My Top Ten Cameras

[Hamish Gill]

The following makes up my top ten cameras of all time for me

Sony RX100

By far the best compact digital camera ever made in my opinion. Auto focus is awesome, picture quality is stunning! It's also the first compact digital camera I have ever used that has such a wonderful character to its lens. The transition to out of focus is wonderfully creamy and smooth, especially noticeable in close up photography. A real stunning all rounder for me this camera! More here: http://www.realphotographersforum.com/digital-cameras/7093-diary-sony-rx100-user.html

Nikon D800

For out and out quality, I've never had a camera, digital or film that is capable of resolving as much detail! (Or at least that I am capable of using well enough to extract so much detail)
For studio work it is remarkable!
I have to downsize photos so as not to offend people with how crap it makes their skin look with the detail! More here: http://www.realphotographersforum.com/digital-cameras/6960-diary-nikon-d800-user.html

Nikon D3

An superb location work horse! Of course mine did eventually die after getting rained on... But I did put it through hell! For me it was the way you could just use the camera and forget about it... The perfect tool, I just gelled with it! I miss it a lot! I will buy a d4 one day! The D3 is the only camera on this list that I dont still own!

The one at the back (obviously)

Nikon fm2n

Works without batteries, shutter speeds up to 1/4000th, led based light meter makes metering in low light very easy. Possibly the best Nikon MF camera? Supplants f3 and fm3a on the merits of its simplicity!

Voigtlander vito b

This camera was the camera that helped me learn the rules... The relationship between aperture, shutter speed and film speed became all of a sudden very clear to me when using this camera once. It was like an epiphany... I got a lot better at photography thanks to the vito b. Simple to use, very solid, feels perfect in the hand! My review here http://www.realphotographersforum.com/film-conventional-cameras/1821-voigtlander-vito-b.html

Voigtlander R2A

I sold a Leica m6 to keep this camera ... I like aperture priority! Doesn't feel as solid as the leica, but it just keeps on ticking! Simple to use, great (really great) viewfinder, everything you need from a rangefinder camera in my opinion!
My review here: http://www.realphotographersforum.c...ameras/2317-voigtlander-bessa-r2a-review.html

Epson RD1

There is just something about this camera. The image quality leaves a little to be desired in the resolution steaks, but the photos have a wonderful film like quality to them. Noise is there, but even at 1600iso it's not intrusive ... The best thing is, the camera gets better and better as they bring out new versions of Lightroom.
Shooting with both eyes open using the 1:1 viewfinder is a wonderful experience once mastered!
Some more here: http://www.realphotographersforum.com/digital-cameras/2413-epson-r-d1-story-so-far-lots-photos.html

Hasselblad 500cm

You have not lived until you have shot with one of these.
It even sounds well made!

Yashica t5

Compact film camera of choice! The ricoh is a better camera in almost every respect! I can even see me using the ricoh a lot more ... There is just something about the yashica!
I think it just fulfils a requirement for point and shoot film camera perfectly. Load it with a roll of xp2, point it in the right direction 37 times and smile at 37 perfectly exposed, sharp photos with a lovely smidgen of vignetting.
More: http://www.realphotographersforum.com/film-conventional-cameras/8794-yashica-t5-t4-super.html

Sony nex5n

I can mount my cat on the front of this camera and take a photo ... The 18mm flange back distance makes for very easy lens mounting. So much so that I don't even have a sony lens for it. I just can't see the point!
There are quite a few things i don't like about it as a camera though... the position of the video button is stupid, i have hundreds of really short accidental videos! And the user interface was obviously designed by someone whilst on holiday from any sense of logic!
But it's made up for with focus peaking which was a revelation for me. Having an articulated screen is also nice as it allows candid waist level shooting


NEX5n with 17mm tamron sp via Kipon shift adapter by Hamish_Gill, on Flickr

So what is everyone else's top 10? or top 5?

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Great list, Hamish. I've never tried or seen any of them!

 

[David Mitchell]

I do like how the NEX is just a lens with added camera

 

[Rense Haveman]

I do like how the NEX is just a lens with added camera

Camera? Where?

 

[Andrew Cotterill]

The only one on that list I could even afford* is the Voigtländer, which is what I am learning on. A beautifully made camera, lovely weight to it.

I'd list my top ten but they're mostly Fuji point-and-shoots, and I had Boots 110 when I was ten. And I've got a Recesky (Gakkenflex) TLR.


*I guess I could stretch to a Yashica, I like the idea of the waist-level finder.

 

[Dave Moss]

Great list Hamish. Mine would likely be a top 5
5 Strange choice and likely a bit contoversial
Fuji A135 A simple point and shoot which taught me to love Digital photography

4 Practika MTL 5 My first SLR Manual camera the camera which taught me the basics of photography Exposure, DOF Ect

3 Ricoh XRX Great camera great for everything more modes than you needed but would eat a set of Alkaline battery's within 100 shots OK it was a film camera but within 3 36 exposure films a dead set of Batteries

2 Fuji S2500HD One camera I have done everything with and one very good learning tool

1 Nikon F3 The best camera I have every owned Reliable dependble it has been used abused and never let me down

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Great idea for a thread.

I want to see the photo taken with the cat attached.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I can tell you for free they are purrrrfect!

 

[David Mitchell]

I can tell you for free they are purrrrfect!

Surely they might give the image a softer, more fluffy furry look though? At least you could drop the lens up to 9 times without damage

 

[Kev Pugh]

Nice list Hamish, I have a top ten list too and top of it is the camera I have with me at the time............

Actually I wish I had some of these but I've sort of lost my passion for kit and found a liking for taking pics again which is something I thought I had lost totally..........

I really need to get some dev-chems again and start using some fo the Analogues I have lying around the place............. then my kit wants may return.........

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yeah, I can't be doing with any of it at the moment! I have only really used my point and shoot compacts for the last few weeks ... I can't really see that changing for a while either! It's just nice to be able to ... ... ... Point and shoot I like my photos more at the moment too, so I'm stickin with it!

 

[Kev Pugh]

Hamish odd thing is I've taken the Nik out and hated it, taken the X10 out and it's still my choice of take outs. there is a reason, ease of set up etc.......but convenience I guess......nothing to do with quality, it's all about fun and getting the shot you want I think, and for me thats an odd concept...... I had always considered the importance of getting it right using the best I had,,,,now I consider it right that I have got what I wanted...............is that wrong? hope not.....

 

[Dave Moss]

Well if your thinking about getting rid of either of the niks Kev lol

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Well if your thinking about getting rid of either of the niks Kev lol

As for your sentiment Kev I quite agree OK for me I need to go SLR to get what I want the other options are out of my budget at the moment

 

[Hamish Gill]

What ever is right is right I guess ...
I'm going through a stage of not wanting to post process, straight from the camera, maybe a minor straighten here and there ...
This is why xp2 suits me so well, it's just nice from the scan!
everything for me at the moment is is composition ... And that's where I started, it's my nikon rf10 ... I've literally gone full circle back to taking photos like I did when I was 9 ... And loving it!

 

[Larry Bolch]

Deardorff 5×7 with a 4×5 rotating, reducing back. Horrendous learning curve, but the fastest view-camera ever to use, once one was fluent. A beautiful object as well in brass, mahogany and leather. The first camera an employer handed to me. My Dear-dorff!

Wideluxe 140. True panoramic camera, with the film in a curved path behind the rotating lens. Huge return on investment, since shooters with panoramic cameras were in short supply. Fixed focus 28mm lens.

Brooks VeriWide100. Rectilinear wide-angle camera. 47mm SuperAngulon over a 6×10 format—almost exactly the Golden Mean. Built sometime in the 1950s, with nearly identical cameras being built ever since by Linhof, Horeseman, Alpa and others. While cosmetics varied, the formula did not. Superb camera for architecture, landscape and environmental portraiture.

Nikon F3. Good enough that it was in production forever. Extremely modular, so you could configure it to whatever task you were facing. Built like the rock of Gibraltar.

Konica S3. Pocket-sized with a built-in 35mm f/1.8 lens of excellent quality. The camera that I and many shooters always carried when not at work.

Nikon Coolpix 990. My first digital camera, and with it, the revelation that digital was here. Years later, I found a partly exposed roll in the F3, from when I put it down in favor of the CP990.

Nikon Coolpix 8400. The last of the thousand-dollar bridge cameras. Loaded with features including an interval-timer. Fully manual to totally automatic. With accessories and lens components, nearly as versatile as a dSLR and much more pleasant to use.

Nikon D700. My third dSLR and Japan finally learned to make a mature camera. Opened up the night, allowing me to shoot in conditions that were beyond the imagination previously. Used all my old AI-S Nikkors at their proper focal lengths. Big, noisy and lacking in even a little bit of stealth.

Fujifilm X100. My Konica S3 in digital form as a fully mature 2010 camera. Once again I have a small, excellent camera with me whenever I have nothing whatever in mind to shoot.

Fujifilm X-Pro1. I shot with Leicas all my career, but never much liked them. When Contax announced the G2, I fully planned on dumping my Leica stuff and going with the G2. Then digital came along. I had hoped Contax would produce a digital G2, but it was not to be. After waiting the better part of two decades, Fuji built the camera I was waiting for all that time—everything that drew me to the G2, but so much more.

Suffering from sticker-shock at the price of a Panoscan or RoundShot panoramic camera, I was unable to find a digital replacement for my Wideluxe140, so was stuck with stitching. Both Fuji cameras shoot 120° and 180° panos, and the XP1 even has interchangeable lenses! I have the choice of holding the cameras vertical for the highest possible resolution. Perhaps the most satisfying camera on this list.

Finally more than a dozen years later, I have the current version of the kit I carried for film. Photoshop gives me all the moves of the Deardorff, and stitching gives me any resolution that a large-format camera provided. The D700 with its unbelievable good 14-24mm f/2.8 matches the quality of the 47mm f/8.0 SuperAngulon in the Brooks. My S3 is back with the X100, and even sweeter to shoot with, than my beloved Konica. The X-Pro1 is the perfect answer to everything I hated about the Leicas—and I can use all my Leica lenses on it if I choose. One happy shooter.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Nice one Larry, very interesting list ... The autobiographical element of it is very interesting if you follow my meaning?!

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... Pete!? I'm waiting!!

 

[Pete Askew]

As this seems to be 'classic' cameras that you do / have owned, here is my list. It's not in any particular order as I consider them all to be excellent at what they do. So:

Speed Graphic 5x4. The mainstay of the photojournalist and 'field' photographer for many decades. Probably not really displaced until the Nikon F took its place! Choice of lens and focal plane shutter and some variants had a multi-shot back. The most 'famous' proponent of the Speed Graphic was probably Weegee.

Sinar monorail. Whether the original Norma or the later P/P2 and F/F2 variants this was (and probably still is) the systematic technical camera. There is a huge range of accessories for these cameras and everything is cross compatible. The F variant is often used in the field.

Linhof Technika. Still a current model, this is probably the most advanced folding technical camera ever produced. Similar in some respects to the Speed Graphic but with better ergonomics and a more robust build. It had survived and grown where the likes of MPP didn't.

Leica M film cameras. The original. Everyone has their favourite model and those used by Cartier-Bresson and others would probably be the ones cited. For me though the MP is the classic. It saw a return to the straight winder etc but incorporated the best rangefinder that Leica had even made. All good!

Nikon F. What list could be complete without this camera. Born in 1959, it originated Nikon's systematic professional camera concept and it's legacy can still be seen in their products today.

Hasselblad C/M. Another wonderful systematic camera with a huge range of accessories and a vast degree of cross compatibility. The image shows the 503CW (the current model) but it evolved from the C/M.

Mamiya 7. For many years the travel camera but also used by many professionals for environmental portraiture. Light and portable and with a fine range of superb lenses.

Nikon D3. Probably Nikon's first truly professional digital camera. It redefined digital performance in low light and provided a robust platform for both modern and heritage glass.

Image to follow.


Ricoh GR. A stunningly capable and truly compact and robust compact camera.

Image to follow.


Leica M9. Despised by many for its lack of features etc (usually those that don't own / use them), it really is the digital rangefinder that carries Leica's tradition forward. It's just like using a Leica!

If this was not a list of my cameras it would also include the Canon 5DMkII, the Olympus Trip and the Mamiya RB/RZ system. It should also include the Box Brownie in all its manifestations. I have my mothers but have never used it myself and so I left it off.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Wow!

 

[Larry Bolch]

Nice one Larry, very interesting list ... The autobiographical element of it is very interesting if you follow my meaning?!

Every purchase of equipment is to solve a photographic goal in the most practical way possible. Media is the servant of the artist, and the language with which the artist communicates. Of course, it was autobiographical, since the artist and the media are one.

Though this very recent interview is upon virtual photography, it was in-depth and probing. One is deeply intertwined with the media one employs.

Interview with Larry Bolch

I understand that it is also on several Japanese web-sites, but I don't have the URLs at the moment. Artist and medium is very difficult to differentiate.

 

[Pete Askew]

I spent some time recently, and caught a cold from, my oldest friend who is a photographer based in Stockholm. He recently down-sized dramatically and is just selling the last of his RZ gear and sold his Sinar as he no longer has a studio. He switched from Nikon to Canon (and I still speak to him!) and uses 2 Canon D1s for his 'snaps' but his main work is done on an old Linhof 10x8 field camera. During one of our discussions he asked what one camera I would use if I could only keep one from those I owned. And for my personal choice it was easy - it would be the M9 + 35mm Summilux.

In reality my cameras fall into two broad camps; those I use mostly for my own shots, and those I use for work. For work it tends to mostly be either a Nikon digital on an instrument / stand (a D800 is still sitting in its box waiting to to replace the D3x on the Tessovar) or a Hasselblad with a PhaseOne back. I seem to rarely use a SLR for personal work these days. It's either a RF or a roll film camera of some description.