What is the rarest camera/lens you own?

[flavio81]

My pride and joy - a Canon FDn 150-600mm 5.6L lens:

WOW... WOW... WOW !!

One of Canon's finest optical achievements!!

So, how does it feel to use it? It is manageable? (in terms of weight and dimension)

 

[Denverdad]

Thanks flavio. To answer your question, I find it a great experience using this lens! To be honest it's the only super telephoto I've ever owned, so I don't really have a good way to compare it to any other long lenses out there, and my comments are no doubt a bit biased. But it's really been a joy to use. I find that it behaves pretty much as expected (at least for someone familiar with older manual focus lenses), with the operation and controls being straightforward, the mechanisms relatively smooth, and really no surprises as far as I'm concerned.

Of course there's no way around the size and weight of the thing - about 50cm long and 4.3 Kg - so it's strictly a tripod queen (well for me at least). For such a big lens it still seems well balanced and manageable, based on my operational methods anyway, which tend towards slow and deliberate. That suits the targets i tend to pursue with it, including birds, wildlife in general, nature closeups, and a little bit of astrophotography, But I really don't do any action or sports of any kind (and probably wouldn't be any good at it if i did), so I can't comment on what it would be like for that.

The lens has a few rather unusual features related to how it handles in actual use, the most obvious being the big carrying handle on the top. That's a feature of perhaps debatable aesthetics, but it turns out to be quite convenient in practice - when lifting the lens out of its case, placing it on the tripod, or any time you need to carry it around from place to place for whatever reason. The underside of the lens is also a little different than most, being a long, flat, rubber-clad surface as opposed to the more usual narrow foot. This seems seems a little strange at first but I think it gives the lens a more stable feel when mounted, probably just due to making the center of gravity lower. The nice thing about the big mounting surface is that it offers a lot of flexibility for attaching to whatever support you like, and practically guarantees you will be able to find a balance point no matter what body you you attach, how many additional teleconverters or other accessories you use, whether you extend the hood or not, etc. Oh and yes, with a lens like this you attach the body to the lens, not the other way around!

There's a lot more I could say about the lens and it's features but this wasn't supposed to be a review.

Jeff

 

[Toyo]

I would love to say an Angenieux 1.8/50 but I have never found one but would love to own one.
Not sure that I have anything that is actually rare, but I do have a Komura 400mm f8 for 4X5 which isn't seen too often.

T

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I guess my 2 Unmarked "K" Leicas, delivered to the US Army of the occupation in July/August 1945. Seperated by 37 units in the serial numbers.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

^Nice.

At this time, nothing really rare, uncommon, possibly. That would be my F3P body, which, IIRC, Nikon only made about 30,000 examples of. At least, that's what the serial number block says. Whether or not they made that many, who knows. Not owned now: 180/2.8 Nikkor-P NKJ version. Only 1351 lenses made. Second least common item I've owned was the 300/4.5 Nikkor*ED AI basketcase lens, which, if you include the total production of lenses (both pre-AI and AI), it's around 1800 or so. I also recently owned an item that was uncommon outside of Japan. A black Nikomat FT body that actually had a good working meter.

-J

 

[Someonenameddavid]

I have a stereo brownie 1905 about 8000 made which is tiny for kodak. Also a Kodak Ektra,1940, a Tenax II, 1940, and B+H Foton 1949

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I received a 360mm Fujinon-A EBC today. It's not 'rare' but difficult to find. Unfortunately, this one has a tiny bit of internal fog in both cells. Otherwise, it's very nice. I can no longer trust myself to disassemble and clean the cells so it's off to a professional repair shop for a gentle cleaning.

 

[Nokton48]

A trio of Plaubel Makiflexes by Nokton48, on Flickr

Plaubel Makiflexes are rare cameras. I own three of them.

 

[darinwc]

How can they be rare if you own 3 of them?

 

[AgX]

Even I came across one sample. It can't be rare then...

Edit:
To put things in perspective, I never came across a Holga.

 

[Nokton48]

Perhaps uncommon, then.

def: (of a thing) not found in large numbers and consequently of interest or value.

AGX, I'm not surprised you saw one once at a street fair in Germany. That is how mine were acquired

 

[Andy38]

Not the nicest but perhaps my rarest camera ; some exist with metallic base, I have never seen an other with wooden base like mine.
It's a french 9 X 12 camera for plate, a "Stud" Studioflex, made before WWII. It's difficult to find any information about it.
30 speeds (~ 1-1/1500) + T, a reflex system with 3 mirrors, the inside is very, very complicated (shutter looks like an old clock, electric contact by mercury for flash when a mirror goes up...).
But that works !
The lens is a big 300 mm f4,5 Boyer Saphir.

 

[AgX]

A mercury switch? Like the only camera model that got such.

What is the idea behind that rod going through a bolt at the front standard and then seemingly is attached to a bolt at the base?

Focusing seems to take place via a pinion wheel at the base.

 

[Leigh B]

probably doesn't qualify as all that rare but I have the only 210 Gold Dot Dagor I have ever seen ...

I have a real Swiss-made 8-1/4" Gold Dot Dagor, which is the same focal length.

- Leigh

 

[DBP]

An Ermanox with the 85/1.8 and a non-standard finder.

 

[MultiFormat Shooter]

Sadly as you can see, I don't actually use it with film bodies anymore.

How come? NOT being "snarky," I'm genuinely curious as I don't know anything about this lens.

 

[Dan Fromm]

About the Stud and its TLR brother, see http://www.collection-appareils.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=17670, https://www.collection-appareils.fr/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6251

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thanks for that Dan.

 

[Two23]

I would guess my rarest is a Ross Petzval, about 6 inch, serial number dates it to about 1845. My rarest camera would be either a c.1909 Kodak Panoram No. 1 or an ICA Cocarette Luxus (6x9) with Tessar lens. It's a very pretty camera!


Kent in SD

 

[Sirius Glass]

Oh, I forgot to mention the Rodenstock Imagon lens.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

View attachment 169605 I've had a few rare items in my time.
Such as a komura super wide 47mm. I think there must have only been 100-200 of those made.
I think currently my Olympus Wide-S with 35mm f2 is the rarest I own. They only come up a few times a year. I'm not sure how many were made. I estimate less than 10000 but I'm not sure how less.

I find it interesting that really rare items don't necessarily fetch high prices. Maybe if there aren't many around, not many people talk about them.

I don't think mine is really rare but because it was so expensive only a few are around;it's the CarlZeiss 40mmf/4 Distagon CF for the Hasselblad and it is a really great lens.

 

[Ian Grant]

Not the nicest but perhaps my rarest camera ; some exist with metallic base, I have never seen an other with wooden base like mine.
It's a french 9 X 12 camera for plate, a "Stud" Studioflex, made before WWII. It's difficult to find any information about it.
30 speeds (~ 1-1/1500) + T, a reflex system with 3 mirrors, the inside is very, very complicated (shutter looks like an old clock, electric contact by mercury for flash when a mirror goes up...).
But that works !
The lens is a big 300 mm f4,5 Boyer Saphir.
View attachment 177194

I think you'll find it's a post WWII camera not pre, If France was anything like the UK after WWII cameras, lenses etc were scarce and imports heavily restricted, you needed a special license to import a camera into the UK up until the early 1950's. This meant that most cameras sold in the UK 1945 -early 50's were produced here and there wasn't much choice in terms of quality cameras, MPP - Microcord and MicroTechical, Reid (Leica clone), only started production towards the end of this period.

Shutters were in very short supply Compur's factory had been badly damaged, so here we had the Epsilon (Ross) and Agi shutters, as well as cheaper simple shutters. So a reflex camera with a focal plane shutter, locally sourced French lens would fill a gap in the post WWII market.

Ian

 

[guangong]

Not a collector but I accumulated a fully working Zeiss 706 with an ultron lens with concave front element and a 2.5 180mm Nikkor lens (Nikon's tweaked version of the 180mm Olympic Sonnar).

 

[michr]

A working Rolleiflex SL26, which is nothing rare or special though less than 30,000 were made. It's a shame 126 is neither cheap nor widely available. It would be fun to use a few times. I bet the lens is great.

 

[Andy38]

...
What is the idea behind that rod going through a bolt at the front standard and then seemingly is attached to a bolt at the base?

Focusing seems to take place via a pinion wheel at the base.

It's to tilt front vertically.

The back is RB.
The 3 electric contacts (1) are for flash ; 2 are used with the mercury switch, for long high power lighting.
The turning knob (2) adjusts the speed of rising of the mirror before shutter firing.