Cameras with a special place in your heart.

KerrKid · Mar 14, 2023

The other day, my best friend in high school and fellow yearbook photographer told me he was going to send me his Nikkormat. I was stunned. He's been a PJ and an active photographer for many years and this is his high school camera - a camera that I saw hanging around his neck hundreds if not thousands of times. This is the kind of thing you usually only get when someone dies. Well, I got it today and I can't believe it. It's beautiful. This is my Minolta SRT101 high school camera next to it. We took a lot of pictures together with both these cameras.

Anyone else have a camera or cameras that mean something special to them?

wiltw · Mar 14, 2023

Made of Unobtainium, I could never have one of these because it cost the equivalent of 3.3 weeks of median US income pay.

and as a teen, I had no income.

KerrKid · Mar 14, 2023

wiltw said:
Made of Unobtainium, I could never have one of these because it cost the equivalent of 3.3 weeks of median US income pay.

and as a teen, I had no income.

Wow. Beautiful camera. Any backstory? Do you own this now?

wiltw · Mar 15, 2023

KerrKid said:
Wow. Beautiful camera. Any backstory? Do you own this now?

Over 50 years after the initial teen lust for the camera made of Unobtainium, I entered a thrift store with my wife, and saw a camera in a glass disply case. I asked to see it and opened the eveready case, not sure what to expect...it was a Topcon Super D with f/1.4 lens, for $25 ...I bought it immediately, not caring if it even worked. I took it home, ran a roll of Tri-X thru it to test all the shutter speeds, and it operated perfectly, including the TTL meter.

The Topcon D-1, was only 2.1 weeks of median US pay at $269, was only partially made of Unobtanium, so I had a great desire for one of those as a teen, too. Finding the Super D sparked a long supressed purchase bent. Three of the world's first SLRs with TTL metering.

The camera at the far right, the Auto 100, was what dad could afford to buy me...it was only 1.3 weeks median pay But now I can somewhat replicate the Beseler ad photo. All are operational, amazing after almost 58 years.

Photomultiplier · Mar 15, 2023

My grandfather's Pentax Spotmatic F. He made tons of slides (trains, excursions, parties etc.) which i still have.
When he died in 2007, i got all of his photography equipment which got me started on photography. I already knew the stuff and especially analog, as we lived only
a few hundred meters apart and i often visited my grandparents.

Soon after i got hooked, i upgraded to Hasselblad, but his stuff has a special place and to this day, it sometimes feels like some kind of tribute to him when i photograph.

This thread reminded me that i should sift through all the slide boxes and digitize valuable ones.

koraks · Mar 15, 2023

Mamiya old ZM. There's something about how it felt, and handled. It had this tactile quality to it that I really liked. This was my main camera for a couple of years and I took it pretty much everywhere. Sadly, the build quality wasn't quite up to that kind of intensive (ab)use and ultimately it suffered from several problems that were increasingly difficult to fix. I may still have it in a box somewhere, although I'm not entirely sure - perhaps it's gone now.

One of the images I made with it:

It's a small photopolymer intaglio print of a digital positive, the original negative being exposed on TMY2 in the medina of Fes, Morocco, about 8 years ago. It was the last trip abroad I took this camera on.

polka · Mar 15, 2023

wiltw said:
Over 50 years after the initial teen lust for the camera made of Unobtainium, I entered a thrift store with my wife, and saw a camera in a glass disply case. I asked to see it and opened the eveready case, not sure what to expect...it was a Topcon Super D with f/1.4 lens, for $25 ...I bought it immediately, not caring if it even worked. I took it home, ran a roll of Tri-X thru it to test all the shutter speeds, and it operated perfecting, including the TTL meter.

The Topcon D-1, was only 2.1 weeks of median US pay at $269, was only partially made of Unobtanium, so I had a great desire for one of those as a teen, too. Finding the Super D sparked a long supressed purchase bent. Three of the world's first SLRs with TTL metering.

The camera at the far right, the Auto 100, was what dad could afford to buy me...it was only 1.3 weeks median pay But now I can somewhat replicate the Beseler ad photo. All are operational, amazing after almost 58 years.

Question : does the Auto 100 use the same (exakta) lens mount as the two others ?

When in high school, I bought myself the RE2 (as it was named in France) in the middle of your picture. It was my first (and only for a long time) SLR. It costed me one month holiday salary in a paper factory. Whereas the Super D has a horizontal cloth shutter synchronized for flash at 1/60, the RE2 has a vertical metal shutter synchronized at 1/125. But its prism is fixed. A few years later, I got an exakta VX1000 with a Pancolar 2/50mm, so I could compare :
The Topcor 1.8/58mm is better, especially at short distances.

Bye, POLKa

Huss · Mar 15, 2023

koraks said:
Mamiya old ZM. There's something about how it felt, and handled. It had this tactile quality to it that I really liked. This was my main camera for a couple of years and I took it pretty much everywhere. Sadly, the build quality wasn't quite up to that kind of intensive (ab)use and ultimately it suffered from several problems that were increasingly difficult to fix. I may still have it in a box somewhere, although I'm not entirely sure - perhaps it's gone now.

One of the images I made with it:

It's a small photopolymer intaglio print of a digital positive, the original negative being exposed on TMY2 in the medina of Fes, Morocco, about 8 years ago. It was the last trip abroad I took this camera on.

Love that pic!

Huss · Mar 15, 2023

Not really cameras, but the camera magazines from the 1980s had a special place for me. As a kid with no money, I would be mesmerized by the glossy ads run in Pop Photography etc by all the manufacturers. Everything seemed exotic to me! I do remember one print add for the Contax 139, 137 and RTS. I had about as much chance as getting one as I would a Ferrari!
Minolta had some great ones for their XD series cameras.

wiltw · Mar 15, 2023

polka said:
Question : does the Auto 100 use the same (exakta) lens mount as the two others ?

The Auto 100 uses an entirely different mount...the lens rear element is a somewhat small diameter because of the leaf shutter mechanism (in the body) constraining the diameter of the rear optics.

polka said:
the RE2 has a vertical metal shutter synchronized at 1/125

The metal Copal Square shutter's 1/125 X-sync speed was always an attraction for me, among focal plane shutter bodies. It took more decades for X-synch to be made faster. The Auto 100 could synch with electronic flash to its top speed, 1/500, since it was a leaf shutter immediately behind the lens opening.

Andrew O'Neill · Mar 15, 2023

Probably my K1000, my wife's Great Grandad's C330 (he had a photo studio in Japan), and my Grandad's Brownie Six-20.

abruzzi · Mar 15, 2023

black Nikkormat FTn. My first camera bought as a college student in 1991, with a Nikkor-H 50mm ƒ2. That all I shot for 12 years, before going digital. Threw the camera in a box and forgot about it until I got back into film in ~2015. Found the box it was in, wiped the dust off, and it still worked perfectly including that battery which was in it in 1991 when I bought it, and it still works today. A perpetual battery that never dies and a perpetual camera that never dies. I rarely shoot 35mm these days, but that camera just feels right in my hand, so much that I bought a near perfect chrome Nikkormat to sit along side it (I loved the fact that even a Nikkormat listed on KEH as "LN-"--like new minus--only sold for $100.)

MattKing · Mar 15, 2023

The Retina IIIc that I bought for my Dad more than 20 years ago. I bought it for him because when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, he always wanted one, but could not justify the expense - growing family and all that.
He used it for more than ten years - well into his 70s. When his eyesight made it impractical, he gave it back to me.

JerseyDoug · Mar 15, 2023

The Leica IIIf RDST with a 50/3.5 Elmar lens that I bought in the summer of 1965 from a small Mom & Pop camera store on 14th Street in Manhattan. I still regularly use the camera but I foolishly sold the lens a number of years ago.

Chrismat · Mar 15, 2023

My Pentax 6X7, the first medium format camera I purchased. I have a bunch of other medium format cameras that I like a lot, but the Pentax is my favorite.

Chuck_P · Mar 15, 2023

Canon A-1 with the MA Motordrive, I also had 200mm f/4, 50mm 1.4, and a 24mm f2.8 lenses in a Domke camera bag.

It was all stolen from me while I was in the Navy in 1988......

Kodachromeguy · Mar 15, 2023

These are all such nice stories. The first camera I remember was my father's Leica IIIC with a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. He bought it in 1949 on Guam when he worked for the US Navy. I still use this IIIC at least once a year. I also have a 1962 Jupiter-8 and a Canon 50mm ƒ/2 ltm lens to use with the body.

https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2017/12/good-things-in-small-packages-leica-iiic.html

Rick A · Mar 15, 2023

My Olympus FTL kit, long gone but sorely missed. I purchased it new in 1971, I liked it more than the Nikkormat sitting next to it in the shop, it just felt right in my hands.

AnselMortensen · Mar 15, 2023

Hmmm...
Instamatic 44...my first camera, a birthday present, c.1969.
Nikon F with Photomic "flag" finder...first 'real' camera, bought with my own money, c. 1975. Sold it in high school to pay for other hobbies.
Nikon FE-2, black...first & only camera ever bought brand-new. c. 1984. It got me through 2 photography programs, community college & university. I wore it out.
Every camera since then has just been a camera.

waynecrider · Mar 15, 2023

Huss said:
Not really cameras, but the camera magazines from the 1980s had a special place for me. As a kid with no money, I would be mesmerized by the glossy ads run in Pop Photography etc by all the manufacturers. Everything seemed exotic to me! I do remember one print add for the Contax 139, 137 and RTS. I had about as much chance as getting one as I would a Ferrari!
Minolta had some great ones for their XD series cameras.

Been there as well although I started in 70.

Tenchi · Mar 15, 2023

wiltw said:
Over 50 years after the initial teen lust for the camera made of Unobtainium, I entered a thrift store with my wife, and saw a camera in a glass disply case. I asked to see it and opened the eveready case, not sure what to expect...it was a Topcon Super D with f/1.4 lens, for $25 ...I bought it immediately, not caring if it even worked. I took it home, ran a roll of Tri-X thru it to test all the shutter speeds, and it operated perfectly, including the TTL meter.

The Topcon D-1, was only 2.1 weeks of median US pay at $269, was only partially made of Unobtanium, so I had a great desire for one of those as a teen, too. Finding the Super D sparked a long supressed purchase bent. Three of the world's first SLRs with TTL metering.

The camera at the far right, the Auto 100, was what dad could afford to buy me...it was only 1.3 weeks median pay But now I can somewhat replicate the Beseler ad photo. All are operational, amazing after almost 58 years.

Lucky fellow u are... Have any image made from these beauties?

ags2mikon · Mar 15, 2023

As far as the adds in magazines that as a teenager caught my eye, Miranda!

wiltw · Mar 15, 2023

ags2mikon said:
As far as the adds in magazines that as a teenager caught my eye, Miranda!

The Miranda Sensorex was a desireable camera. Too bad its long term reliability hurt the brand.

Ian Grant · Mar 16, 2023

Photomultiplier said:
My grandfather's Pentax Spotmatic F. He made tons of slides (trains, excursions, parties etc.) which i still have.
When he died in 2007, i got all of his photography equipment which got me started on photography. I already knew the stuff and especially analog, as we lived only
a few hundred meters apart and i often visited my grandparents.

Soon after i got hooked, i upgraded to Hasselblad, but his stuff has a special place and to this day, it sometimes feels like some kind of tribute to him when i photograph.

This thread reminded me that i should sift through all the slide boxes and digitize valuable ones.

I'd choose a Spotmatic F, mine was a 21st Birthday present from my parents, although I went and bought it. I used it for a few years along with 2 S1a cameras. However, in the end I sold all my M42 kit to go Pentax K mount as I was shooting a lot of rock concerts and screw mount lenses were impractical.

Around 20 years ago I bought a Spotmatic F off a fellow MA student, (indirectly). It's the elegant simplicity and functionality.

Ian

Kino · Mar 16, 2023

Minolta SRT MC II; my first camera. Pure minimalism with only match needle exposure system in the viewfinder. A stripped-down camera produced for Kmart and JC Penney department stores. Bought mine at Kmart and often went back for their Ferrania "film by the yard" packs. You could get a literal yard length tube filled with about 12 rolls of color negative for $9.99 as I remember.

Fun times...

Cameras with a special place in your heart.

KerrKid

wiltw

KerrKid

wiltw

Photomultiplier

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