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What is the rarest camera/lens you own?


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.
 

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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.
 
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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.
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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.
 
BradS said:
... I have the whole enchilada - even the big case with space for the tripod foot...
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That is very nice and, I agree, rare to find.
 
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.

 
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.
 
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!
 
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!
 
Hebrew
 
lobitar said:
Thanks. Have you any suggestions as to what it says?
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The " indicates an acronym or it is phonic for a word in another language.
 
 
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.
 
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.

 
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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
 
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
 

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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.
 
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.
 
I own an Anscomark M w/2 lenses and an Olympus Ace w/2 lenses.
 
Not especially rare but unusual... The lens hood is scarcer than the lens.
 
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