, 2004

canon 10D.

speed
price
ease of use
quality
consistency
accessories
lenses

md

ksmattfish · Dec 6, 2004

what is your favorite camera you've ever had or used?

How could I pick just one?

For just plain fun to use it would have to be the Widelux (mine is an F6 model). It's a weird camera, and I love it.

For convenience, small size, and simplicity it would be my Ansco Titan 6x6 folder. Fits in my back pocket like a stuffed wallet, and produces wonderfully sharp 6cm x6cm negs. It's full manual to the max: no light meter, and no focus assist. All you've got is aperture and shutter controls, and a focusing ring with distances on it that you turn to what you estimate the distance to subject is. There is a viewfinder, but it's really just a square hole cut in the body. One downside is that it has the old style flash post, so I'm still looking for an adapter to use flash.

For the highest quality images it would be my Super Speed Graphic with Schneider lenses. Prints from 4x5 negs; what more can I say except :drool:

drool (<--for the longest time I thought this smilie was "puke" :wink:

it just didn't make any sense to me in the "bikini girls" thread)

If I could only have one camera for the rest of my life, it would be a Rolleiflex. My Rollei 3.5E Planar is my do it all camera. The combination of size, format, and features make it the best for me, and I think they look really cool! :wink:

Some folks would consider the lack of interchangable lenses to be unbearable, but sticking with a single focal length is something I enjoy.

what is your dream camera that you wish you could have?

Once again, how can I pick only one?!?

A wooden 5x7 or 8x10 field camera will probably be one of my next purchases. I long to make big contact prints.

If I won the lottery I'd pick up a Fuji 6x17, a Cirkut camera, and maybe an ultra large format camera.

The dream camera that I fantasize about that probably is actually only a dream is to have a big digital sensor put into a medium format folder. For me that would be a lot of fun.

ksmattfish · Dec 6, 2004

Unimaxium said:
what is your favorite camera you've ever had or used?

By the way, what's your favorite?

Unimaxium · Dec 6, 2004

ksmattfish said:
Unimaxium said:

what is your favorite camera you've ever had or used?

Click to expand...

By the way, what's your favorite?

Hmm.. well, how could I pick just one? Just kidding...
I myself haven't owned many cameras at all, so it's really easy, and kind of unfair, to choose a favorite. My whole selection is between my 3.2-megapixel Sony Cybershot DSC-P71 and my old 35mm Pentax K1000 SLR (used to be my parents'), and that's about it (excluding a few $20 point-and-shoot 35mm cameras in a drawer somewhere). So out of the two, I would have to go for the K1000, simply because I like the quality of film over a 3megapixel CCD, as well as the fun and control of manual everything. When it comes to a dream camera, maybe it would be a large format view camera with a really high quality digital back on it (I've heard of sensors up to 108 megapixels!). Or, if I wanted something kind of smaller, maybe the highest end canon 35mm camera I could find (like the EOS-1v) with this super telephoto lens on it (simply because it's so huge, lol).
But I haven't been into photography long enough to truly know what I should dream for, or what's a really good camera or lens. But I do like the idea of having a small camera body attached to a super huge lens, mostly for the ironical humor of the way the camera looks when it is on one of those things.

PS: some photos of a video camera attached to that lens can be seen here

Eric K.K. · Dec 7, 2004

My best "partner" is ......

135 format : Nikon F2AS
120 format : Hasselblad

Horseman FA is my dream camera !

Mitica100 · Dec 16, 2004

well... from the collector's point of view, a Kodak Ektra kit (35mm RF body with two backs, four lenses, various finders and filters.

and from the user's point of view, the Hassy 500CM.

ajmall · Dec 17, 2004

having only been a serious photographer for 2/3 years i have only properly used 2 slr and one digital camera.

the first slr camera i had was a Nikon F-401 kindly given to me by my dad. at the time it was the only camera with TTL metering!!! its older than me!! made in about '83 i think? i used this for about 18 months with a basic set up- cobra speed light, 35-70 3.3/5.6 and eventually got a sigma 28/200 3.5/5.6 after getting more serious.

i got an olympus c-300 (i think thats the model) 3mp for xmas which if i'm honest was awful but i couldn't tell my parents that and probably the most un-user friendly camera i've ever used!

i came to uni in sept 03 and a few months later got myself a nikon F80 which i use to this day and i think it's great. only thing lacking is a fast frame rate. i got it cheap and in immaculate condition with a battery grip. it's one of the best ergonomically designed cameras ever made in my opinion, it just moulds to your hand and everything is well positioned.

over the past year i've bought:

Sigma 15mm fish eye (new), sigma 28/300 (new), sigma 24mm 1.8 (used), vivitar 285 (used), polar filter, flash cord and countless roles of film! sorry this is long!!

ajmall · Dec 17, 2004

oh my dream camera is the nikon D2H. should be getting a canon 20d in the next few months

rangefinder · Dec 17, 2004

Mamiya Super 23 Compact Press

Hertz van Rental · Dec 18, 2004

Hassleblad Superwide is good and the Sinar M

But it has to be the Sinar P3 - (if it was a girl I'd be it's love-monkey!)

Jeff Canes · Dec 18, 2004

ksmattfish said:
The dream camera that I fantasize about that probably is actually only a dream is to have a big digital sensor put into a medium format folder. For me that would be a lot of fun.

Saw this last week and thought to myself, Mr. B&W Film dream camera is digital whats up with that.

John Orrell · Dec 18, 2004

I can't possibly choose just one camera, as no one camera meets all of my needs. However I believe I've got what I think is the best lineup of cameras I've ever had, in so far as that I've got a camera for probably every occasion my life will ever throw at me.

The only camera I'll probably keep changing and upgrading is my digital one. Digital is clearly the future, and in five to ten years from now, film enthusiasts will be as small a minority in photography circles as LP/turntable enthusiasts now are in HiFi circles. Even so, I do have a personal problem accepting that a treasured, unrepeatable photo could only exist as a series of bits and bytes on a CD or memorycard, so I imagine I'll still use film to shoot photos I think I'll want to keep forever. Providing by then you can still actually get film :shock: