My Top Ten Cameras

[Larry Bolch]

Same revelation about two decades back. SLRs were the wrenches and pulleys I used at work, but almost all my personal work was with rangefinders—mostly medium-format. With the digital age, I have waited almost two decades for my X100 and XP1. When I use my D700, it seems like I am back at work, not retired. I appreciate the versatility of of dSLRs, but the pleasure of photography is much more satisfied with my little Fuji cameras. The photographs I make with them, most closely resemble my lusts and needs in making images.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

My top ten cameras, in no particular order

Nikon F3
Contax RTS
Mamiya C330
Toyo 45A
Olympus XA
Diana
Polaroid SX-70
Nikon D2H
Panasonic Lumix L1
Pentax 67

I have never been a camera collector like a lot of my friends are. Maybe I'm weird, but cameras never hold any type of sentimental value for me. I trade or sell them off whenever I want to buy something new or I want to upgrade. At one time or another, I owned and used the 10 cameras I listed above. I have owned other cameras but these 10 came to mind immediately.

Fun thread.

 

[Pete Askew]

Good list Rick. I have a SX-70 complete with microscope adapter that we used to use in the lab. I think I even have some film packs in one of the fridges (I expect the cells are dead by now though). I'm pretty like you about cameras in many ways - it's just that I never get around to selling anything!

 

[Stephen McCullough]

I'll take it down a notch.

I have to mention the Kodak Instamtic Trimlite. I was given one for Christmas when I was 8. I suspect the purpose was to distract me from my Dad's gear. It was wonderful. I carried it everywhere, experimented like crazy, critiqued the results and became an expert leg zoomer. It sparked the love of photography and photographs. It led to my first RF.

Others on my list

Canon 20D. This DSLR delivered so may things: price, quality, good frame rate and ease of use. Classic? No, but utterly competent.

D300. A wonderful performer in harsh conditions through some tough disaster work for an NGO.

Canon 5D. An average camera that delivered delicious files.

X-Pro 1. Sublime in operation. Files that feel alive. Manual operation married with modern circuitry. It's just fun, and stokes my lifelong hunger to make photographs.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I like to read the reasons for the choices, as most of the time I don't know the cameras mentioned, but I do feel the stories behind the choices. If we do this in ten years time, I'll give you my list...

 

[Glen Roberts]

I don't think I've had 10 cameras all through my life, I'm a bit of a late developer.

 

[David Mitchell]

I like to read the reasons for the choices, as most of the time I don't know the cameras mentioned, but I do feel the stories behind the choices. If we do this in ten years time, I'll give you my list...

Thats how I found out about the Nikon FM2n plus others like the Sputnik or the Photosniper lol

 

[Brian Moore]

My sentimental Top 10:

1. Polaroid 210 Automatic Land Camera (My first camera.)
2. Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL (My first SLR.)
3. Pentax PC35AF (Took this pocketable 35mm camera with me everywhere in the 80's until one day it fell out my coat pocket as I was retrieving the coat from the car, landing on the concrete of the parking structure at The Bonaventure Hotel with a sickening clatter. That was that.)
4. Yashica Electro 35 GSN (My first rangefinder.)
5. Canon F1 (Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'! And has a wonderful patina of exposed brass and dents that every fall to the ground enhances. Paris dented it most recently.)
6. Olympus XA (I just love this wee thing.)
7. Polaroid i-Zone (Bought this for Meg when she was 5, not long before they were discontinued and the film disappeared forever; but I have found a number of the postage stamp-sized photos that Meg or I snapped and they are sentimental gems, light leaks and all.)
8. Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model (Lovely square, deco, bakelight cameras from the 1950s that take half-decent foties, as well. I have 5 of them now.)
9. Voigtlander Bessa (From 1937 or 38. I love having a functional pre-WWII German precision machine. The f3.5 Voigtar lens, though fairly fast for its day, is not Voigtlander's top of the line by any means, but I love the soft focus images it can give you.)
10. Mamiya C33 (My newest toy. I love it!)

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Great list Brian - looks like you covered a lot of ground - Polaroid, 35mm, MF, TLR, SLR, RF

 

[Stephen McCullough]

My sentimental Top 10:

1. Polaroid 210 Automatic Land Camera (My first camera.)
2. Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL (My first SLR.)
3. Pentax PC35AF (Took this pocketable 35mm camera with me everywhere in the 80's until one day it fell out my coat pocket as I was retrieving the coat from the car, landing on the concrete of the parking structure at The Bonaventure Hotel with a sickening clatter. That was that.)
4. Yashica Electro 35 GSN (My first rangefinder.)
5. Canon F1 (Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'! And has a wonderful patina of exposed brass and dents that every fall to the ground enhances. Paris dented it most recently.)
6. Olympus XA (I just love this wee thing.)
7. Polaroid i-Zone (Bought this for Meg when she was 5, not long before they were discontinued and the film disappeared forever; but I have found a number of the postage stamp-sized photos that Meg or I snapped and they are sentimental gems, light leaks and all.)
8. Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model (Lovely square, deco, bakelight cameras from the 1950s that take half-decent foties, as well. I have 5 of them now.)
9. Voigtlander Bessa (From 1937 or 38. I love having a functional pre-WWII German precision machine. The f3.5 Voigtar lens, though fairly fast for its day, is not Voigtlander's top of the line by any means, but I love the soft focus images it can give you.)
10. Mamiya C33 (My newest toy. I love it!)

Fascinating list. The Brownie Hawkeye is a very cool camera.