The camera you can't break

Bill Burk · Sep 20, 2011

One thing I discovered about the doors at the Carmel Mission is they open on two different sets of hinges. When you open the doors for the bride, the inside hinge opens all the way to the wall.

The bride was a bit surprised when the doors came back shut on her... As I raced to grab my OM-4 from the crunching corner. Got the doors open again within less than a second. But the 50 f/1.4 was smashed.

The body is still my main 35mm body, didn't faze it one bit.

benjiboy · Sep 20, 2011

The legendary camera that you can "knock nails in with" and will still work is the Nikon F, an American friend of mine who lives here in England has an F that was shot out of his hands in Vietnam, the prism has a bullet score across it but it still works more than forty years later.

RPippin · Sep 20, 2011

For me it's been my Zorki 4K and my Flexaret. Both survived being thrown out of the window of a moving vehicle into a ditch. Both cameras were in a camera bag in my truck and were stolen one night when I forgot to lock the doors. Apparently when the thieves discovered what was inside the bag wasn't, they threw them out the window at the end of the drive. I had Bill at Pro Camera readjust the rangefinder on the Zorki, and with the exception of a small dent on the Flexaret both cameras work just fine.

2F/2F · Sep 20, 2011

I forgot to share the story of the medium format camera of mine that got hit by a truck. I was taking a 60 minute exposure in the desert, and I had the tripod in the middle of a dirt road in 29 Palms. 40 minutes in, I had to pee. I decided, ah hell, it's 4 in the morning. Nobody but me has come down this road all day and night. I can go run inside real quick. Of course, that is when I hear an old truck rattling down the road. I ran outside ASAP, waving my flashlight, but it was too late. The driver and I had a good chuckle about it. Apparently he didn't see the camera, because he was looking around trying to figure out what all the shoutin' and flashlight wavin' was about.

The Bogen 3051 was destroyed, but the camera lived without any issues. I just had to spend an hour cleaning the dirt out of it. Still haven't developed that film.

The moral of the story: Just pee in the dirt.

guitstik · Sep 20, 2011

Chinon DSL that has been through a tornado in a trailer and being sucked in, chewed up and spit out by a semi truck. The tornado comment should be self evident, a friend owned the camera and after we cleaned up after his trailer got hit, we found the camera and it still worked even the 50/2 lens.

After that, the camera became mine and I was helping another friend of mine work on his semi, I set the camera down on the fan shroud and forgot about it. The truck eventually started up and we both heard this horrid noise then a thunk about fifty feet away. The camera survived but it tore up the fan and fan shroud of the truck. The only damage to the camera was a smashed lens, a few scars and the rewind crank was torn off but it is still light tight and taking good pics.

Selidor · Sep 21, 2011

My OM-2n in a way - because the accessories keep breaking instead.
So far in a period of 4 months:
1) The (admittedly weak) hotshoe.
2) An attached B+W KR1.5 filter dismantled itself in a suitcase in the skies over Germany. May have suffered due to temperature variations in the hold.
3)A pristine, original metal Olympus lens hood completely buckled when i dropped it and the attached camera onto concrete. The body itself came to rest against my shoe and escaped damage, mechanical or cosmetic. Interestingly enough so did a "plastic fantastic" Cokin filter. Anyhow it proves the merit of lens hoods on cameras and, i suppose, crumple zones on cars.

Overall my OM-2n appears to be "the one who gets away with it". I can only hope this trend continues.

agfarapid · Sep 22, 2011

For me, it's a toss up between my Topcon Super DM, purchased in '78 and my Leica IIIc bought in '68. The light meter is still ticking in the Topcon and the little Leica just had it's second CLA since I purchased it and neither of them are "shelf queens". Wonder how long my digital Pentax will last?

ic-racer · Sep 22, 2011

Post-apocalyptic times will be characterized by the presence of cockroaches as the only form of life and Yashica FX3 as the only surviving 35mm SLR....

Uncle Bill · Sep 22, 2011

For me a Nikon F with Photomic Ftn meter head.

elcabezagrande · Sep 22, 2011

Ricoh Singlex TLS. It is a metal brick.

CGW · Sep 22, 2011

Minolta SRT 101(passed no DNA to the 2 crappy X-700s I owned that died from strokes)

Nikon FE(have 3 but the oldest looks like a retired champ pitbull)

Mamiya 645 Super(medium ugly but overhauled and purring)

Nikon 801s(their plasticky skin clads a very tough camera)

Nikon F3(early DE-2 model, oddly pristine, rebuilt by Nikon.ca with some of their remaining parts 6 years ago)

F/1.4 · Sep 23, 2011

I like this

Lets see,
I've busted the meter dial on my 645AFD (not sure how, i've barely even used it)
The d-pad on the back of my main F100 sometimes doesn't work
The viewfinder diopter is busted on my 2nd F100
The door is broken on my FE
I've busted the viewfinder on my D700 once
and my D70 is infested with mites on the inside

My girlfriend has my E-P1, and it's got a dent in it (no biggie) and the blue ring on the front of the 17mm came off once (nothing that a little loctite won't fix)

so yeah...pretty much ALL my cameras have had one thing or another happen to them

alexfoto · Sep 23, 2011

Here a NIKON F3, i trip with bike and expose them always in extreme condition, from the humidity in Philippines to cold in alps and back in Mediterranean, almost 30 years with no problem at all, the body is almost complete lost the black color..

ekkybedmond · Sep 28, 2011

I'll second this !

narsuitus · Sep 29, 2011

The Pentax Spotmatics are very reliable and sturdy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11336821@N00/5616852552/

FiatluX · Sep 29, 2011

tomalophicon said:
Damn those people asking questions about scanning, damn them all

Who is scanning and is he ok?

PaulMD · Oct 5, 2011

Not 35mm, but my Pentax 67. I had my first tripod oopsie with it, dinged a lens filter ring up and popped the meter readout loose in the viewfinder but it kept on ticking through the storm I was shooting in. Had it in a Nanuk case (like a Pelican), tripped on a watershoe lace and not dropped, but THREW it six feet off a dam retaining wall down onto rocks. I'm talking serious swing, a wound-up throw straight into the ground. Didn't even faze it.

Doesn't match some of the stories here, but it's impressed me so far.

The camera you can't break

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