your sexiest classical camera

[frank granovski]

I still find my 3 Yashica Electro GSNs the sexiest of them all. Maybe

I'm crazy, I don't know. ;*)

[peter_evans4]

<p>Frank, <a

href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005unn">it's

not a matter of what <em>we</em> think is the sexiest</a>.</p>

[dan_fromm2]

Hmm. Yes, you are crazy. So what?

 

Attractive elegant pre-1970 camera, any format? Olympus Pen F. Beaulieu 2008. National Graflex. And I don't own any of them. The closest I have is a Beaulieu 4008ZM2.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[bueh]

Call me crazy, but I have stated repeatedly in front of my girlfriend that the Graflex Miniature Speed Graphic is my camera with the most sex appeal (and she seems to agree). I simply love the design and the classical lines and everything. Although its pictures are always great, I rarely use it as it is super "high-maintenance" and shooting with it takes a lot of time and I always get something wrong. The RZ67 is a heavy bastard, I love taking pictures more with it because of its foolproof operation.

<p>On the other hand, my "cutest" camera at the moment is a Braun Super Paxette I. This 35mm rangefinder is a really sweet and tiny thing, I fell in love as soon as I unwrapped it and held it in my hands. Too bad the lens is only a triplet.

[jonathan_stark]

Dan- I gotta agree with you about those Beaulieu movie cameras. As a teenager seeing the ads in Modern and Popular Photography in the early 70's I thought the Beaulieu 4008 series were the most beautiful machines made by man! I didn't even have any serious interest in movie cams, just thought the Beaulieu's were gorgeous. Man, that brought back memories- heading downtown to the stationer's store at the beginning of every month to pick up the latest photo mags. I read those things cover-to-cover back then. Nowadays I can't abide them.

[silent1]

Hmm....

 

Well, if you like the "James Bond" kind of sex appeal, my Minolta 16 II (a telescoping subminiature with a nodding resemblance to the much more expensive Minox that Bond would carry) would be it -- 10x14 mm negatives, speeds to 1/500, drop-in loading (from 1960, but an obvious copy of the Minox system dating from 1936), and a high quality lens, and it *really* fits in a shirt pocket.

 

For "real world" sexiness, though, it's my tired old Zeiss-Ikon 250/7 Ideal, with the leather torn up and the Ica ground glass back. Large format, folds up small, and the pop-off backs make multiple exposures quick and easy. Double extension bellows lets me get close -- really close, into 1:1 macro territory (though a macro on 9x12 cm film is less impressive than on 35 mm; you need to make the image a good bit bigger than the object to fill the 9x12 frame with a bug's eye). The Tessar is sharp enough to record license numbers from a block away, and the camera can be hand held, if you have a steady hand and good light. It's like a Speed Graphic without the focal plane shutter -- and without several pounds of aluminum, brass, and steel.

[awahlster]

Canonet G-III QL-17 OK so just out side the line but it's BLACK.

Second would have to be a My Canon DEMI EE-17 so cute and trim. 3rd 1955 Leica If RD so simple.

[grahams]

Has to be my Olympus XA2

[gene m]

It's <a href="http://http://westfordcomp.com/classics/vitessa/index.htm"> my Vitessa.</a> My wife won't let me out of the house with it. The combination of my incredible good looks and this camera makes women helpless. My second choice is<a href="http://westfordcomp.com/classics/walesbaby/walesbaby.htm"> This camera.</a> Women want to mother me when they see me with it.</a>

[jani_heikkinen]

It is either my Contessa-Nettel Deckrullo, Van Neck presscamera or Apem presscamera....can't really decide which one... I hope that my other presscameras did not get insulted, maybe if I'll use them a bit they will no longer be angry at me. :))

[peter_naylor1]

Now, Frank, You're getting into that same sort of dangerous territory that led Margaret Hungerford to come out with her classic 19th Century line of "Beauty Is Altogether In The Eye Of The Beholder".

 

Still, for what it's worth, my vote would be for the KW Patent Ettui, a pre-WW2 plate camera made in both 6.5 X 9 cm and 9 X 12 cm format. It normally comes in Henry-Ford approved basic black, but if you're lucky you'll find it in all sorts of other hues like red, blue, brown and grey.

 

The "sexiest" tag is because it's such a beautifully compact beast when folded, you'd never think there was a full-size plate camera inside just waiting to be revealed. My smaller format 6.5 X 9 cm model is so tiny when folded, that when it arrived as an Ebay purchase, I originally thought I'd been sent a cigarette case by mistake. It really is a "quart in a pint pot", and apparently won the designers Guthe and Thorsch many an award for engineering design brilliance.

 

If I were handing out a second prize, I'd call it a draw between the original 1937 art-deco AGFA Karat 6.3 and the Wirgin Edinex from the early 30s. Both are 35mm cameras of amazingly small dimensions, with retractable lens/shutters, but achieved in different ways. Vive La Difference!! LOL from PN

[charles_stobbs3]

My Retina IIa. We've been married a long time. But I used to cheat once in a while with my Pen D. Until it slowed down.

[jeff bishop]

I was back home with the kids photographing a local site, when this guy and girl come by. He had a brand spanking new canon digital with one of those long lenses and a bulging bag.

 

He rounds this corner with his friend and announces "Now THAT'S a camera!" It was my old beat up Rolleiflex Automat.

 

When he left I told my son I could probably pick up 10 more for the price of that one lens dangling from around his neck.

[MTC Photography]

Rollei 35

[larry davis]

I'll throw in my two favorites: the Voigtlander Vito B - sleek, smooth and elegant; and the Kodak Retina IIa --- classic folding beauty, sharp, crisp.

[marco_vera1]

My Barndoor Vitessa.

 

I love the way it opens up to me...

[mfophotos]

Sexiest classic cameras -- Meopta Flexaret VI , Kodak Retina IIa, Nikon F with non-

metered prism.

 

Sexiest modern camera -- Contax G1...Mamyia 345E

[markplawchan]

1938 Rolleiflex (undoubtedly), then the 1946 Rolleiflex, then the Ikoflex....I was asked if the '38 Rolleiflex was a HASSELBLAD not long ago.

[alan c.]

now, sometimes it is the grizzled and rugged, unshaven and scarred, which is

considered "sexy".....here's my battered but reliable M4-2 with a M2 pressure plate,

and new (and definitely un-classic) motor drive.<div></div>

[ben z]

Boy, it's a good thing you put those strips of black tape on the sides. Strap marks would definitely lower the resale value of that camera!

[glenn_thoreson]

How do I determine if any of mine are "sexy"? The dog attracts more attention.

[dan_fromm2]

Glenn, few cameras emit pheromones. Female dogs in heat, on the other hand ...

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[ben conover]

Hi, I am a beginner, I am waiting for a Fuji 69 BL to arrive in the post. I think it is a very sexy looking camera, and I can't wait to get my paws on it. The other interchangable lenses are hard to find

but I will keep trying.

 

Regards.

[conrad_hoffman]

After a couple beers they're all sexy. My 2x3 Graphic with the red bellows, 127 Yashica44 TLR, any clean Retina, and anything with a dial type Compur shutter... Then I wake up in the morning and wonder why I've got all this antiquated stuff.

[conrad_poulin]

Polaroid "Swinger".