What do you, would you collect?

jstuedle · Jul 15, 2005

Do you have a collection, or if not what would you collect? I have collected Nikon SLR's and Nikkor glass for the better part of 35 years. Share your love of cameras either collected or desired.

Mitica100 · Jul 16, 2005

jstuedle said:
Do you have a collection, or if not what would you collect? I have collected Nikon SLR's and Nikkor glass for the better part of 35 years. Share your love of cameras either collected or desired.

Aww... Man, I had so many and wish I had many more!

Some of the rarer cameras I had:

*Complete Kodak Ektra kit (only about 2,000 made)
*Contax I (F) "Made for China"
*Kodak String Set (number?)
*Nicca
*Kodak Vanity (Art Deco) set

...and many more.

Some that I still have:

*Leica IIIf RD
*Leica IIIa
*Leica IIIc
*Contax III (Kriegsmarine issue)
*Super Ikonta A1 (531/16)
*Super Ikonta B
*Canon SBIV
*Canon SII
*Minox B
*Steky B

...and many more.

Since I can't remember at this hour my entire list, there is a post somewhere on TPF with most that I and ksmattfish collected or collect.

Have not had the chance to owning a Nikon S2 (yet) but who knows... :drool:

I wouldn't mind a Tessina or a Compass some day.

terri · Jul 16, 2005

I'm just starting a collection of vintage cams - don't have many yet. I seem to be drawn to old folders - love 'em. My husband is a Rollei freak and plans on collecting several. :thumbup:

And yes, between the two of us we're lucky we even eat. :lol:

usayit · Jul 17, 2005

When I was looking for an "older" manual SLR several years back, Pentax really won my interests. I ended up with a Spotmatic but I"ve acquired several pentax's since. So far the original waist level SLR Asahiflex has been most difficult to find.

Wouldn't mind starting a collection of Leica copies from around the world.... oh yeh.. actual Leica's would be nice too.....

Mitica100 · Jul 17, 2005

usayit said:
Wouldn't mind starting a collection of Leica copies from around the world.... oh yeh.. actual Leica's would be nice too.....

You can always start with the Russian Leica copies, they're very cheap and always to be found on E-bay. :wink:

usayit · Jul 18, 2005

Yeh... all those up for grabs on ebay have been extremely tempting. What is difficult is researching and tracking down the copies that are of good to high quality. For now... I'm kept happy trying to track down good examples of early pentax slr's and the screw mount takumar lenses....

For those who also might be interested in russian copies:

http://www.btinternet.com/~stowupland/index.htm

Very well documented site....

photogoddess · Jul 22, 2005

Since I'm not a brand specific kinda gal and consider myself to be somewhat of a camera whore, I several different brands of cameras. :lol:

However, my "pride and joy" is a German built Rolleiflex SL35 with several lenses. Including some Zeiss glass. :drool:

Don Simon · Jul 30, 2005

I realised a while back that I can never justify the cost of a truly high-end SLR (either film or digital) so instead I've been building up a collection of used cameras. I say used rather than vintage because while they're all pre-owned, they're not all 'old'. My main criteria for buying a camera is, er, if I think it looks cool. I know it's a stupid reason, but when I look at a camera my first reaction is likely to be based on its aesthetic qualities, and sometimes the first thought to pop into my head is that one word - "cool". When that happens, I want that camera

Because of this I'm particularly interested in the Olympus XA series of cameras - though this is currently limited to 3 Olympus XA2s (one broken, one in mint condition and therefore never out the box) and one XA3. At some point I'd like to add the XA and XA4 to that collection, though I could easily live without ever aquiring the ugly-looking XA1.

Of course I don't just make decisions based on what the camera looks like; I tend to look at web pages and sites dedicated to specific camera types or brands. This doesn't just mean cameras with a "cult" following - I have no interest in ever owning a Lomo - but when people go to the effort of setting up and maintaining a webpage to extol the virtues of a particular camera for no reason other than that they admire its design and technical qualities (as opposed to because they have a vested interest in selling more) then you can usually tell it's a camera worth owning. Of course it helps to do proper research and discover the "small print". I bought an Olympus Mju II (Stylus Epic) cheap on Ebay after reading overwhelmingly positive reviews; one roll of film later and I practically had nervous twitches as a result of the number of pictures ruined by forgetting that the flash must be turned off every time you open the lens cover! :x

The novelty of aesthetically impressive P&S cameras is starting to wear off now (with the exception of the XA range) and I'm now more interested in SLRs and the occasional rangefinder. My "collection" of the latter so far only includes a Voigtlander Vito which I didn't exactly collect (it was my father's) but the quality of the camera and the photos mean I'll be on the lookout for more. SLRs are my main area of interest, and I'm mainly looking for manual focus ones. The first SLR I bought was a Minolta Dynax 404si, which is fully automatic but can be used with shutter or aperture priority, five programmed modes or fully manual. It has some impressive features, but for the everyday business of taking good quality photos it's not very good - the autofocus is quite slow and easily confused, but much worse is the fact that the viewfinder is very, very dark, so composing night-time photos is pretty much impossible. Slow autofocus is acceptable for an entry-level SLR, but having a viewfinder that dark - leaving you with a camera that can only really be used in bright natural light - is unforgiveable. After this started to bother me I turned to a manual focus Pentax P30 which I'd bought for next to nothing at an auction but forgotten about, and I soon realised it was a significantly better camera - the image in the viewfinder was no darker than the scene outside (and why should it be?), and... well yeah, it looks cool. For a start, it's all black. It's also smaller. Unlike the Minolta, it even sounds cool - it has that "clunk" which somehow just sounds right. It has only one fault, however it's a big one - no cable release! In most situations this wouldn't be a problem, but after spending ages trying to hold the camera still with a 500mm lens attached, my sanity has been stretched to breaking point.

Wow, that was an unnecessarily long post. Essentially I would collect anything that looks good, feels good and produces good results. Ideally I'd collect high-end digital and film SLRs by all the big names - Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Fuji and Olympus (maybe even Minolta if I could forgive them for the 404's viewfinder!) as well as Olympus digital P&S and various Leicas and Voigtlanders. Unfortunately however I can't afford any of that, so realistically I would (and do) continue to look for manual SLRs similar to the Pentax P30, for example the P30T, P30N and a few Vivitars. If I can pick up a better "entry-level" AF SLR I will - perhaps a Nikon F75 if I can pick one up cheap - otherwise I'm sticking with the Pentax and cameras with the same lens mount. Of course if I thought this through I would realise that with all the money I spend on cheapers cameras and lenses, I could probably buy a really good SLR like a Nikon F6 - but by spending the money in small amounts over a long period of time I can delude myself into thinking that I'm not really wasting the student loan

Mitica100 · Jul 30, 2005

ZaphodB said:
Because of this I'm particularly interested in the Olympus XA series of cameras - though this is currently limited to 3 Olympus XA2s (one broken, one in mint condition and therefore never out the box) and one XA3. At some point I'd like to add the XA and XA4 to that collection, though I could easily live without ever aquiring the ugly-looking XA1.

They are all awesome! I love their compact sizes and aesthetics. I have an XA with the flash unit that I bought at a garage sale for $2.00, it was sold to me as non-functioning. I took it home, cleaned the battery contacts, threw new batteries and voila!... a beauty. I like the XA2 very much, a nifty little cam that rivals some of the miniature German cameras like Rollie and Minox. I think of it as a sturdier machine than the German ones.

Don Simon · Aug 1, 2005

Yeah, in particular I like how comparatively easy it is to take them apart for maintenance and repair. That is until you drop the cover's ball-bearing on the carpet and it bounces (presumably into an alternate dimension)... I've been round the room several times on my knees; if someone saw they'd think I'd got religion (not sure which one though

)

Mitica100 · Aug 1, 2005

ZaphodB said:
Yeah, in particular I like how comparatively easy it is to take them apart for maintenance and repair. That is until you drop the cover's ball-bearing on the carpet and it bounces (presumably into an alternate dimension)... I've been round the room several times on my knees; if someone saw they'd think I'd got religion (not sure which one though )

I know it too well! I've learned to put a white towel on the table so things don't bounce out of sight anymore. Also, a strong magnet will do the retrieving job for me if for some reason I drop a small thingie or two.

Don Simon · Aug 4, 2005

Well I now know what I definitely wouldn't collect - Canon Sure Shot point-'n'-shoots. Was given one yesterday; I think you need a magnifying glass to find the viewfinder. I'm sure it's there somewhere, but in the time it would take to look through it I could probably have a Large Format up and shooting...

Mitica100 · Aug 4, 2005

ZaphodB said:
Well I now know what I definitely wouldn't collect - Canon Sure Shot point-'n'-shoots. Was given one yesterday; I think you need a magnifying glass to find the viewfinder. I'm sure it's there somewhere, but in the time it would take to look through it I could probably have a Large Format up and shooting...

:lmao: :lmao: :lol: