So you win the Mega Powerball what 35mm SLR would you bring back? Ower

[eli griggs]

500cm with C quality build.

or

A F-1n with an updated meter.

or a Leica Barnak, L39 with the M windows, like the G and an adapter for M lenses.

 

[Pieter12]

None. If I were to be lucky enough to win mega big bucks and foolish enough to blow it on a 35mm camera, I would have one designed from scratch.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Either a Contax RTS III (call it an RTS IV?) or a Contax RX with the DFI (Digital Focus Indicator) function that they took away in the Mk II version. Not only are they great cameras, but they're also sexy to hold and sexy to look at. I wouldn't revive the Contax N series because they suffer from a significant lack of lens options.

 

[chuckroast]

The original Nikon FtN Photomic body and accessory family with the meter updated for modern batteries and sensing electronics so it would have the option of a true spot feature. Otherwise identical in every way to the original.

But that said, there is a joy to owning and rehabbing/maintaining older equipment. I have a bunch of Nikon mechanical film bodies that all work just fine that I love shooting with. My recently acquired Leica M2 is a joy to use (though the cost of glass is ghastly). My Leica IIIf puts a smile on my face every time I pick it up.

New isn't better. Sometimes, well traveled is (or at least that's what I tell myself ...)

 

[eli griggs]

The original Nikon FtN Photomic body and accessory family with the meter updated for modern batteries and sensing electornics so it would have the option of a true spot feature. Otherwise identical in every way to the original.

But that said, there is a joy to owning and rehabbing/maintaining older equipment. I have a bunch of Nikon mechanical film bodies that all work just fine that I love shooting with. My recently acquired Leica M2 is a joy to use (though the cost of glass is ghastly). My Leica IIIf puts a smile on my face every time I pick it up.

New isn't better. Sometimes, well traveled is (or at least that's what I tell myself ...)

"Proven Design" is the reward for bringing back old film camera designs, even with modifications, and the same or better quality, metal and curtain materials, top notch robotic assemblies or sintered molded devices, replacing as much hand fitted labor as possible.

Keeping proven designs, without introducing unnessaccery novel gimmicks, while allowing, actually seeking the advantages of advanced metals, glass, meters, etc., without any inflating costs anywhere as massively as digital products have become.

My opinion only.

 

[AnselMortensen]

Nikon F3P-HP with 1/250 sync speed, and a mechanical shutter, a la FM2n.
And let's make a new production run of MD-4 battery holders while we're at it.

 

[Pieter12]

500cm with C quality build.

or

A F-1n with an updated meter.

or a Leica Barnak, L39 with the M windows, like the G and an adapter for M lenses.

Only one of those is a 35mm SLR. It's a fantasy, you gotta follow the rules.

 

[Chuck1]

An fm2 with a spot meter would be cool

 

[eli griggs]

Only one of those is a 35mm SLR. It's a fantasy, you gotta follow the rules.

The Hasselblad can shoot 35mm film, so let's put it back in the list

 

[Radost]

The only 135 i would consider is a panoramic rangefinder. Plenty of existing 135 cameras still alive

 

[Paul Howell]

As I posted this thread in 2021 I have changed my mind. F2 with flash sync of 125 and updated motor drive with plug in rechargeable battery pack and Leica R9 digital back.

 

[Besk]

Nikon F2 with built-in meter and focus confirmation.

 

[reddesert]

I recognize that this thread isn't about realistic constraints, but a thought: Spinning up manufacturing of a traditional mechanical SLR isn't that realistic, perhaps even if you had access to all the old engineering drawings. It might take more than a Powerball to set up the assembly line and so on.

However, a camera like the Nikon F2 is interesting because the body (nearly all the mechanics) and the finder (nearly all the electronics) are separable. And electronics have changed a lot more than mechanics since 1974. If someone wanted to, they could probably build a new finder head with advanced metering and a different display. Focus confirmation would be harder because there'd be no AF sensor in the body, but there should be ways to do that with a combination of finder + new focusing screen. This would not be a profit-making product, but it is within the realm of the possible.

 

[Chuck1]

An de-1 (eylevel) with a spot meter would be a beautiful thing(might as well make it titanium), maybe they could sneak in a digital sensor too shoot film and digital...
And since Hasselblad is fair game a flex body that takes linhof lensboards and graflock backs at a reasonable price would be nice.
Make it handholdable, an option for 4x5...modular

 

[Sirius Glass]

The only 135 i would consider is a panoramic rangefinder. Plenty of existing 135 cameras still alive

WideLux F7 or F8 would fill your desire.

 

[Radost]

WideLux F7 or F8 would fill your desire.

I was thinking more like XPan

 

[Sirius Glass]

I was thinking more like XPan

Different beasts, but if you have the money go for it. I dragged my feet too long and did not buy it and the three lenses when the price was much better.

 

[eli griggs]

With today's automatic machining, newish sintering metals for precision molds, 3-D laser modeling, etc., could not a small production reimagined manufacturing line not get a "new" camera off and running, on a limited scale to feel out demand for proven analog cameras?

 

[Pieter12]

With today's automatic machining, newish sintering metals for precision molds, 3-D laser modeling, etc., could not a small production reimagined manufacturing line not get a "new" camera off and running, on a limited scale to feel out demand for proven analog cameras?

There are a slew of 3-D printed cameras out there, Not 35mm that I am aware of--and not copies of existing, complex designs. The investment is probably not worth the payoff, except as a hobby or passion. The latest from Gibellini DCG66. https://www.instagram.com/gibellinicamera/p/C2RwnBCIqaf/?ref=tablehopper.com&hl=af&img_index=1

 

[eli griggs]

There are a slew of 3-D printed cameras out there, Not 35mm that I am aware of--and not copies of existing, complex designs. The investment is probably not worth the payoff, except as a hobby or passion. The latest from Gibellini DCG66. https://www.instagram.com/gibellinicamera/p/C2RwnBCIqaf/?ref=tablehopper.com&hl=af&img_index=1

IMO, a key point is that persons, newly rich or already well healed folks, generally have a Love for the product, service, or literature, that is they wish to remanufacture so others that share their Love for, or for those others that they wish to have their own experience with that 'tool', perhaps a single generation or more removed that was born and raised without the opportunity to use it for themselves.

That kind of philanthropy for kindred spirits is nothing new, even if it offers no real possibility of profit sufficient for a modern for profit business.

I may be wrong but I'll use this for an example; fountain pen ink sacks.

There is a small concern online (last I checked) that bought aluminum molds from a fellow enthusiastic fountain pen use, who was making new latex ink sacks for those of us that love to take disabled & damaged fountain pens and put them back into like new condition including ink sacks.

The sacks are simple to make in latex or modern silicon, that will not succumb to modern or old inks, believed to damage some pens, and this new concern, which as I understand it, sells at reasonable prices to their fellow fountain pen users whom also want to see these tools in use, not tossed or trashed.

Returning an old design camera to the current/future market will most likely be the endeavor of Love I am speaking too, and if there is sufficient demand, they might even make profit enough to grow their product into new and returning generations.

IMO

There are a slew of 3-D printed cameras out there, Not 35mm that I am aware of--and not copies of existing, complex designs. The investment is probably not worth the payoff, except as a hobby or passion. The latest from Gibellini DCG66. https://www.instagram.com/gibellinicamera/p/C2RwnBCIqaf/?ref=tablehopper.com&hl=af&img_index=1

 

[Pieter12]

First off it is “heeled” not “healed.” Big difference. Second, making a fountain pen ink sack or even a whole fountain pen is much less of an endeavor than a 35mm camera. I don’t see anyone stepping up to the plate on that one.

 

[reddesert]

Sometimes in these "new film camera" threads, I feel compelled to say that the most practical route to a new film SLR would be for some company like Nikon to take much of a digital SLR body and build a film transport mechanism onto it. They already have the body, shutter, AF system, exposure, control interfaces, etc. It would be like reversing the way that the D100 body is a descendant/cousin of the N80/F80 body.

This is, from an engineering viewpoint, possible, but business viewpoint, an almost certain money-loser. But that's also not what many people want in a new film camera. They want a new mechanical F2 or similar, not something that looks like a DSLR. I get that, but the inflation-adjusted price of a new 1970s F2 would be around US $3000 in today's dollars, and that doesn't seem like a viable product either.

This thread is about what would you want in a dream project, which is perfectly fine. But it isn't reasonable to then wave hands and say that modern manufacturing should be able to manifest the dream into reality. Modern manufacturing makes things cheaper in part by replacing mechanical systems with electronic systems.

 

[Radost]

Sometimes in these "new film camera" threads, I feel compelled to say that the most practical route to a new film SLR would be for some company like Nikon to take much of a digital SLR body and build a film transport mechanism onto it. They already have the body, shutter, AF system, exposure, control interfaces, etc. It would be like reversing the way that the D100 body is a descendant/cousin of the N80/F80 body.

This is, from an engineering viewpoint, possible, but business viewpoint, an almost certain money-loser. But that's also not what many people want in a new film camera. They want a new mechanical F2 or similar, not something that looks like a DSLR. I get that, but the inflation-adjusted price of a new 1970s F2 would be around US $3000 in today's dollars, and that doesn't seem like a viable product either.

This thread is about what would you want in a dream project, which is perfectly fine. But it isn't reasonable to then wave hands and say that modern manufacturing should be able to manifest the dream into reality. Modern manufacturing makes things cheaper in part by replacing mechanical systems with electronic systems.

A mechanical TX1-like rangefinder from Fuji with service for the next 10 years gets my $$$

 

[Radost]

Actually If I win the lottery I will make:
Leica/Minolta CL size M camera with kopal 8000 shutter.

 

[Radost]

Sometimes in these "new film camera" threads, I feel compelled to say that the most practical route to a new film SLR would be for some company like Nikon to take much of a digital SLR body and build a film transport mechanism onto it. They already have the body, shutter, AF system, exposure, control interfaces, etc. It would be like reversing the way that the D100 body is a descendant/cousin of the N80/F80 body.

This is, from an engineering viewpoint, possible, but business viewpoint, an almost certain money-loser. But that's also not what many people want in a new film camera. They want a new mechanical F2 or similar, not something that looks like a DSLR. I get that, but the inflation-adjusted price of a new 1970s F2 would be around US $3000 in today's dollars, and that doesn't seem like a viable product either.

This thread is about what would you want in a dream project, which is perfectly fine. But it isn't reasonable to then wave hands and say that modern manufacturing should be able to manifest the dream into reality. Modern manufacturing makes things cheaper in part by replacing mechanical systems with electronic systems.

The industrial design and manufacturing is a lot cheaper and more precise now even with inflation in mind.