Which camera do you most regret giving up?

<p>I posted a <a href=" </a>to flickr the other day that I took on my first digital camera - an Olympus E-410 complete with the 14 - 42 mm kit lens. It is a beautiful image of its sort, IMHO.<br>

What makes me miss that camera most though, is how much fun the thing was. It cost practically nothing, it was light weight and easy to use (if you ignored the tunnel-like viewfinder) and I still had all my film gear to use for jobs and 'important' outings.<br>

As I look back now at the images that little 4/3 sensor made I shake my head in wonder; it was the best B&W camera I have owned in the digital age.<br>

Like several old lenses I have used, it was 'alive' and I miss it.<br>

What about you?</p>

<p>My first SLR, the Olympus OM-1 MD, purchased in 1976, was my main camera until 1997, sometimes used alongside a Nikon F2. Mostly shot Kodachrome with it, later Fuji negative film. Only used primes, and particularly enjoyed the Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 and 135mm f/2.8 and a Spiratone 400mm f/6.3. When many scientific measurements were still being performed with electronic instruments rather than computers, I sometimes used it to document analyses by photographing an oscilloscope screen. I traveled with it extensively, from California to Alaska and New York, to my native Argentina, to Europe and Asia. Loved the controls of the OM-1: shutter speed, aperture and focus on one hand, shutter and film advance on the other, no data in the viewfinder other than the exposure needle. Olympus made a feeble entry into autofocus and eventually stopped supporting the OM system. I began to use Nikon AF. In 2007, and traded the OM-1, together with my Zuiko lenses, for a slide scanner. The camera not only functioned well, it was a lovely piece of industrial art, and I miss owning it, although I almost never shoot film nowadays.</p>

<p>If I could have one of my old cameras back, without question it would be my Asahi Pentax Spotmatic 2. cb :-)</p>

<p>I know where you are comming from Ron.<br>

But being a packrat, I still have mine and can take it out and play with it along with the rest of them. ;-)<br>

It is an Exakta IIa.</p>

<p>I'm with Willis. Give up a treasured camera? Shutter the thought. Now fix up...<em>that</em> I understand.</p><div></div>

<p>I've given up so many cameras that I regret, my list would fill two screens. To name just a few.<br>

M3, Norita, Kiev88, Fuji 645 folder, and on and on and on. I guess I'd rather focus on what will be the next into the coffers. They usually say this about women, but if you've had one, you want them ALL!</p>

<p>I walked into the local camera store with a Nikon F100, Nikon's finest AF film camera, handing it over, with some cash and walking out with a plastic D80. A year later I had the same experience involving a Leica M6 and a Nikon D300.</p>

<p>My Leica M6-TTL and Leica R6.2. Still have the Leicaflex SL and my older cameras as they were not worth much.</p>

<p>I don't recall any that I particularly miss, but I do have Contax RTS-II and Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens I *might* have to sell, along with a Fuji GA645Zi. They are both remarkable cameras but I did just incur a $200 repair to my Nikon F6 and another $300 purchase isn't paid for yet either...</p>

<p>My regrets aren't directly "giving up" a camera. I regret not locking my duffle bag and having my Nikon N2000 stolen while I was in the Navy, before I'd even shot a single roll, right before a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. I regret never knowing what camera my dad used, as he died when I was 5 and it was probably given away to pay real or imagined debts, along with all of his useful guns. My mom was best by vultures and lost everything of any real value.</p>

<p>I have an old Mamiya Press 23 (6x9 cm format). I can't use it because it has a light leak which I can't trace and it really grieves me that I am unable to use this camera.</p>

<p>Rolleiflex 2.8E. It was built like a tank~!</p>

<p>None really - mostly they were replaced by something better. There's some regret in some sense about a few of them - Leica M5 and Leica M6, for example, because the rangefinder-style shooting didn't work out for me (and I got them when I was no longer shooting film and when it became harder and harder to actually get some film developed at reasonable cost; not to mention getting decent scans). Rolleiflex SL66 and SL66E - for the same film-related reasons. Leica R4, R-E, and R5, coveted when I was younger, but when I finally got them, too much time had passed and technology had moved on. Biggest regret was not having used my Nikon F3 as much as I should have - it should show off battle scars from decades of use rather than sitting almost pristine on my shelf now.</p>

My first Hasselblad 500C (replaced it with a Pentax 67 II

 

The Pentax 67 II (no one wanted to pay for film and processing anymore)

 

A Leica M4-P I briefly owned (it was just too limited for the work I was doing then)

 

A Canham DLC 4x5 view camera for field work (no one wanted to pay for film and processing anymore)

 

A 4x5 Sinar C view camera for studio work (see the above comments about film and processing)

 

A V-Pan 6x17cm panoramic camera (f&p , again)

 

A Fuji G617 (I thought the V-Pan was more versatile because it took a wide range of lenses and shift, tilt, swing, rise and

fall on the front standard) . It was but the G617 was faster to use)

 

My first and only Nikon F (emotional attachment mostly; my F2 is a better camera. The F was stolen by a crackhead, the son of another photographer, who burgled my studio).

<p>I don't know. . . . I have to many first, and like them all. Zorkij-C, Werra, Practica, Nikon S2, Nikon F, all the way to F5, except the F4, I never own. Mybe the FA, because I used so much all around the world and newer failed on me. Still working.</p>

<p>Many of those much missed cameras can be found used for less than the cost of a smartphone or SLR lens. If they are missed so much the solution is probably a visit to eBay!</p>

<p>An Olympus E-410 is under $200, a Spotmatic is under $100 and an OM1 MD is around $150 and a Kiev88 can be found for $200. No need to miss them, just buy another one!</p>

Canon F1N equipped with the AE Finder FN and Motor Drive FN

Rolleiflex 2.8C. Still kicking myself for selling

that lovely Art Deco box and accessories.

<p>Bill - Canon F1n Body w/ AE Prism Finder, AE Power Winder FN & 1,8/50mm S.C. Lens. Ex. yours for under $250 on eBay...</p>

<p>I'n afraid Lex would have to spend a bit more.</p>

<p>I really can't think of anything I've sold that I'd buy again or that I'd actually use if I did buy. I don't have any masochistic desire to use film again and none of my previous digital cameras as as good or desirable as the ones I have now. I have enough old film cameras gathering dust that the last thing I need is another one!</p>

<p>Olympus OM-3. I sold it for a good price, but still... I have bought back an OM-1 and an OM-2n.</p>

<p>I still own many cameras that I love and I have sold away many that I equally love (some F5, F4, FM, FE2, Leica,...) and of course many more that I dont like (like AE-1, Canon QL, Pellix, GSN,Minolta 570, 370, ...). But I dont regrett at all. In fact, I feel happy that I brought some happiness to some folks. I am glad to put some of my cameras to work. The only thing that I feel bad now is that many of my cameras are not being used much now.</p>

I rarely part with any cameras, but I traded in a Leica M2 and IIIf for a used Nikon D700, my first and only full frame digital

camera. the very next day I couldn't stand it, so I bought back the two Leicas at the same price and kept the D700. I think

the used D700 was the most expensive camera I ever bought. At my age, it will last me the rest of my life. My primary

concern is how to dispose of a huge number of wonderful classical film cameras. My children have no interest in them.

My wife threatens that upon my demise she have a huge garage sale with every camera going for $5, including my Like

New Leica M6.

<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=ms.c.eJw1y8kNwAAIA8GOInMYQ~%3B~_NRUHkOdLuTDNcUS1G2zNrZjAdpXM5HC2vc9rXp8VvrjFn2f7EC61SE4Y~-.bps.a.779799502082040.1073741857.171846589544004&type=1">Xpan</a></p>

<p>Unlike most everyone else it seems, I don't get attached to cameras, sell them when I know I'm done, and don't miss them at all. I feel differently about photographs, and in some respects about locations. I also miss processes a bit- so when I stopped using MF , the thing I missed wasn't the cameras , but the process of spot-metering round my frame and calculating the exposure I wanted. I certainly miss trips to a pro-lab in London. Photography is a lot more solitary these days.</p>

<blockquote>

<p ><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=8706098">straw man</a> , Jul 31, 2015; 04:46 a.m.</p>

 

<p> My wife threatens that upon my demise she have a huge garage sale with every camera going for $5, including my Like New Leica M6.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>How's your health? What city do you live in? And more importantly, where are these garage sales listed? :)</p>

<p>I've kept most of them in the last decades, but some time ago I got rid of some, and it's about a draw between a working Sept and a black bodied Leica II with a clean Elmar lens. I got some money for both, but I think I should have kept them. On the other hand, I have far too many old cameras now, so maybe it's all right. I only regret it when I think about it. I hardly actually suffer any lack of cameras, and many of the ones I sold 20+ years ago were worth more then than they are now. </p>