What is your favourite vintage camera and why

What is your favourite vintage camera and why?

 

If you want to creep over the 1970 cut off, no one will take down

your name.

 

I have three: Contaflex and Bessamatic, and the Pentax Spotmatics.

 

I like the feel of build quality in the Contaflex and the Bessamatic,

and the sharpness of the lenses, I have three lenses for each. I find

the non-instant return mirror amusingly funky. The cameras feel solid

and very well made in my hands. They look decidely retro and for me

that is appealing.

 

Pentax Spotmatic was my first SLR. I find the quality of the

screwmount Pentax lenses to be excellent, right now in the market

place they are undervalued and one can build up a very fine set of

lenses for little cash investment. The Pentax SLR design is sleek,

compact, functional, simple.

 

What is your take on this question?

For me, the choice is between the Spotmatic, and Canon FT. The Spotmatic is light and sweet to use. I have a number of lenses to choose from. The Canon is solid, and beautifully made. Both cameras have bright viewfinders. And, to sneak over the 1970 bar, I occasionally put a film through an Olympus XA.

If we go by the pre-'70 guidelines my classics are a Rollei 2.8C, Yashica 635 and Agfa Isolette V. To be realistic the Rollei is by far the better camera and I always enjoy using it.

 

But I've been toting that Isolette everywhere with me recently. Maybe it's partly because the new-to-me hasn't worn off yet. I put so much sweat into overhauling the thing I want to get plenty of use from it. And I'm still honing my guess-focus skills.

 

If I include my Canonet GIII QL17 and Olympus XA3, I'd have to say the Canonet is the best of the entire lot in terms of bang for the buck. I bought it during that period when Canonets were considered passe and not retro-chic, so it was cheap. The accurate rangefinder and exposure meter with manual settings beat either the Isolette or XA3. It's well made, smaller and handier than either TLR. So all things considered it's a handier picture taking machine.

 

But if I had to choose just one it would be the Rollei, no hesitation.

In 35mm, my favorite is the Contax IIa with three lenses: 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar, 35mm f/2.8 Biogon and 135mm f/4.0 Sonnar (highly underrated and therefore a bargain lens). On the SLR side, I'm sort of partial to the Contarex Bullseye. It's big, no doubt, but I really like it. Built like a tank, and weighs about as much as one too. For me, good ergonomics and excellents lenses.

 

For MF, I've always been a Rolleiflex fan. Lately, it's the SL66. Next up is the Rolleiflex 3.5F.

 

The reason I like the 135mm f/4.0 Sonnar is that it's very sharp with a usable f/4.0 aperture. And unlike most 135mm lenses of that time (and much later), it focuses down to a very usable 3-4 foot range, making it ideal for portraits. Plus, it's relatively small, couples to the rangefinder and is a snap to focus.

My B&J press camera. Dirt cheap. With more features then many more expensive similar cameras. Total lack of repect from the snobs-))

Agfa Billy Record 2 6x9 folder. Not having grown up in the folder era, I picked up one of these on Ebay in Mint condition with an external uncoupled Voigtlander Rangefinder. The fun factor cannot be measured.... its like using a handheld view camera...only it will fit in your pocket :=) Not a cam I'd ever use for important pics, but more than good enough for those times when you just want to have fun. One of the great side effects is that you don't ever have to use Photoshop to give your pics that "old time" look. When you get them back from the shop they look like they came out of a 1940's National Geographic.

While I own and use a variety of vintage cameras, my favorite in terms of giving outstanding results is an ancient (1930's) Zeiss-Ikon Trona 214/3. It has a fast (f/3.5) 105mm Tessar lens, the shutter is right on and the bellows are light tight. I have 2 Suydam 6x9 rollfilm backs for 120 film so I can carry 2 different films. The camera has double extension bellows so I can go to near 1:1 if I want to. I have a variety of filters and a lens hood as well as some Zeiss proxars and distar lenses that let me vary the focal length of the lens. It has modest lens rise and fall plus sideways shift of the front standard. In essence, it is a miniature view camera. It folds to the size of a beer can and I can carry the camera, 2 rollfilm backs and all filters plus light meter, focussing cloth, cable release etc in a small camera bag. I shoot only on a tripod and use the ground glass focussing. The results are outstanding. With Agfapan 25 (I have a bunch in my freezer) or 100 I can enlarge to 11x14 with ease and have needle sharp grainless prints. Ron Gratz

Everytime you add a new camera to your collection you end up tempted to buy the accessories as well. It can get expensive to collect EVERYTHING especially if there is a wide range of options. I like my Contaflex super specifically because it has a limited range of accessories which mkes it possible...even affordable...to collect everything that was every manufactured for it.

 

For the Contaflex super, it came with its standard 50/f2.8 Pro-Tessar I have the 3 other Pro-Tessar lenses (a 35/f4, an 85/f4 and a 115/f4) and the 8x30 monocular that gives a 400/f14 equivalent lens. There is a stereo adapter for 3D photography which is being delivered to me in the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of interchangable film backs; an assortment of filters and a ContaPol polarizer; several cases (Everready, lens case, etc) and the original manual and box.

 

The only thing I have yet to get is the M1:1 macro lens but I have located it if I want it bad enough.

 

So, I have the pleasure of being able to have everything that was ever made for this camera and still have it take great pictures.

It's like counting lovers. Ahh, there have been a few.... This year I have had three torrid affairs.

 

The first was with an Ansco Titan 6x6 (1950s) I picked up for $15 at the antique mall. The bellows were shot, there was fungus in the lens, and it was generally in sad shape. But somehow I sensed something from it's heft or something so I bought it. What a marvelous camera! It is by far the funnest camera to use that I own. Even in horrible condition it took pretty good pics. It has a really neat color coded DOF scale, and it folds up small. It's my point and shoot.

 

Of course the Ansco just whetted my appetite for a sleeker model. My next passion was a shiney and clean Zeiss Ikonta 6x9 with a tessar lens (1947). Just a little bigger, but a lot more quality than the Titan.

 

But as the summer ends, so ended my infatuation with MF folders. I had found a new love, my first TLR, a Rolleiflex 3.5C with Zeiss planar (1957). This is currently my favorite camera vintage or otherwise. It takes quality pics comparable to any of the modern MF equipment I've compared it to. I really like the large viewing screen and the ease of maintaining eye contact with my subject. The ability to get really low angle shots is like a whole new way to shoot for me.

Well I've been through more than a few since 1970, but I'll pick two even though I own eight cameras, four of which are from the 1950's.

 

My favorites are my Rollei 35 S and a funky, but fun to use ANSCO Speedex Special R, which is the equivalent of an Agfa Isolette III fitted with an Apotar/Prontor SV combination. Both cameras are crude devices by today's electronic standards, but they allow me to work a crowd and enjoy a social life, without having an assemblage of photogear hanging from my neck. So, in a nut shell, I prefer them because they offer unencumbered mobility.

 

I also would like to give my Olympus 35SP and my Agfa Super Isolette a well deserved honorable mention.

Not sure about whether it's my favorite vintage, but it is the only

one I have that pre-dates 1970. I have an Argus c. 1963 that still

takes beautiful shots. It was bought by my Father the year I was

born so he could take baby pics with it. Guess it was my first

"good" camera too. I have to get nice and close to people in

order to use it, but I do that with my present Canon, also a bit

vintage, AE-1, so I am O.K. with that! Anyway, just thought I would

pipe in on this one!

 

Cheers!

I have a "ready to go" kit handy at the front door all the time. If I'm serious about going out to shoot I'll add another bag but the kit always is loaded with Nikon 880 and either a Leica IIIa or Zorki 1. I use them interchangeably but of late load BW in the Zorki. For my purposes they are functionally the same. For the more serious shooting, I want a Rollei TLR.

I'd say that there are 3 for me: My Rollei 2.8D and my Yashica Mat 124 TLRs, and my Konica Auto S2 rangefinder.

 

If we take it up to 1980, I'd include my Olympus OM-1n

Hard to narrow it down. (1) Leica IIIc with collapsible 50 mm f2.0 Summitar. I have made excellent 12 by 18 inch prints with it. Rounded body feels great. (2) Kodak Retina IIIc (little c) with f2.0 lens. sharp, quiet, compact, meter works, great photo machine. (3) Voigtlander Vito III with f2.0 Ultron. Precise folder that performs well; I need to exercise it more.

Well, I have a small pile of vintage, possibly classic, cameras that I don't love or use. Ensign Selfix 820 and Selfix 12-20, thoroughly busted Agfa Ventura Deluxe, totally dead Voightlaender Bessa 66 (postwar, with what looks like a triplet lens), Retina Ib and IB that both need service. I'm not fascinated enough by any of the ones with problems to have them repaired.

 

And then I have a 2x3 Pacemaker Speed Graphic and a Century Graphic, plus a heap of lenses, macro and otherwise, and rollholders for them. These are great cameras and I use them. Nice big negs. When used with good lenses and film they free me from the 35mm shooter's obsession with getting more out of the film than it can hold. What a pity that KM-135 and Ektar 25 have been discontinued and that there never was 120 KM.

 

Graphics are to fixed lens folders as, say, Leicas and Contaxes are to, say, Retinas. The fixed lens folders can be fine cameras, but they're more limited than cameras that allow lens interchange.

 

The Speed and its RF are set up for a 4"/2.0 Taylor Hobson Anastigmat (2 1/4 x 2 1/4) that covers 2x3 wide open and puts the speed back in Speed Graphic. It is effectively a 2x3 Leica III built by (choose one) the Altoona Works or BLH, and with a faster good lens than was available for vintage Leicas. Ah, the wonders of coating! After I get around to seting the Century up for an uncoated 101/4.5 Ektar, it will be the moral equivalent of a screw mount Leica with an Elmar. Used in field camera mode, both are slow-working, force contemplation and discipline, and are loads of fun. And they take better pictures than can possibly be done with a Leica. There's nothing wrong with Leicas or their lenses, but big negs hold more than little ones.

 

I got 'em for closeup work, wanted to get good detail in flowers and fungi and such AND put them in context, which is impossible with 35mm.

 

There are only two things about my Graphics that don't please. For moving subjects, they're not much good with any lens but the one the RF is set up for; they're especially frustrating with moving subjects close-up, as in I don't even try. Yes, I have the concept "focusing frame." Moving subjects want that or an SLR.

 

And the longest lens I've been able to make work on them is a 12"/4 Taylor Hobson telephoto in barrel, which works well on the Speed. On 2.25 x 3.25 it sees about the same scene as a 135 on a 35mm camera. This is very limiting. For some of the things I'd like to try to do, a longer lens would be nice. If I really wanted to do them badly enough, I suppose I could get another Speed and hack it up substantially.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

Even though I am currently dabbling with 120 folders and compact 35mm rngefinders, my favourite clasic camera is my Rolleiflex E f3.5 Planar. It's far sharper than even my Hasselblad. The only other camera with that claim to fame is my beloved Mamiya 6 (new).

I fall more and more in love with my Olympus 35SP.

Just holding it and feeling it's weight in my hands, looking through the viewfinder, the silent shutter, the spot meter that is oh so accurate, the sharpness of the 7 element lens...oh...

<br><br>

I need a cigarette.

"Favourite vintage camera"?

 

That would have to be my Linhof Color 4x5" camera - it's certainly the one I use most.

 

But I can't really not mention (in order of film size, not favouritism):

 

FED-3 with FED 50mm/3.5 Elmar copy

 

Welta Welti folding 35mm with Tessar T* 5cm/4.5 - first camera I ever used

 

Daiichi Zenobia

 

Zeiss Ikon folder (the 6x4.5 one - can never remember the designation)

 

Voigtländer Perkeo I - Vaskar lens

 

Voigtländer Bessa 6x9

 

Voigtländer Bergheil 9x12cm with Heliar 150mm/4.5

 

Linhof Technika III 13x18cm...

 

 

As you see, I've got a few. And I like them all, and use them all - except the Rodenstock plate camera with damaged lens which I bought to get the film holders ;)

My 1957 Leica M2 that I've had since 1967, a favorite companion along with a 35 Summicron. Reliable, smooth, inconspicuous, silent, and makes nice pics. If we slop over the 1970 mark to about 1972 there's my Pentax 6x7 non-MLU which I still use frequently... lovely lenses, big luscious negs, solid quality. But VERY conspicuous!

Wow.

 

D'you mean of the ones I have now, or the ones I actually use, or every one I've ever used?

 

Of all the classic camera I've ever used, I think my favorite was the Kodak Reflex II. I had one about thirty years ago, took a bunch of good pictures with it, and then sold it for reasons I now can't make sense of -- I think it boiled down to being broke and needing money. I've recently bought one that needs a CLA, and gotten the service manual for it; once my current move is out of the way, I'll be servicing the shutter and restoring the camera to operation -- initially, with respooled or spool trimmed 120 film onto the 620 takeup spools, possibly eventually with a conversion to 120 or even 220.

 

The lenses in these cameras were excellent, a four-element design different from the Tessar and perhaps better. They had the first Fresnel finder in a TLR -- maybe the first anywhere, since it appeared prior to 1950. They had a reasonably fast f/3.5 lens, with identical taking and viewing lenses, a shutter that ran from 2 to 300 plus both B and T, knob wound but with an accurate and easy to use frame counter that made the red window almost unnecessary (and will facilitate conversion to 220, if and when). All metal construction.

 

Also the first medium format "real" camera I ever owned...

My Kalloflex that I found in a GoodWill store back in 1986 for $4.99. Did'nt know any thing about it at the time but when I picked up that baby I could tell right away it was'nt some cheap box camera.

I found this question almost impossible to answer until I realized that the camera I always want to take with me when I'm heading out, even though it might not be the most appropriate tool, must be my favorite. That is my Rolleiflex 2.8 E w/Xenotar lens.

Cor, lumme - that's a hard one. At the moment, it's got to be the Leica M3 with a Summicron on the front because it's the camera I take out when I'm going walkies. The Prakticamat with a 135mm lens is currently vying for my affections and I suspect that I'll do the Christmas tree thing and take that as well.<div></div>

I have two favourite classic 35mm cameras: Contaflex super B, Tessar 50/2.8; Zeiss Ikon monocular 8x30B, camera back. However I don't use the camera that often, because I remember my Contaflex I shutter failed several times.<p>

Rollei 35 and 35S are my favourite classic pocket 35mm camera.<p>

My most favourite cameras are Minox spy cameras, because they are

such precison camera, extremely light, extremely fast in action(faster than any camera in film loading and removal) and takes good picture, I have accumulated two Minox IIIs, three Minox B, two Minox C,

two Minox EC, one Minox Historical Society EC, one titanium Minox TLX, one platinum Minox LX, one chromium Minox CLX,

13 Minox spy cameras in all, plus the following accesories: Minox enlarger model II, Minox film slitter, two Minox daylight development tank, Minox exposure meter, right angle reflex finder, right angle finder, two Minox tripods, one Minox copystand, Minox electronic flash, Minox B

bulb flash<p>

I also run two Minox forums, one at photo.net, one at yahoogroups.<div></div>

In MF, my Rolleiflex 2.8F Planar. In 35mm SLR, my Nikon Photomic FTn. In 35mm non-SLR, my Leica M4.