Michaels Camera Museum

[Mick Fagan]

Dead Link Removed

Is the link to one of the best camera museums I have ever seen. The best part for me is that it is in my home city, something I would have never believed I would ever see here when I was much younger.

Anyone who either lives in Melbourne, or visits Melbourne, should really think about a visit to this camera store and it’s museum.

It’s free, open every day of the year (except four days) and the stuff there is quite interesting.

The most unusual camera I saw was a 1930s Japanese rifle range camera. It looks like a kind of machine gun, from the untouchables television show. In fact it was designed to teach and show military personnel how good or bad they were at firing a rifle, without (presumably) the noise and cost, of firing rounds and rounds of ammunition.

Some years ago I was privileged enough to see pretty much the entire collection, (over 7,000 pieces) this was before the store was completely remodelled and the museum became a reality. Mind-boggling, was the best description the small group of us who were shown the collection could come up with.

Having seen the Rollei museum in Braunschweig Germany, The Jena museum in Jena East Germany, two private collections in Switzerland (Hasselblad) and England (Nikon) in the eighties, this is the best for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it is pretty much several lifetimes of collecting if it were to be done individually.

Secondly, it encompasses the whole range of photographic apparatus that has been available, not one brand or model type.

Lastly, it wasn’t designed to be a camera collection for a museum, it’s pretty much the stuff that has been traded, or offered for direct sale to this pretty unique camera store, then put aside for the owner(s) to privately use, cherish or just look at.

I went there yesterday for the first time, specifically to view the camera museum, should’ve done it before!

After the visit I realised why second hand Leica prices are so gross in this country. Almost every secondhand Leica camera, seems to be in this museum. In fact it looks like they have almost every model Leica ever made, including the first model!

Mick.

 

[Terence]

Unfortunately, I was just getting into photography in the mid to late 1990's when all the great NYC shops were in decline or closing. I caught the tail end of it, alas.

Is the collection primarily 35mm? Tough to tell from the two photos.

 

[copake_ham]

Unfortunately, I was just getting into photography in the mid to late 1990's when all the great NYC shops were in decline or closing. I caught the tail end of it, alas.

Is the collection primarily 35mm? Tough to tell from the two photos.

Terence,

Adorama still has quite a collection of vintage gear (and for sale) that you can ogle. Imagine so at B&H too. And, though I've never been up to the shop, Tamarkin on Park Ave. So. (high floor - not street level) runs auctions of high end stuff and has a lot of older gear on hand.

 

[Terence]

I stopped by B&H on Monday for the first time in months. The used department had some pretty nice stuff, including an 11x14 Wisner, but the tone was somber. There was ONE other person up there.

Adorama has some interesting stuff from time to time. There used to be a little camera trader's place on the block behind it that always had some precious gems.

Lens & Repro is still a fun museum-like place, with stuff I'll probably never see elsewhere, but the prices are astronomical. I've made them fairly reasonable offers (50% or more above auction prices) on some stuff they've had sitting on top of cabinets for years, and they've never bitten. The only things I ever got there were my 19" non-RD Artar (optics are fine, but paint is totally gone) and one of the first Toyo 45CF's (when they had a huge rebate on it).

Wall Street Camera used to be great. Their prices were sometimes silly, but if they knew it was something that wouldn't sell for years, they'd haggle.

Olden is a shell of its former self, now being accessed through a wholesale jewelry place.

There's a camera museum out in Plainfield, NJ I keep meaning to go to, but haven't made it yet.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Terence, I assume the collection is a summary of what was selling, and then what was traded over a long time in Melbourne.

So the answer is that it is primarily 35mm, but there are all of the 6x6 cameras and 6x7 then scattered about are some of the oddities.

On the ground floor, alongside the staircase to the museum, there is an 1890s (I think) 8x10.

In one of the glass cases is a very interesting collection of lantern projectors, none of which have been converted to electricity. In short, add fuel, and you're in business.

Another case contains many different brands of cut away cameras, or ones covered with clear plastic, which were used as advertising tools in years gone by.

Another case is full of gold plated collector editions of cameras and their lavish ornate wooden boxes. Seems that most major manufacturers, not just Leica and Hasselblad, have at one time or another, released some special gold covered camera. Bit of a waste really, they are precision instruments destined never to be used.

An interesting camera was a Nikon F2 kitted out with (I think) the MD-3, MB-1, DS-12 AH-1 and some quite long and hideously priced in it's day, lens. I would think it is a dream camera festooned with dream accessories, from yesteryear.

The major European and Oriental manufacturing companys are quite well represented, with a sprinkling of other not so well known companys having a bit of a showing here and there.

Mick.

 

[paul ewins]

I popped in there again on Thursday for another look. The only thing (to my mind) that is missing is that there is nothing made by Graflex at all. There is a good representation of the Japanese cameras and lots of Rolleis and Leicas. The two portrait cameras on the massive two post stands always spike my GAS as does the Pentax SMCT 1000/8.

Their second hand department is always worth looking at too, but mainly because it is all so overpriced that the good stuff never sells.

 

[Tony Egan]

Mick - I paid a quick visit a few months ago when I was in Melb on business. It is very impressive and a big chunk of real estate to devote to a camera museum in the downtown of a major city. Not much LF gear but 35mm and MF well represented. I found every camera I have or had owned except a Yashica 'D' TLR. They seemed to have every other Yashica TLR except this model.
Tony