What is the oldest functional camera you have?

[Andrew O'Neill]

Brownie Target Six-20. It was my Grand Father's. I occasionally run film through it.

 

[Slixtiesix]

An ICA plate camera from the late 1920s/early 1930s for 9x12cm film. I am very surprised this camera is still fully functional while much newer cameras are in need of service...

 

[guangong]

Looking over the responses to this thread so far, a 1936 Leica IIIa in perfect working order such as mine, is rather common. By the way, the most unreliable cameras I have owned were a Hassy 1000f and a Pentagon 6x6. The Hassy had totally unreliable shutter clockwork and ditto the Pentagon film advance. But the IIIa just keeps going and going.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

By functional, I mean operating properly and, if film is or were available, you could make a photo with it.

Mine aren't too old: Exakta VX from 1954 and Ciné Kodak Magazine 16 from the late 1940's.

By functional, I mean operating properly and, if film is or were available, you could make a photo with it.

Mine aren't too old: Exakta VX from 1954 and Ciné Kodak Magazine 16 from the late 1940's.

Y oldest functioning camera is a 6x9Balda III from 1020s with a meniscus lens. IT was also my first camera and I bought a mother a few years back and turned it into a pinhole camera successfully

 

[mr rusty]

1913 Kodak 4A special. Many of the rest are mere youngsters - 1950's, 60's 70's

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Been a while since I updated things, but it's now the Nikon S that I received as a late b-day gift a couple months ago. Still need to finish the roll of film to see how everything is, then go from there.

-J

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

I have a Rolleiflex Automat that was made in 1938. It has an uncoated 75mm f3.5 Tessar lens. Still makes beautiful images.

My son at age 15, photographed on Tmax 400 in the 1938 Rolleiflex. He's a 19 year old college student now.

 

[cb1]

I have a 1917 Kodak Folding Autographic Brownie that takes great photos.

 

[Agulliver]

Either my Kodak Brownie 2E, or Kodak Pocket 1. Both probably date from circa 1920

Oldest in regular use is a Zeiss-Ikon 520/16 from the mid/late 1930s.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

As of today, a 1934 Leica III:

 

[mikemgb]

I have a 1916 Kodak box camera I take out and run a roll of film through occasionally, it produces lovely soft images.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

my oldest working is a Balda III box camera from 1923 and it takes regular 120 film to make 6x9 negs. I bought another and converted it to pinhole.

 

[R.Gould]

The oldest camera I have that is usable is a 10x8 studio camera from the Edwardian era, early part of last centuary, maker unknown, built for glass plates but adapted for sheet film , and it does get used from time to time,

 

[John Earley]

My oldest operating camera is a Kodak Pocket 1A Autographic. Likely around 1917. It's useable but the bellows are getting fragile.

My other oldest is a Zeiss Ikon Taxo 126/7 with a Novar Anistigmat 13.5cm/6.3 in a Darval shutter that is like new in the box with 5 metal film inserts in wrapers. Also there is a Taxo-Cameras directions sheet by Zeiss Ikon AG. Dresden, a ZI exposure table, a Rx sheet by Arthur Rattenni M.D. Providence RI for Super-XX Panchromatic and some 9x12 Ektachromes. Everything works although I haven't run any film through it yet. I have some 9x12 b&w Foma so soon I will.

 

[Down Under]

Good grief... is this bit of click bait still up and about? It must be one of the oldest threads on this site, way way back when APUG was at its best and, in many ways, its finest. Mostly gone now and sadly missed by many. (Disclaimer) Still a pretty good place, though. In parts.

Nonetheless I've just read thru the entire eight pages and found just about everyone who is anyone here has contributed. Some truly gorgeous bits of gear written upand on display in these pages. And I'm now thinking, well, why not...

My oldest and one of the most pristine prizes is a First World War era Kodak Autographic 1A inpristine condition, acquired a decade ago from a charity shop where I did volunteer work. It belonged to the (late) mom of a volunteer who donated it but one of the ruling biddies in the place then put it in the window for a whopping A$2- luckily I was passing by and raced in and bought it. Complete with case, instruction manual, original invoice (bought from Kodak Australasia in Collins Street, Melbourne in 1919) and a dozen rolls of original Kodak and Ansco films in now very faded boxes. I had thirteen rolls, an unlucky number! so I exposed one and got passable results at ISO 6 and very, very careful processing. This camera works beautifully but is really my show babe now and on permanent display in my library, encased behind glass.

Two Kodak 1920s and 1930s folders given to me by friends, all120 film shooters with rectilinear and/or anastigmat lenses. Both work fine and get used now and then when I get nostalgic urges to shoot vintage style landscapes. Hand printed and sepia toned 6x9 contact prints are gorgeous and make fine gifts for friends.

A 1943 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Six-16 my dad bought for my mom in August, 1943 when they got married. He then went off to the war and the camera was put away until I popped out of the nest in 1947. Many hundreds of my baby snaps were made by it. I now have the camera and last used it about a decade ago when I lucked into a few rolls of 616. Also all the original negatives of moi as a baby, toddler and growing up to age about 12 when for some reason the family stopped taking snaps.

A Zeiss Nettar from 1951 (the albada finder model) with its original case. In good plus condition, some paint flecks, everything on it works just fine. Bought in 2006 at a charity do, has an 80mm f/4.5 Novar capable of rock-sharp negatives. My pocket folder, only surpassed in quality results by -

a 1952 or 1953 Voigtlander Perkeo I with the 80mm f/4.5 Color Skopar. A masterpiece camera. My uber-minimalist kit, with a lens hood, a yellow-green filter, and a Weston Master V. Another walkabout camera.

Rollei TLRs cameras. A 3.5E2 from 1959 or 1960, two Ts from the mid to late 1960s, and a Rolleicord Vb from 1965 or 1966.

Three Nikkormat ELs and two FT2s, all from the 1970s. Two were purchased new, the others acquired since 2000, mostly as gifts from friends who no longer used them. Nikkor lenses for same (all F mounts) from 24mm to 180mm including seven or eight standard 50s. Worth nyet on the resale market these days, not that I ever intend to part with them.

Four (or maybe five, I haven't counted them recently) Contax G1s which are 1990s cameras so not really oldies. Zeiss lenses from 21 to 90. Often used, but not yet ready to join this exalted club for another decade or two, by which time my Malaysian stepsons may be using them, that is if the G electronics still function. Haven't had one expire or even malfunction on me yet but with ageing 'lectrics, who knows? Future antiques, anyway.

Also a few other old cameras securely put away in boxes. I really must take these out for a good cleaning and some minor servicing and then use them, if/when I do I may add an updated post in future as I do.

All the above are taken out and used at least once every year except the Autographic which is now in splendid retirement.

So there we have it, I've now joined this club. Why do we collect these bits and pieces? In my case, as beautiful equipment,well made,in an era when quality was valued above quantity, craftspeople took pride in their work and marketing did not far exceed the cost of production. So, well, why not collect them? What else would I be doing, stick stamps in albums like so many of my fellow duffers still do in their dotage, no thanks! I did that in my early teens until photography grabbed me by the (never mind) and the high school's prime cheerleader got a crush on me...

 

[Sixbysixjan]

My dad did photography as a hobby starting back in the mid-1930s. He bought a 2nd-hand Voigtlander Bergheil from a camera shop in Cape Town, South Africa and used that camera right into the 1950s.... At which point he bought a Japanese TLR and considered it to be a big step-up (I somehow I recall that it was the predecessor company to today's Fujifilm company - Fujinon or Fujiflex or something). I inherited the Voigtlander and still have it, but the rest of his camera collection ended up in the hands of my in-laws (NOTE - non-photographers - serves me right for emigrating to Canada I guess). There were a lot of accessories such as cut film holders etc that also disappeared but at least I have the camera, separate focusing screen + 120 film holder + case. I have been thinking to use the Voigtlander as it seems in very close to 100% working condition (scuffs etc plus some separation of the original lens/shutter but I have a second lens/shutter that was acquired years later that is fine), only thing that holds me back ATM is my enlarger being at maximum 6X6 vs the 6x8 (or 6X9??) of the Voigtlander.

 

[mrosenlof]

Oldest that is capable of making a photograph? I have a Kodak 620 folder from the 30s.

Oldest that gives good enough results that I actually use it? I have a Leotax from about the mid 50s. Works great and I have some very nice lenses for it.

Oldest that I've used this year? Leica iiig from 1957, I guess possibly 58. Same comment as the Leotax with a better viewfinder.

Oldest that I've used for multiple rolls of film this year? Leica M5, mostly with a Konica Hexanon 50/2.0.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

By functional, I mean operating properly and, if film is or were available, you could make a photo with it.

Mine aren't too old: Exakta VX from 1954 and Ciné Kodak Magazine 16 from the late 1940's.

In my case ,it's a Balda II box camera from 1923;still works and makes decent 6x9 negatives on 120 troll film.

 

[pbromaghin]

1937 Zeiss 645 SuperIkonta. Mechanically perfect, cosmetically very good. Really fun to shoot and is a better camera than I am a photographer.

 

[Punker]

1915 Kodak Autographic Jr. 1a with the stylus and original carry case still included.

Dead Link Removed

 

[ME Super]

My oldest camera is a Super Ricohflex TLR, made sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Since Ricoh now owns Pentax, I joke about it being my "Pentax" TLR.

 

[Cholentpot]

1909 Brownie No.2.

Found in a pawnshop in Buffalo NY made in Canada. Still works although the insert is somewhat dented. A fun camera to play with. It might be older than 1909 but my research years back led me to 1909. I don't remember why.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Oldest camera, a Kodak 3A ca. 1926 that belonged to my maternal grandfather, I took a few pictures of my mother with it by trimming sheets of 5x7 film and changing sheets in a bathroom - so she was photographed with that same camera over a span of 79 years.
Oldest camera in regular use, 1936 Contax II. Oldest lens in regular use, ca. 1904 Dagor type 8.25 in.

 

[obviouslygene]

An early 1955 Leica M3 with an 1957 summicron 50 DR.

 

[M. Axel Wikstrom]

The oldest that I use on a semi-regular basis, is a Zeiss Ikonta 520 from 1935. 6x4.5 format, its Tessar lens does an excellent job, especially considering the small size of the camera. Wonderful lightweight/compact travel camera even by today's standards.