What camera are you lusting after, and why?

[Black Dog]

I'm really keen to work with LF more again, after really enjoying working with my Zero Image 4x5 pinhole camera recently...drooling at the thought of contact prints from 8x10. Also a Hassleblad Superwide is definitely on my list. We had one in the equipment store at college and I used it more than anyone else on my course! +1 on what Optiken said as well.

 

[trythis]

Bronica BR645, too expensive for me but would like one


Sent with typotalk

 

[bdial]

Maybe we need a camera porn thread... Your favorite camera photographed with your non-favorite camera.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I'm pretty well set now for cameras. I have the previously mentioned 14x17 I was interested in. I have my go-to Rolleiflex and Tele-Rolleiflex. I'd LIKE to have a RolleiWide, but that's not essential. If I were to suddenly fall into a reasonably fat lottery winning, I'd kit myself out with a Hasselblad 203FE, 110mm f2, and motor winder. Well, that and a Pentax 645 Z with a couple lenses, but that's off-topic for this forum. In the end, there's no better camera I could get than the ones I already have, just different toys for special purposes. And since I'm not doing a lot of specialty work (or even that much paid work, realistically), there's no point/benefit to getting more cameras. I can do 90% of what I want to do with just the Rolleiflex. The Tele takes me to 97%. The rest of it is taken care of by the other stuff I have, or is icing on the cake and borderline gratuitous.

 

[Jim Noel]

I have wished for years that I could find a 5x12 Korona and a couple of holders. Nearing 90, the 7x17 is getting a little heavy and bulky for me.

 

[DannL.]

Maybe we need a camera porn thread... Your favorite camera photographed with your non-favorite camera.

How about portraits of cameras instead? G rated. Some of us have youngsters in the house. They could easily get the wrong ideas.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I have wished for years that I could find a 5x12 Korona and a couple of holders. Nearing 90, the 7x17 is getting a little heavy and bulky for me.

There's always a modern Canham 5x12 - it will be both lighter and more rigid/durable than the Korona, and you'll not have to look for another two years to find matching holders.

 

[benjiboy]

I found out many years ago that buying more and more cameras doesn't solve anything and only gives you more "stuff" to worry about, protect, have serviced and insured.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

I have used best lenses man ever made and still lack of my teen energy. I want to be 20 years younger and I would take images with cola bottle.

 

[Vaughn]

An Ebony SLW810 (non-folding), but with back tilt that does not add to the camera's weight or stability. Otherwise, a light-weight version of the SW810.

That's the trouble with LF. It would be great to cut 5 to 7 pounds off the camera, but one still has most of the total weight to deal with! The SLW810 means I'd leave my longer (and usually heavier) lenses behind. As long as I do not grab the 8x10 holders with the metal darkslides, I could reduce some weight!

Going to a lighter tripod could save several pounds (my Ries A100 and A250 head are about 17 pounds, I think). But it would be hard to give up a pod that can handle weight, wind and zombies.

 

[wiltw]

When I was 15, I lusted with all the vigor of a teenage boy for one of these (far left) ...it cost the equivalent of 1360 gallons of gas, so was quite unaffordable. Instead, we owned the one on the far right, it only cost 515 gallons of gas. Even the one in the middle was an object of lust back then, at 870 gallons of gas.

I finally owned one at the age of 62. It cost me today's equivalent of 7 gallons of gas, for a perfectly working camera! Stricken by the need to fulfill 50 years of lust, I bought the one in the middle, also fully functioning, for today's equivalent of 14 gallons of gas.
In fact, in the above photo I own the entire family now, just like the Beseler magazine ads of the mid-1960's.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

The Beseler Topcon Super D is very attractive. I don't think anyone would make something like that today.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

I'm blessed with the ability to see good photo opportunities. No matter where I am, even in the most familiar of places, I see photo opportunities. When I have a camera with me, sometimes I can make the photo I visualized (if I did my own color printing, my success rate would improve). Also, I realize I can make very decent photos with the simplest equipment.

That said, I know I don't buy cameras to improve my photography. My reasons seem to be a combination of enjoying different cameras for their features, mechanisms, appearance, or viewfinder, and also because of the enjoyment of researching a camera, its place in photographic history, and the anticipation of buying it. After buying my Holy Grail SRT-101, I don't lust after a particular camera anymore - especially as I have so many top 35mm and medium format cameras (Leica, Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Fuji, Rolleiflex, ...).

What I do wish, which is no longer possible or realistic, is to have a 16mm Bolex Rex with 400' magazines plus a good supply of reversal film. That, and an NBC Television studio camera from the 1960's.

 

[alanrockwood]

When I was 15, I lusted with all the vigor of a teenage boy for one of these (far left) ...it cost the equivalent of 1360 gallons of gas, so was quite unaffordable. Instead, we owned the one on the far right, it only cost 515 gallons of gas. Even the one in the middle was an object of lust back then, at 870 gallons of gas.

I finally owned one at the age of 62. It cost me today's equivalent of 7 gallons of gas, for a perfectly working camera! Stricken by the need to fulfill 50 years of lust, I bought the one in the middle, also fully functioning, for today's equivalent of 14 gallons of gas.
In fact, in the above photo I own the entire family now, just like the Beseler magazine ads of the mid-1960's.

Ah, Topcon....

 

[Sirius Glass]

When I was a teenager I wanted a Bronica S. After all the decades of waiting I had to settle for a Hasselblad 503 CX and Hasselblad 903SWC instead. Oh, the pain! I cry all the way to the darkroom.

 

[HiHoSilver]

Some toys have appeal - for me an F6 and a Mamiya 7. The F6 for the speed in getting the street shot of people in motion. The Mamiya for MF negs, easily hand held and w/ nice glass.
But over and against my toy lust - I need skill & vision much more than I need a toy.

 

[4season]

I guess I'm just lucky: For years I was intrigued by the L-camera mystique, but something or other always came up, and I never joined the club. Until late last year that is. Oh yeah.

Oh sorry, were you thinking I meant "Lindenblatt"?

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Nice. Would like to see photos from it later.

 

[Drew B.]

any Silvestri 4x5 model...

 

[JohnArs]

At this time Nikon D810 I have enough analog cameras!

 

[skorpiius]

Some Minolta Maxxum that I don't have a single lens or accessory for because I keep reading APUG posts and now I want one just because.

Realistically the only camera I should be pining for is a Nikon D750 and a 24-70 2.8 lens.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Some Minolta Maxxum that I don't have a single lens or accessory for because I keep reading APUG posts and now I want one just because.

My Maxxum 7 with the very common Minolta AF 35-70 'kit' lens produces spectacular results.

Some light reading for you:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Sirius Glass]

Some Minolta Maxxum that I don't have a single lens or accessory for because I keep reading APUG posts and now I want one just because.

Realistically the only camera I should be pining for is a Nikon D750 and a 24-70 2.8 lens.

Forget the D750, it is already obsolete before you can take it out of the box.

 

[reakeener1970]

Pentax 645N or Nii.
Also would love an old black Nikon S2 rangefinder.

 

[skorpiius]

My Maxxum 7 with the very common Minolta AF 35-70 'kit' lens produces spectacular results.

Some light reading for you:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Lol that's one of the postings that got me thinking about Minoltas.

Back in around 1992 when I was looking at getting my first SLR (I ended up getting a Canon Rebel, then returning it for the less refined but far better spec'd Pentax PZ-1), I remember that Minolta was the brand that seemed the most 'space aged', the most advanced. I do though vaguely recall the cameras that accepted cards to get certain functions which seemed dumb.

That is likely the one I'd get, although some of the ones 2 generations older that have 1980s arrow buttons seem fun, just for the 80s-ness of it.