What is the rarest camera/lens you own?

[Sirius Glass]

Rare? I do not think so.
Small production? Not widely accepted? Maybe
Hard to find, especially in working condition? Possibly

WidelLux F7, Voightlander Vito II, Tissina, 1928 4"x5" Graflex Model D, Rodenstock Imagon lens

Two unexposed rolls of Kodak Verichome Pan 620 expiration date 1978

 

[PGraham3]

Canon 7sZ

I've read just over 4000 of these were produced. It's a fun rangefinder and easy to use.

 

[ic-racer]

The lens, not the camera.

 

[ic-racer]

You don't see too many of these.

 

[ic-racer]

These are uncommon. Maybe for a good reason...

 

[ic-racer]

Rare film. Still have 5 rolls.

 

[ic-racer]

These lenses and cameras are not very common in the USA. 18mm Distagon, 35mm 1.4 Distagon, 16mm F-Distagon.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I have an E. Suter Base Anastigmat Series IV f12 112mm that, according to the 'Lens Collectors Vade Mecum', may be one of only two or three known to exist. But I can't verify that data. I have no clue what it's worth but I suppose I should give it a go on eBay.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

From 1947, Revere 8 Model 60. Cartridge loading. Selectable frame rate plus single frame, wide, tele, normal. Parallax & focal length corrected finder. Solid metal everywhere. Very well made.

Someone did a video:

 

[summicron1]

a pre=war Exakta 66 .. fewer than 1,000 made and darn few survive. doesn't work.

 

[R.Gould]

Agfa 130mm telinear lens complete with the optical viewfinder and leather outfit case, I have only ever seen 2 of these lenses for sale in any dealers in the UK, but I got mine at a car boot sale for £10, it is pretty much mint, looks to have been hardly used

 

[Ian Grant]

A very rare (as in there's no images of another - photos or in adverts) 110 camera made between 1898 and 1904 by the Alliance Roll Film Co Ltd.The camera takes 5x4vnegatives on 1110 roll film

The Alliance Roll Film Camera Co Ltd was a joint venture between Houghtons and Holmes Bros (makers of Sanderson cameras), along with Spratt Bros and two other companies they all merged to become Houghtons Ltd in 1904, later Roll film cameras all carried the Ensign brand name.

The B&L pneumatic shutter still works perfectly and the Beck lens is in excellent condition, as are the bellows.

Ian

 

[Alan Johnson]

I have one of the first large batch of 35mm cameras made.
They must have wondered if 35mm would ever catch on.
It is a 1932 model with a later lens.

 

[guangong]

Without going into collectibles, which I admire and their collectors whom I respect for their contributions to the preservation of history, anything I have came about from need. The most collectible is probably my 180mm Nikon copy of the Zeiss Olympic Sonnar which was tweaked from f2.8 to f2.5 (but with a great increase in weight). Not many were made. I was unaware of lens rarity as was the seller when I bought it as a cheap alternative for my Hassy many years ago.

 

[benjiboy]

Probably the least common I own is the Canon FD 35mm f2 Thorium lens, but that's not really rare.

 

[Peltigera]

I have around 50 cameras - all are interesting but mostly mass production. Rarest is either my Zeiss Ikon Tenax I - 30,000 made, almost all in wartime Germany. Not exported, doubt most survived. Other candidate is my 1918 ICA Icarette. Probably many made but few will still be around.

 

[RauschenOderKorn]

Rarest Camera: I was going to say an early 3D camera for glass plates by "Orionwerk Akt. Ges. HANNOVER", but I would assume that a Rolleiflex TLR FX-N is rarer.

Rarest Lens: Don´t know, in terms of ebay presence could be the Schneider/Rollei Super-Angulon 55mm pcs, or maybe the Zeiss Distagon 40mm FLE maybe

Film: Some really old Perutz 17 (expired 1967) and some Agfachrome 50 (expired 1983)

 

[OptiKen]

a pre=war Exakta 66 .. fewer than 1,000 made and darn few survive. doesn't work.

Sure is pretty, though.
On of my very favorite cameras

 

[pentaxpete]

I have a FUJI lens which i was given years ago with some other gear - it is a 135mm f4.5 and came in a case.M42 fit, and I have used it and kit is sharp ! Never seen another.
Test 06 : Fujita f4.5 135mm by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

 

[Dan Fromm]

Fujita KK <> Fuji Photo Film.

 

[Chris Livsey]

In April 1964 a final (Millennium reissue excepted) batch of around 2,000 Black Paint S3 rangefinder cameras were made by Nippon Kogaku. Known as the "Olympic"
The numbering started at 6320001. This is therefore the sixth production model and currently verified as the earliest know example in circulation.
As part of this run a “new” 50mm f1.4 was designed and is also known as the “Olympic” 50mm f1.4. Numbering started at 140001, this is the 269th made out of around 1,700 lenses.

I purchased it as an "Olympic" but assume given the price the seller was unaware of the serial number significance, it is used regularly and has been as far as Iceland usually with the 35mm f1.8 lens, around 6,900 made.

Te & Kaffi over the Eymundsson book shop Reykjavík

 

[guangong]

Chris, collectibility aside...what a beautiful camera!

 

[Chris Livsey]

Chris, collectibility aside...what a beautiful camera!

Thank you, definitely a bought to use and is, in fact rather I am proud that it does not sit in a vault or on a shelf, they are beautiful as a mechanical object.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

In lenses, I have a Hermagis Eidoscope that's about a 12" fl, f5, with waterhouse stops. Not exceptionally rare, but it is in outstanding condition, including having the original flange. Camera-wise, I think the W. Watson & Sons 12x15 is probably the rarest, with a close second the museum-quality Gundlach Wizard 11x14. The Watson is probably the rarest because of A: the age (1880s) and B: the size (12x15 was an uncommon size, even in that day and age - that's one HUGE camera to haul around). On the modern end of things, my Canham 14x17 is relatively unusual because of the size in the first place, and also because I personally know every person who's ever owned it, including the manufacturer. When it leaves my hands, that string of continuous ownership will be broken, no doubt. Now if we're talking about photographs, rather than cameras, I have a couple of nice pieces in my collection. A Eugene Druet photograph of Vaslav Nijinski, a large (12x18) portrait of Teddy Roosevelt by Pirie Macdonald, a Navajo man by Carl Moon, a Tom Bianchi artists' proof, a Hugo Brehme photograph of Popocatepetl (a Mexican volcano near Mexico City) and works by a number of friends of mine hanging up on the wall. And then there's the Andrew Melrose painting I got at an estate sale that the sellers were too lazy to try and read the signature on the canvas. Melrose was a Hudson River school painter, and one of his landscapes is in the collections at the White House.

 

[Roger Thoms]

On second thought my Charten 5x7 is definitely the rarest camera I own.

Roger