What Are Your GOAT Cameras?

chuckroast

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Let's have some fun ... please suggest your answers as to what the Greatest Of All Time cameras that you've personally used. Score them in the dimensions suggested below - and, briefly, why. I've provided my answers by way of example:

Most Reliable: Mamiya TLRs - I never had one fail across many cameras and thousands of exposures

Best Utility: Nikon F - Provided everything I needed for 50 years across a wide range of shooting situations.

Most Elegant: Leica III - A masterpiece of minimalist design molded into a magnificent machine that holds its own, even 70+ years later.

Most Beautiful: Wisner field cameras made from quartersawn Honduran mahogany - The wood and the brass make them stunning.

Most Innovative: Leica M5 - It broke the mold, incurred the hate directed at all innovators, and is only now being recognized for being a rockstar.

Best Output: Any 4x5 (I've never shot bigger than that), but especially the Graflex 4x5s which are a great value, portable, and produce stunning images.

Weirdest: Fuji GA-645Zi - It has the optics of a pro workhorse, a very strange user interface, and ergonomics from the firey pit of Hades, but boy does it crank out nice pictures.

Most Beloved: Leica M2 - There is something really emotionally appealing about this camera. Every time I pick mine up, even with no film it, it somehow speaks to me. It's the Stradivarius of cameras.

Your turn...
 
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loccdor

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Most Reliable: I never worry about a good, classic SLR like the Pentax Spotmatic or Canon F-1 failing me.

Best Utility: Canon EOS film SLRs, I like the Elan 7E. Autofocus and image stabilization are huge advantages when you're short on time or light, accurate metering, mirror lock up, etc. Some have weather sealing.

Most Elegant Design: Olympus XA4. Take it anywhere in your pocket, ready to use quickly.

Most Beautiful: Pre-war Voigtlander Bessa. Black beauty.

Most Innovative: Take a glance at the Canon T-90 and you'll see why all the other DSLRs copied its look and interface.

Best Output: In terms of raw detail, Fuji GW690 with its very sharp lens on a 6x9 negative.

Weirdest: Stereo cameras. Can't recall which model I had.

Most Beloved: Mamiya 645 because I can put my favorite lenses on it.
 

Vaughn

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Most Reliable: Rolleiflex - KISS

Best Utility: Calumet branded Gowland PocketView 4x5, w/ Caltar IIN 150mm/5.6. Biking, backpacking, travel, and general landscape use.

Most Elegant: If a brick can be elegant, the Rolleiflex, again

Most Beautiful: Zone VI 8x10 -- when I got it.

Most Innovative: Gowland PocketView 4x5 -- 2.5 pounds with the lens on it. Monorail that breaks in half...good front movements, limited rear.

Best Output: Zone VI 8x10 -- which is why its beauty is a little rough these days.

Weirdest: Diana Camera -- it just is.

Most Beloved: Rolliecord...keeping the simple in KISS. Great to travel with, fun to walk around with. Seen in the wilds of Scotland last Spring, below. Unfortunately lost the lens shade in Japan this past winter.
 

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Melvin J Bramley

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GOAT !
Reliability wise my Nikon F2s , FE and F100 were ,initially, terrible.
The glass in front of them was worth the frustration of unreliable cameras.
My first SLR , a Mamiya MSX500 with a 50mm and a ,wonderful 135mm f2.8 deserves praise but the focus screen was terrible.
After all, the best camera is the one you have when the opportunity of a great image occurs.
The best images have seldom been made with the most sophisticated cameras!
 

reddesert

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The camera on the left is what I consider a GOAT camera, as you can see from the nameplate.



This photo of the Five Goats TLR (made by the Guangzhou Camera Factory) was taken by me, but the camera is not mine; it belongs to the Shanghai Camera Museum.
 

AnselMortensen

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Most Reliable:
Nikon F

Best Utility:
Calumet CC-400 w/S-K 210mm f:/6.1 Xenar..it did everything I asked of it and got me through 2 college photography programs.

Most Elegant and Beautiful:
Improved Seneca View Whole Plate camera. A glossy black beauty.

Most Innovative:
Nikon F4s, with SB-25 and SC-17 off- camera cord. Reliable, perfect flash exposures with Fujichrome film...2nd curtain sync, flash fill, etc.

Best Output:
Hasselblad 500C/M with 80mm Planar.

Weirdest:
My WWII U.S. Navy Torpedo Camera, 6x18 cm images on 120 film. A kludge project I picked up at a camera swap. Now converted to pinhole.

Most Beloved:
A toss-up between my Nikon F3HP and my Hasselblad 500 C/M.
 

GregY

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Best utility: Rolleiflex small camera/ big negative
Best output: Deardorff they got it right in 1923. I've owned the 5x7" and the 8x10"
Most beautiful: Black paint Leica M2
Elegant & Innovative: Pentax LX & Canon T90...... decades earlier. Nikon F black w prism finder.
Most Reliable: Nikon F & F2.... Leica M2,M3,M4
 

Chuck1

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Would you share a Pic of the torpedo camera?
 

AnselMortensen

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Chuck1 said:
Would you share a Pic of the torpedo camera?
Click to expand...

The view from the back.
Lots of black tape, a custom 3D-printed viewfinder.
Edit: There's a husk of one on the big auction site right now... (no association)
 

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Cholentpot

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Most Reliable: Argus C3, ever seen one broken?

Best Utility: Argus C3, does everything you need it to do and nothing you don't

Most Elegant Design: Argus C3, everything is at your fingertips.

Most Beautiful: Argus C3, it's an art deco brick. Need I say more?

Most Innovative: Argus C3, put a high quality camera in the hands of everyman.

Best Output: Argus C3, more photos were made on that camera by regular people than anything else.

Weirdest: Argus C3, it's in Harry Potter for a reason.

Most Beloved: Argus C3, it's a brick that'll take photos.
 

mshchem

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I love this!!
 
OP
OP

chuckroast

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Have you ever thought about getting an Argus C3?
 

4season

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It's not often that I get excited when reading the in-flight magazine on a long plane ride, but this particular JAL magazine (1997?) featured an advertisement for the heretofore unknown-to-me Fujifilm GA645zi, and I was like "Yes! This is exactly what I want!". And the thing itself didn't disappoint: The trick was to leave it in "P" mode and just dial in exposure compensation as needed. I always liked the ease of loading it, plus the data imprinted outside of the image area. And for a time, it swept all of the categories as far as I was concerned, except weirdness: I liked it from the start.

But in 2024? Hmm, Fujifilm wasn't really building their cameras to endure through the ages, and even by 2005, the hard plastic cladding on mine had developed hairline cracks.

Rolleiflex SL66 was pretty innovative in it's way, and I have macro photos of mushrooms and tree bark to show from mine, with more Scheimpflug than you can shake a stick at.

Although I never got to use, much less own one, Ebony sure made some gorgeous 4x5 cameras.
 

bluechromis

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Ha, ha!
 

abruzzi

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Arca-Swiss F-Metric.

Take most of the modular flexibility of a Sinar camera, and build a system that is newer in design and lighter. I currently have a 4x5 "141" F-Metric, and a 6x9 F-Classic with a 6x9 back and a 171 4x5 back. I love them to death
 

Paul Howell

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Most Reliable: Nikon F2, shot it from the tropics to the arctic, never failed.

Best Utility: Minolta 800si, great predictive AF, easy to read LED readout in the viewfinder, light even with grip.

Most Elegant Design: Alpa 11e with 50mm Kern Swiss, I had only had it for a week, (long story)

Most Beautiful: I would not call any of the cameras I've used or own beautiful

Most Innovative: Minolta 9000, first pro level AF body.

Best Output: Minolta 800si.

Weirdest: New View 4X5, very odd early 50s press view cameras hyriid. .

Most Beloved: Pentax Spotmatic, got in 1966 used, still have it and use it.
 

RezaLoghme

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Most Reliable: All my CLA'd V-System Hasselblads

Best Utility: A non-analogue camera which I am not going to name in this thread

Most Elegant: Chrome versions of V-System Hasselblads, with the 80mm Planar in chrome and a black lens hood

Most Beautiful: as mentioned in "most elegant", V-series in chrome.

Most Innovative: These 6000 series Rolleis

Best Output: 553ELX with 150mm Sonnar CLA'd

Weirdest: I have never owned a weird camera. But I personally, my opinion, find the various 9x6/8x6 cameras "weird", and MF RFs in general. Just my 2ct. And most of the digital Hasselblads (excluding 907) with all their "limited edition" nonsense. And the camcorder-1990s-look digital Hasselblad. Plaubel.

Most Beloved: A plain early 500C with chrome lense, non-"A"-back and the early chrome'd crank.
 
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Melvin J Bramley

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This thread has given rise to selling prices of Argus C3's.
They have gone from an average price of $40 to an amazing $63 !
 

ic-racer

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Most Reliable: Nikon F6. Mostly just because it is still 'New.'

Best Utility: Nikon N75...the 35mm camera I grab most often.

Most Elegant: Rolleiflex 3003...great 'form follows function' design

Most Beautiful: Rolleiflex SL35...just looks 'right' to me.

Most Innovative: Rolleiflex Hy6

Best Output: Shen-Hao 8x10

Weirdest: Horseman VH-R

Most Beloved: Rolleiflex 2.8F...my first 'real' camera.

 

Melvin J Bramley

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