What is the rarest camera/lens you own?

BradS · Jun 27, 2019

Theo Sulphate said:
One of these, eh?

View attachment 225958

They were made from 1965 till 1971 and then there was the SMC version. I don't think they're rare. I got mine for a song and a dance. The optics are clear and the aperture blades operate very quickly. What I didn't get is a tripod collar. Maybe that's not a bad thing: when I used both a 500/8 Nikkor and a 300/4.5 Nikkor with tripod collars, mirror locked up, cable release, I still got vibration. Nasty. I found it best just to use bunched up towels on a flat surface to steady the camera and lens.

Aye. That be the one. I have the whole enchilada - even the big case with space for the tripod foot. I think fewer than 20,000 were made. I know, not rare but interesting and fun.

Bob Carnie · Jun 27, 2019

I have a Voigtlander Branshwel, Heliar 1:4.5.F 48cm lens for an very old 8 x 10 studio camera which really makes nice images IMHO.

Ian Grant · Jun 27, 2019

Bob Carnie said:
I have a Voigtlander Branshwel, Hellier 1:4.5.F 48cm lens for an very old 8 x 10 studio camera which really makes nice images IMHO.

It's a fake Bob, let me take it off your hands . Genuine one's are marked Heliar. . . . . . . . .

Must be quite a large heavy lens and collectors pay a lot for them, I've yet to try one.

Closest I have is my 12" f6.8 Dagor which is an excellent lens, or a 20" f8 Rapid Rectilinear which is fitted to a 12x10 camera although I've recently made an adapter to use it with my 10x8 Agfa Ansco's and also have a large TP shutter that fits the front. I do have a more modern 480mm Apo Ronar but it's not like using old vintage lenses.

Ian

Bob Carnie · Jun 27, 2019

Ian Grant said:
It's a fake Bob, let me take it off your hands . Genuine one's are marked Heliar. . . . . . . . .

Must be quite a large heavy lens and collectors pay a lot for them, I've yet to try one.

Closest I have is my 12" f6.8 Dagor which is an excellent lens, or a 20" f8 Rapid Rectilinear which is fitted to a 12x10 camera although I've recently made an adapter to use it with my 10x8 Agfa Ansco's and also have a large TP shutter that fits the front. I do have a more modern 480mm Apo Ronar but it's not like using old vintage lenses.

Ian

You are right my mistake Heliar... really nice lens at f22 I do all my still life's with it.

Theo Sulphate · Jun 27, 2019

BradS said:
... I have the whole enchilada - even the big case with space for the tripod foot...

That is very nice and, I agree, rare to find.

Kino · Jun 27, 2019

I would guess that either my Firstflex II TLR by Kuribayashi (First Camera Works, later Petri) or the Unicorn 35mm Rangefinder (re-badged Royal 35P) with a Tominor 45mm / f1.9 lens is the most rare camera I own.

Can't lay my hands on an image of the FirstFlex II right now, but I have an advertisement for the earlier model I.

Main_Cogg · Jul 19, 2019

Here are the rarest lenses in my collection, not sure how rare they are in the overall scheme of things.
Ross No 3 Cabinet and a Wollensak Vitax Portrait No 2. The glass in both is in very good condition, the barrels look like they’re a hundred years old. Unfortunately the aperture blades on the Vitax are not working and I only have one stop for the Ross.

davela · Aug 2, 2019

I own a W Tanar 35mm F3.5 in Leica thread mount. Photos of it can be seen on the camera-wiki at:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Tanar_lenses#W_Tanar_35mm_f.2F3.5

This lens was made by the long defunct Tanaka Kogaku Company in Japan about 1955. It is estimated that about 300 were made. I've never seen another one for sale anywhere, and I probably own one of the few extant. I acquired the lens with a (fairly common) Tanack LTM rangefinder camera several years ago, and while I knew the accompanying lens would have some degree of value, I had no idea at the time it was so rare. Sometimes I think about selling it, but it is so obscure that it is probably not much sought by collectors, and besides, I enjoy using it from time-to-time!

Ron (Netherlands) · Jan 2, 2020

One of the oldest in my collection and rarest: a Mars camera. Still haven't taken any pictures with it, but will try in the near future....
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Wünsche

lobitar · Feb 4, 2020

Perhaps this Gelto found on a fleamarket this last Sunday.
By the way, I wonder if anyone might have a suggestion as to what the legend on the 'autofacus' housing says? Can it be Japanese or perhaps Hebrew? Thank you for any suggestions!

Sirius Glass · Feb 4, 2020

Hebrew

lobitar · Feb 4, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
Hebrew

Thanks. Have you any suggestions as to what it says? Does 'Gelto' and 'Gimmel' perhaps also have a 'Hebrew sound' to it?

Sirius Glass · Feb 4, 2020

lobitar said:
Thanks. Have you any suggestions as to what it says?

The " indicates an acronym or it is phonic for a word in another language.

lobitar · Feb 4, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
The " indicates an acronym or it is phonic for a word in another language.

Thanks again, Sirius!

Maris · Feb 4, 2020

Bikerider · Feb 4, 2020

A choice of two. It may be my Minolta XM. a bit of a rough state cosmetically, but still fully functional and after a full service is working perfectly (It was OK before but the shutter speeds were a bit 'off'.) Or is it my absolutely mint Minolta Autocord. Boxed with unmarked leather case and strap, instructions, guarantee card and original receipt dated 1962. The only thing wrong is there is no lens cap. Oh yes it works very well too.

Arthurwg · Feb 4, 2020

Graflex C SLR

StepheKoontz · Feb 5, 2020

Detrola 400 is probably the rarest I own. It's a clean/working sample. There were about 800 produced, but there was a manufacturing defect with the glue used for the rangefinder mirror, they fell off inside the camera if left out in the sun, so many were returned and the company went out of business shortly thereafter in 1940.

RauschenOderKorn · Feb 5, 2020

Maris said:

that is stunning, a 420 mm Imagon Wow

Mr Flibble · Feb 5, 2020

Not super rare with some 6000 produced;

Leitz 5cm f/1.5 Xenon from a 1938 batch.

Simmon Brothers Combat Camera, only some 200-250 made during World War 2

Ray Morgenweck · Feb 5, 2020

Well.....I like “rare”. Contura Stereo Camera, two Working UR Leica replicas, Bell and Howell Foton including the rare 216 mm Cooke Tele and it’s finder, Wollensak 10 Stereo, QRS Kamra, Kodak Cine A hand crank 16mm Prototype 35mm SLR c. 1920

Lanline · Feb 5, 2020

Pentax SMC 15mm /f3.5, rectilinear aspherical
SMC Pentax K 3,5 / 15 bayonet version, which went into production a few months first, in June 1975, it was produced until October in just 100 aspherical specimens while the whole subsequent range is based on the new calculation without a parabolic lens.

Bud Hamblen · Feb 5, 2020

An Argus model B. Supposedly they made only 1,000. The lens and shutter look a lot like the ones on one version of the Certo Dollina 0. The body is like an Argus A.

BobD · Feb 5, 2020

I own an Anscomark M w/2 lenses and an Olympus Ace w/2 lenses.

tomkatf · Feb 5, 2020

Not especially rare but unusual... The lens hood is scarcer than the lens.

What is the rarest camera/lens you own?

BradS

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