And now for something completely different..

[darinwc]

So I have a camera problem. I admit it.
I don't just have multiple cameras, I have multiple systems.

But what I found I really like are those cameras from the 50's and 60's before the ubiquitous SLR came into fashion. For example, the voigtlander Vitessa, with its plunger advance and barn doors.

So what camera oddities can you recommend? Things that would invite questions and interest. Things that make people ask "what in the world is that?"

 

[AgX]

I like cameras with strange door constructions.
I got one Disc camera where it actually took me 5 min to realize how to open it to get lens and finder unshielded.

 

[seanE]

I doubt there's anything more imposing than a big old 8x10 camera on a wooden tripod

 

[Vaughn]

I doubt there's anything more imposing than a big old 8x10 camera on a wooden tripod

Unless it is an 11x14...

 

[frank]

You say that you own multiple systems like there's something wrong with that. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[fstop]

You say that you own multiple systems like there's something wrong with that. Variety is the spice of life.

Really I didn't catch that tone in his voice.I thought it was more like " some people have multiple cameras, (and think they have a lot of stuff) I have MULTIPLE SYSTEMS (Which means I do have A LOT of stuff)

 

[Alan Gales]

I own a pair of 35mm Stereo Realist cameras. People get confused when they see a camera with two "taking" lenses.

I also own an 8x10. No 11X14 yet, Vaughn!

 

[telletdl]

Yeah, the plunger on the Voigtlander is fun. The Realist too - I have a Realist 45 with the viewfinder on the bottom so you brace it against your forehead. People wonder why you're holding the camera upside down. A TLR chimney finder is always good for a comment or two.

 

[macfred]

So what camera oddities can you recommend? Things that would invite questions and interest. Things that make people ask "what in the world is that?"

What about a nice Linhof 220 - stylish and chic with practical value http://www.iscanmanuals.com/paypal/concept.jpg

 

[Paul Howell]

Univrex Mercury with flash
Bosley C or C22, twin lens 35mm with a rangefinder.

 

[removed account4]

bencini

 

[anfenglin]

Exa or Exakta, they'll freak you out being left-hand oriented and all.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Cameras with focal plane and leaf shutters.

 

[John Koehrer]

Yeah, the plunger on the Voigtlander is fun. The Realist too - I have a Realist 45 with the viewfinder on the bottom so you brace it against your forehead. People wonder why you're holding the camera upside down. A TLR chimney finder is always good for a comment or two.

You could tell them it's so the pictures come out right side up.

 

[John Koehrer]

BTW, more on topic, theres this.

 

[Truzi]

I own a pair of 35mm Stereo Realist cameras. People get confused when they see a camera with two "taking" lenses.

Yeah, the plunger on the Voigtlander is fun. The Realist too - I have a Realist 45 with the viewfinder on the bottom so you brace it against your forehead. People wonder why you're holding the camera upside down. A TLR chimney finder is always good for a comment or two.

I've a Voightlander Vitessa, it is a mechanical work of art. People have mistaken my Realist 45 for a TLR (b/c of two lenses), and seemed disappointed to find it wasn't - despite the 3-D aspect.
I have gotten strange reactions when I've used my Kodak The Handle (I've 1 pack of Fuji film left, then I'll try to hack it for Instax). They often think it is a toy, or old video camera (from it's size), and a few have been afraid it was a fake camera that "squirts water or something."

 

[Theo Sulphate]

So what camera oddities can you recommend? Things that would invite questions and interest. Things that make people ask "what in the world is that?"

Exakta, as mentioned above.

Also consider Minox III through Minox B for your time period.

 

[Alan Gales]

I've never owned one but I always thought the Conterex's were unusual.

http://www.edoardomelchiori.com/zeiss-ikon-contarex-bullseye#.Vr7K4hzxb9M

 

[onre]

Werra.

 

[jeffreythree]

Nickelodeon Photoblaster. I may have to do a bit of customization on it before being seen in public with that thing; so my daughter is working on the first roll. 144 frames is taking a while, even for her. It should be a diptych and quadriptych taking machine.

 

[k.hendrik]

Dacora "DIGNA" (but that Univrex thingy is next on my list)

 

[Patrick Robert James]

You could try a K.W. Patent Etui. It is a bellows plate type camera that folds so small you can put it in your pocket, but the bellows draw is absolutely huge. Other features that fit into the little package- it has a right angle finder, a sports finder, ground glass back, infinity stop and also has rise. You'd have to see it to believe it. Marvelous camera.

I have a small plastic camera somewhere that takes four frames in rapid succession (inside about a second) quartered on a single size frame. Kind of fun every now and then. I think I paid like $5 for it new at a museum.

 

[albada]

Konica III/IIIa/IIIM are top quality and different, having the advance-lever on the front around the lens. I enjoy cameras made before everything was standardised.

 

[Dr Croubie]

You haven't tried weird until you've tried a Kodak Retina (Reflex or RF), in all their madness.

- Film advance lever on the bottom.

- Film numbering counts down, not up, and must be reset to '36' or '24' manually, moving 3 at a time. Impossible with bulk-loads unless you know exactly how many you get to a roll, which makes the next point all the more fun...

- ... Metal gear film-advance teeth. Keep winding after the last shot, and it'll just happily shred your film sprocket holes without missing a beat, and there's no easily-discernible pressure difference to regular winding so you won't know when you're doing it. Once it's ripped you'll just keep on winding until you think, "hey, have I got 50 shots on this roll so far?".

- Aperture ring that moves the shutter speed in opposite directions. Perfect for deciding between DOF and shutter speed once you've set the exposure right. But when the light changes and you need to set the new exposure, there's a fiddly little wheel under the lens to move. That changes the aperture but not the speed. And if you're at one end or the other of the dial (and need to go further), you have to change the aperture/shutter speed together then keep winding with the wheel underneath. That's on the 'Retina Reflex IV', on the 'Retina Reflex' you literally pull the aperture ring towards you to disengage teeth and move it around.

- The light meter (on the 'Retina Reflex IV' and 'Retina Reflex' at least) is on the right, perfect for covering with your hand as you reach for the shutter. The shutter on the IV is next to the lens and not on top of the case like the 'Retina Reflex' and most other cameras.

- On the IV there is a little window out the bottom of the viewfinder to view the current shutter speed/aperture combo, a great idea in the days before in-finder LCDs / LEDs, so it's not all weird.

- The 'Retina Reflex' has lenses that are weirder still, the back three elements are fixed and you change the front cells, which ends up with an 80mm f/4 having the same front diameter as an 85mm f/1.5 lens I've got. These were interchangeable with Retina RF cameras, which only had RF calibration for the 50mm lens, so you had to line up the RF to find the distance then use a lookup table on the lens to figure out what you really needed to set it to, or something like that. When mounted on the Reflex the lookup-table is on the underside of the lens, which confuses you no end thinking the lens is on wrong unless you know what it does. There's also nothing stopping you from choosing a shutter/aperture combination of f/2 even if the lens only opens to f/4.

There's a great writeup on the Retina Reflex (and RFs) at Cameraquest, the strangest thing is that I read all of it, thought "wow, these cameras sound weird", and then bought a few anyway...

 

[Theo Sulphate]

The Retina Reflex is quite similar to the Voigtländer Bessamatic in many respects, such as the count-down, lens operations, and lens design. It also has the metal teeth.

The Retina IIa and Exakta 500 also count down - I prefer this, as I'd like to know how many exposures I have left. If I've bulk loaded, neither method really works - you just need to feel the tension.

Polaroid made some models count up, some down -- very annoying.