What is the rarest camera/lens you own?

[Luis-F-S]

Can we get back to the title of the thread?

 

[flavio81]

I did a stop-by-stop test of the FL against the 16-50mm kit zoom that came with my 4K video camera (Samsung NX1)

So you are using a full frame lens on a small sensor camera? What a waste of image circle.

Your 19mm lens is a extreme wideangle lens. On your NX1, the crop factor is 1.5. So you are turning a fine 19mm, in fact one of the best 19mm lenses for full frame, into a mundane and vulgar 28mm lens.

Better use a 28mm lens with a full frame camera or use a "speed booster" to fully take advantage of full frame lenses.

 

[flavio81]

Can we get back to the title of the thread?

Walz Envoy M-35
Olympus Pen W

The first one is solid as a brick and has a sonnar-type lens!!

 

[chip j]

What was the rarest camera/lens you NEVER owned?

 

[Dan Fromm]

What was the rarest camera/lens you NEVER owned?

No one remembers the firm -- it failed after making one (1) production model and no (0) prototypes -- but Trolli Inc. made the Super Troll-o-mat fitted with, naturally, an Ultra Troll-o-gon lens.

 

[Two23]

What was the rarest camera/lens you NEVER owned?

LOL! A Petzval made before 1845, a 1927 Leica, a Civil War era camera, a CC Harrison lens with iris, a Contaflex, a Minigraph...... list is endless.


Kent in SD

 

[M Carter]

So you are using a full frame lens on a small sensor camera? What a waste of image circle.

Your 19mm lens is a extreme wideangle lens. On your NX1, the crop factor is 1.5. So you are turning a fine 19mm, in fact one of the best 19mm lenses for full frame, into a mundane and vulgar 28mm lens.

Better use a 28mm lens with a full frame camera or use a "speed booster" to fully take advantage of full frame lenses.

Well, for starters: for F's sake, there are 15 of these on the first page of eBay search, starting at $190 or best offer - maybe, respectfully, you should freaking get over yourself. This idea that I "kidnapped" some incredibly rare lens and have used my evil powers to deprive film shooters of its glorious magic - and that I'm using the lens "the wrong way" - hell, go to eBay and buy them all up and give them away to anyone I've victimized.

The crop factor of the NX1 and the aspect ratio is essentially Super 35 (originally known as Superscope 235 and also called Super Techniscope), which is the format and look of, I dunno, a zillion feature films since my childhood.

Using a 19mm on Super 35 is anything but "vulgar". Does an 18mm Cooke S4 (super 35) look "vulgar"? Why would Cooke make a "vulgar" lens, anyway? I like the look, I like how the distortion characteristics mess with reality during motion. And I have zero interest in using speed boosters. I have zero interest in making content that looks like it was shot on a 5D.

APS-C/Super 35 is its own world with its own limitations and strengths. Comparing how a lens works or renders in a full-frame camera is meaningless when you're within that system. Does the footage look good or beautiful, does it visually do what I imagined, are things like color and sharpness and saturation (or lack thereof) working for the shot?

I wouldn't consider the FL "one of the best lenses for full frame" - it's soft, it lacks detail, and the colors are muted. For me, it's a specialty lens for when I want that look, and it's a specialty lens for when I want its rendering of wide angle content. And when I want that look for a full film frame, I can stick it on a Canon film body (I have two FL compatible bodies) and shoot to my heart's content.

Are you attacking everyone who posts in what to me seemed like a fun and interesting thread? I really enjoy seeing how people are using their gear.

 

[darinwc]

This is not a digital vs film thread! Lenses are tools not big-eyed anime characters. It wont hurt their feelings if someone uses them on a different camera.

 

[darinwc]

Currently, I have 2 Contax IIa rangefinders. They dont seem to be that rare though. I think maybe since they were made on the tail end of the rangefinder boom, they did not get much use.
And so they seemed to have survived pretty well.

 

[nyoung]

Nikkor 500mm f5 Mirror. Complete with leather carrying case with ND, Red, Yellow and Orange rear mounted filters. Bought in a garage sale from an aging hummingbird photographer who was upgrading to auto-focus. Pristine condition but a beast to use.

 

[railwayman3]

Nothing of any monetary value, just a tiny pinhole camera which I made as a kid from an old tin box, bit of foil with a pinhole and a piece of photo paper clipped in the other end. To my amazement it produced a tiny negative when my Dad helped me to develop the paper....this, plus his encouragement, started my interest in this photography lark !

 

[michr]

This isn't spectacularly rare, but pretty cool. Canon FL 19mm 3.5 R; got it in mint shape, even had the Canon Series IX retaining ring in a Canon-branded baggie. Pardon the focus gear, but I've been building up a set of FL primes for shooting 4K video. There's something kind of magical about them for beauty and creative stuff - wide-open, the 100mm has sort of a "glow" that's just the softness at 3.5, but it looks flat-out luscious. Color rendering is a little muted - do some rembrandt-ish lighting and the glass puts it over the top. Found a Series IX skylight and a 90mm push-on cap to complete the setup. Very cool lens - pull out from a closeup and the lack of distortion is kind of dizzying.

That's a fine looking lens. Looks pretty cool with the focus gear on too.

 

[M Carter]

That's a fine looking lens. Looks pretty cool with the focus gear on too.

It's got a groovy-factor going on for sure. It's heavy so I doubt it'll be on a steadicam, but there was a coolness to finding a Series IX filter for it.

And this week I made a deal with an awesome Apug-ger for a 150mm Rodagon "G" lens, something I've thought of as a unicorn gear-wise - big-ass prints, here I come (and I doubt I'll stick that on anything but an enlarger!)

 

[AgX]

Nothing of any monetary value, just a tiny pinhole camera which I made as a kid from an old tin box, bit of foil with a pinhole and a piece of photo paper clipped in the other end. To my amazement it produced a tiny negative when my Dad helped me to develop the paper....this, plus his encouragement, started my interest in this photography lark !

I consider this a great proposal for a rare camera.

(When I was a child I did not have the slightest idea of the existance of pinhole cameras.)

 

[removed account4]

What was the rarest camera/lens you NEVER owned?

a kinora.
the movie rings are plentiful, the cameras ... not so much.

 

[Don Craig]

Lens: Rapid Rectilinear, Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. (B.I.T., patent appl'd for) Brass and steel, looks like something for a view camera. Two element lens looks good, but no specs indicated. Outer element unscrews from barrel.

 

[JohnMeadows]

My Rolleiflex 3.5E3 is one of about 5k units of that specific model. It's not old but I recently bought a black Voigltander R2M with the 250 year anniversary engraving (apparently about 700 made) and 50mm/f2 Heliar classic lens also limited edition. I bought the kit to use though and had no idea of production numbers until after I got the kit for a very good price.

 

[Kino]

a kinora.
the movie rings are plentiful, the cameras ... not so much.

That is a rare beast! Oiled paper negative, contact printed and bound into viewing "rings" for home moving images (like a mutoscope).

I always wanted to make a modern, reproduction of this camera. It would be huge fun to use!

I think it used a beater-type movement on the bottom latham loop; certainly wasn't perforated paper they used...

 

[Don Craig]

As of yesterday, a Kodak Brownie 2A Model B, ca. 1917 I believe. I suspect everyone here has one. Next is a Contax II ca. 1937. I had that one CLA'd and use it for B&W.

 

[Kawaiithulhu]

Rarest camera would be a Graflex Combat 45, mostly works but needs a good going over for cosmetics/CLA and one or two parts like the lens cap that's on the outer door is missing.
I almost won an auction on a Graflex Naturalist and I sorely regret not setting my limit higher, I haven't seen another yet.

 

[JensH]

Hi!
An early 1929 Rolleiflex Original K1 611 no. 191xx with Tessar 4.5/7.5cm No. 9254xx.
Internal number 47x, one of the first 500 Rolleiflexes ever made.

It still works.

Greetings
Jens

 

[seezee]

Leica MP Classic and Leica Summilux 50/1:1.4 ASPH LHSA limited edition (looks like the pre-ASPH Summilux). Both in black paint. Only 500 of each produced, mostly for sale to far-East collectors.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

I had: a first run Contax II with the 1-100th instead of 1-125th speed. I had no idea of it's rarity until long after I sold it.
A 355 Multicoated Kern Dagor, supposedly only 500 made (the range of serial numers I have observed so far supports this) however they seem easy enough to find if you can afford one.
I have: The fourth Deardorff V8 made with front swings, and a Contax II that is not only nearly unused, but has the original bill of sale from 3 July 1937, as well as all but one item (a roll of film) listed on the papers - also complete provenance from 1937 to present.

 

[DrTang]

'Rarist' camera might be my Cambo TWR twin lens 4x5..it's not that old.but there isn't a lot of them around

as for lens.... Hmmmm..500mm f6.8 Steinheil for 8x10 I bet..or 300mm f4.5 Heliar in shutter

 

[BrianVS]

Nikkor 5cm F1.5 and 13.5cm F4. Same batvh as those used by DDD for "This is War". 20 years to find the F1.5 lens at a "reasonable" price. I also found a first edition "This is War", but the one pictured is a later edition.

Nikkor 5cm F1.5 and 13.5cm F4 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

Also have the 8.5cm F2. 3.5cm F3.5, and 5cm f2 Collapsible all made in the 1940s.