clay2 Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Beat me to it Alan: Topcon Super D. /Clay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony_lockerbie Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 Further to Andy's Retinette. When I working in a camera store back in the seventies, everyone seemed to have a Retinette, shooting slide film of course, and even the most ham fisted of them came away with good results. That was the days of set everything, manual focus etc. yet people seemed to cope well. The Retinette were basic but very pretty cameras with a quite ordinary Reomar lens, the results that people got, especially with Kodachrome, were pretty impressive. Hardly ever see a Retinette for sale these days, wonder were they all went? Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin_roach Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I want a fuji G690, AND all the lenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_m Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I think a lot of you need to look up 'nostalgic' in the dictionary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summitar Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 To answer the primary question, I would really like any of the Korean war vintage Nikon rangefinders, in particular the Nikon SP. In 1966, I found myself in vietnam, a 30-year old captain with 8 years service, and I finally had enough discretionary income to consider buying my first 35 mm camera. A fellow officer in my unit had plans to become a professional photographer after he completed his tour and gave me his considered reviews of the two cameras he had purchased in vietnam, a Topcon super-D and a Canon Pellix. He went on great length over the superior construction and optical qualities of the super D. But even with combat pay, separation pay and other allowances, I didn't feel I could afford the topcon which went for $130 in the PX complete with f1.4 lens (I seem to remember a focal length of either 55 or 58mm). So I opted for a Konica auto S2 for $35. Great camera for a beginner and for a serious amateur for that matter. Except for interchangable lenses, I really don't know what a Leica M7 could bring that a auto S2 could not. Maybe a finer lens, but given a price differential of about 50 to 1, would it be that much better? I still have the Konica and it is still working fine. I became a serious collector about 5 years ago and have about 150 35 mm cameras, but that original Konica still has a special place in my photo memories. The camera that I now lust for is the Nikon D300. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin carron Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 As I live in the UK I have tended to collect some of the more interesting British made cameras. The ones I have never owned but would really like to have are : Reid with TTH lenses (Leica copy) Ensign Multex (high quality 127 roll film camera) the award winner though for 'Most Coveted' goes to the ...... Ilford Witness - perhaps one of the most interesting 35mm cameras of the 1940's and 50's. A Leica-style camera probably in advance of the Leicas of the day, designed by a couple of German-Jewish camera designers who left Germany before the war and settled in UK. The lenses were high quality Dallmeyer Super-Sixes and Serracs which bayonetted on to the body using and interrupted thread. Sadly they could not be made competitively in UK and only about 350 were made. Some photos here.... http://website.lineone.net/~mauricefisher/Witness.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Colin, that Ilford Witness is really neat. Thanks for posting it. Looks like most of the best features from a marriage between the Contax and Leica. Perhaps should have been called the "Ilford Mule." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin carron Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 ....and like the mule it had no offspring.:-) Bill, if you see one going cheap you will let me know, won't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Collins Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Tony, that's exactly the set-up Dad had; Retinette with Kodachrome and the resulting outstanding pictures. Dad learned how to set his camera to get the best results, most of the time but not always, and that ability carried over to his later use of slrs. He has always been able to use simple metering systems in his slrs along with his intuition to capture the same beautiful shots that I have to use an advanced AF slr to get. Interestingly, he bought an AF Nikon several years ago (that took ten years of convincing him that he would really like AF!), and now preaches the gospel of autofocus to everyone. What's even more shocking is that he is now considering a digital camera to go along with his film arsenal. Even so, the little Retinette still sits in a place of honor on the bookshelf, and whenever I'm at his house I take it down just to look at it and wax nostalgic about those vacations and family pictures of the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lauren_macintosh Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Very Simple : A canon rangefinder IVSB or along those lines! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_z Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Leica M3, Mamiya RB67, Yashica 124G are the ones I'd wished for. A rosewood and brass Tachihara 4x5 is the one I currently lust for. Fortunately I own two of my other dreams: a Rollei 35S and (2) Olympus OM1s - the Rollei and OM1's are currently still users, in fact. One characteristic of all these cameras (to me) is that while all these are/were fine cameras, I also consider them to have really nice styling - I always thought functional doesn't have to exclude beauty (the current "melted blob" of the top-line Canon digital SLR's for example, are just plain ugly to me). Which brings me to a question - given similar specs and such, did anyone else besides me ever consider how a camera LOOKED in your purchase decision? Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summitar Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 How a camera looks? For sure! I do like the concept that form follows function. We could start a whole new thread on which cameras look as good as they perform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julio Fernandez Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 A Hassy. Any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkag Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 I have to admit I've always wanted to get my hands around a Leica rangefinder just to see what all those Leica-fondlers are always raving about... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan c. Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 agree on the Alpas -- saw one in a Paris shop window on Blvd. Beaumarchais -- a late 11 i think, WITH the very rare Nikon auto-aperture lens adapter, and a Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 Micro, all for $1200.00, a bargain. but not when the money's not in your pocket! Foton American spring-wound motor camera of the late '40s, actually bid $960 on one and with beaten out! that's absurd... Zeiss Ikon Tenax II (square 24x24 format) from 1938 -- a very pretty camera, not cheap or common. Zeiss Ikon Hologon, with the built-in 16mm f/8 lens -- my Widelux kind of satisfies the craving for this kind of beast, and Voigtlander's affordable 12mm and 15mm lenses mean that there's really no use for it , especially at astronomical prices.... Rolleiwide, yeah, would be cool! Plaubel Makina II, III from 1940s - 50s, Cecil Brown used one on board the sinking HMS Repulse, 1941... Ernamox, the first compact camera with a f/1.8 lens, Eisenstadt used one in the early '30s, saw one without a lens at the old A Photographers' Place bookstore on Mercer Street back in the day -- but the lens is the whole point.... Yes, Nikon rangefinders -- you're either a Contax/Leica or a Leica person, it's hard (and expensive) to be both. so i do have some Nikkor LSM lenses to fill this silly desire... Contax/Pentacon F / also Praktina cameras -- Dresden, 1959 -- need i say more? finally, very commonplace, but other than a broken Exa i don't have any Exakta cameras...and i am lured by the low prices...but how would you stop?!? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 <P>Well, nostalgia's not what it used to be, is it? But I'll try and answer correctly. I guess I have nostalgic feelings for the Pentax Spotmatic, which I wanted back around 1970 but could not afford. Strangely though, I can afford one now but have lost the urge to buy one. Could be because I already have umpteen old cameras.</P><P>And my interest now has transferred to old cameras that I didn't rate back then, like the Zorki 3M.</P> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annie_r Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Nikon F or Leica M or R. These were the Holy Grail when I was in high school and just getting in to serious photography. I've learned that I don't need the Holy Grail to take good photos, but still ... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_wilson4 Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Screw Leica "Standard" without the rangefinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 None, because I've bought almost all of them on eBay. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_gillespie Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Kodak Ektar, Kardon leica copy, Voigtlander Bessa II with Apo-Lanthar, still hope to acquire these, always wanted to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_foreman1 Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Oh God.. Where to begin.. or end!! One day.. A Contax IIa but a rare Tenax or any other old Contax! How 'bout the same in Graflex size?? So many others already mentioned here 120 Omega Teh rreal problem for me is rare is so cool but just that.. so therefore expensive. I'd love to have an old Leica III or anearly Nikon rangefinder ..so would everybody or is that anybody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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