I'm not a collector, all my cameras are for using. Sometimes I'll buy one because it seems to be interesting to use & I want to find out if I'll like shooting with it. There are some cameras that I used a lot years ago but now get little use so I'll sell a couple of them soon.
That's exactly my approach too, but having never got rid of an old camera, and keeping a few extras to lend out when teaching, I do seem to have ended up with rather a lot...
Smaller than 35mm
- Minox C
- Somewhere I must have my first ever camera, a 126 instamatic
35mm
- Ricoh GR1v (backed up by a GR10) that I use all the time
- Ricoh GR21, also used all the time: this and the GR1v are usually in a little waist pack that goes with me most times that I am going anywhere without specifically taking more 'serious' gear. Kodak 400UC in the GR1v and a C41 B&W film in the GR21, usually
- Ricoh R10
- About half a dozen 'compact' rangefinders - favourites being the Olympus SP, Konica S3, and Yashica Electro 35CC for quality, and the humble Ricoh 500RF for its controllability, all used for 'street' and low light stuff. There's a Voigtlaender VF 135 in the car 'just in case' too
- Kiev 4 no longer seeing much use
- Hasselblad X-Pan, wonderful camera
- Three old Pentax Spotmatics, replaced by...
- Five Pentax LX (including my trademark pink snakeskin one) plus a parts body, these are my workhorse cameras in 35mm, three usually holding Velvia, Kodak E100VS, and B&W of some type. TMax 3200 is quite often in Pinky, and that leaves a spare body ready to load up with something else if needed
- Two Pentax MX, for when I need an LX plus a lighter backup, or for times when the LX's titanium shutter is too loud, for example
- A Pentax MZ-S and an MZ-3
I think that's it...
Medium Format
- Fujica GS645 and 645S rangefinders, very portable and fabulous lenses
- Two Fujica G690BL 'Texas Leicas' plus one in need of repair and a G670, wonderful cameras for MF when travelling light, or for anytime I want the rangefinder way of working, but vastly more enlargeability than 35mm
- Three 6x9 folders
- Two Exacta 66 (postwar) and two Pentacon Six TLs, clunky cameras but with some wonderful Zeiss and even more wonderful Schneider lenses, my MF SLR system for work, you need backups if you're working with these bodies
- A Rolleiflex 3.5E Planar, as close as any of my cameras comes to being a plaything rather than a tool, but this one still gets used for real work too, and is a joy to use
- Modified Graflex Century Graphic and a miniature Speed Graphic, the former as my 'lightweight' 6x9 option for travelling, the latter to use barrel lenses (and for a plan to see what happens when I put the Pentax 28mm shift lens on it one day). These use the same rollfilm holders as...
- Four old type Arca-Swiss 6x9 monorails, here I admit I do have more than I need, since a couple I bought because of the lenses/case/backs/shade/etc. they came with and haven't sold on the cameras yet. These are wonderful cameras for still-life work and for architecture and landscape any time when 4x5 is too much to transport.
Large Format
- Some old type Arca-Swiss 4x5 monorails, I say 'some' as it depends how you count things with such a modular system, but I know I have enough components to assemble at least four 'distinct' cameras if I wanted to. In practice they are usually assembled as one bells-and-whistles axis-tilt model, one lightweight 'field' model (6x9 front standard, tapered bellows and 4x5 rear standard), and maybe one set up for wideangle work - which usually means an axis tilt front standard but base only on the rear because you can focus slightly shorter lenses that way, down to my 38mm on a recessed panel
- A hybrid Arca-Swiss 4x5 using new F line standards and bellows on old type rails and carriers: this is lighter than any except the field one, but has a bit more movement (especially on the front) than the field so is a sort of compromise weight version
- An Arca-Swiss M-Line 4x5, weighs a ton but is the finest studio machine I've ever known, a real joy to work with
- An old type Arca-Swiss 5x7, used with 13x18 and with half-plate sized film
- Two wooden half plate field cameras, one is purely for decoration in my study (my only decorative, non-use, camera) and the other I plan to make both 5x7 and 4x5 backs for and use as a 13x18 field camera for landscape
- An old type Arca-Swiss axis tilt 10x8
Phew. I think that's it. Everything is there, or at least was originally acquired, for a reason, though there are some items that I plan to sell off when I get round to it. Someone else can count up what that comes to, I'm going to bed...
Peter