Do you find the cameara...or does it find you?

[cheryl_smith]

I've always been interested in the stories about how people

acquire their cameras. Do you figure out which camera you want (how?)

then go after that specific camera? Or, do you stumble upon a camera,

and decide that it was meant to be? <p>

Personally, I have the latter approach. I don't know I want it until

I see it. I may see it at a local auction preview or estate sale, do

a bit of research if I have time, then purchase it. Or it may be

inherited from someone who knows I like cameras. I don't really have

many criteria, mainly that it isn't a horrible deal, and that I can

actually use it (have had couple of exceptions to that one!) I don't

remember ever thinking, "I need X, so I'm going to scour garage sales

and auctions for the best example of X I can find." Certainly I

haven't gotten any of my cameras that way. Maybe it will change in

the future as my tastes develop more...

<p>Hmmm...maybe I ought to go check if one of the local antique shops

still has that Speed Graphic I saw...it just might have to go on

my wish list!

[ole_tjugen]

For me it's "Nice camera - and the price is nice too. I'll take it!"

 

This has given me two "real" large format cameras, two small plate cameras, one Leica clone, a 35mm folder and four MF folders...

 

I knew I wanted a MF folder, but didn't plan to get four different makes!

I'm trying to stay away from ebay now...

[dan_fromm2]

Back when the cameras that qualify for discussion here were new, I had no camera, wanted one, and had practically no clue. All that I knew was that an SLR was the right tool for some of the pictures I wanted to take. So I asked my brother, who'd recently got a BFA in photography from Ohio University and was then setting up as a professional photographer, what I should get. His answer? "Get a Nikon and we'll have an equipment pool." So I did and so we did. Lucky accident, I'd say.

 

Since then, its been a mixture of recognizing opportunities when I stumbled across them (Retina IIs as cycling cameras), running into something appealing (one look through a Primo Jr/Sawyer's MK IV and I was hooked), and defining objectives and going from there to wish list (how I got into Graphics). "I can use that", "that's pretty," and "I know what I want to accomplish, now what will do the job?" cover the range. Lucky accident plays a large part.

 

These days my mania is more for lenses to use on the cameras I have than for more cameras to carry around. See an interesting opportunity, have the money, buy it. That's how my excellent 38/4.5 Biogon adventure (1969 vintage lenses, 20 of them in all) started. See an interesting opportunity, don't have the money, sometimes buy it anyway. That's how I came to be waiting for a 260/10 Process Nikkor (age unknown) to arrive.

 

Its a sign of moral weakness, eBay is a snare for the unwary.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

[silent1]

For me, it's always been a case of stumbling on something that would do the job I wanted to do, and I could afford. That was how I got my first SLR, my first TLR, and every other camera I've owned in the past thirty years. The only time I've gone out looking for a particular feature set was when I shopped all the thrift stores near my home for 35 mm snapshooters that would fire if the shutter release was held while advancing the film (for a kite photography project, as yet uncompleted), and cost no more than $2 each. Otherwise, the only qualification has been "compatible with the body and lenses I already have."

[david_goldfarb]

It's a little of both. I might read about a camera that looks interesting and then buy one when it comes along at the right price, and then decide whether it really lives up to expectations or not and keep it or sell it.

[marbing]

I suppose that I have defined myself as a 'Zeiss' person and have directed my purchases to that end. So, my classic cameras, as well as my modern ones, all have Zeiss in common...somewhere. Even my eyeglasses are Zeiss...my slide projector (a Zeiss IkoLux)..binoculars.

 

I suppose, to answer your question, that I am 'finding' the cameras but, initially, Zeiss found me and impressed me enough to want to have more of their product.

[john lehman, college alask]

Usually I go looking for it; occasionally the reverse. My most recent toy is the reverse: a Retina IIIc which a friend brought me to sell for her. I liked it well enough that I paid her the average Eb** completed auction price for the last month.

[bob fowler]

When I go looking, I never find anything - it's always when I least expect it taht I find gems. I was in a junk shop and found a Retina IIa in excellent shape for $5.00. My Eastman View No.2 was a "find" at another junk shop. The camera with an 8 1/2" f/5.6 Ross Homocentric set me back $35.00 about 12 years ago.

[mike_elek]

Meryl, I'm with you all of the way. I was beginning to buy some older cameras about two years ago. I bought a Zeiss-Ikon Contina II and as I usually do, ran some film through it:<p>

 

<center><img src=http://pages.prodigy.net/mm-elek/photos/images/Stanley-Bay.jpg border=0></center><p>

 

And that pretty much was the beginning of it all. My favorite camera is the Contax IIa, followed by my Rollei 35S. And when buying cameras, I usually look for another Zeiss-Ikon or one fitted with a Zeiss lens (the West German Zeiss).<p>

 

Two weeks ago, I picked up a Ihagee Parvola fitted with a Tessar lens. It's a 127 camera, and I can't find my 127 film. Maybe soon.<p>

[david_nebenzahl]

<i>The camera with an 8 1/2" f/5.6 Ross Homocentric ...</i>

<p>Dang, I'd buy a camera with that lens for the name alone!

<p>But back to the original question: I'll say that the "cameras find me". Of course, I try to put myself in places where that's more likely to happen.

<p>Apropos the subject of this forum, the cameras I've gotten recently are much more likely to come from flea markets, swap meets, yard sales and antique fairs (as well as a certain obscure on-line auction site) as anywhere. My eye darts restlessly to the dusty, the grimy, the encrusted, the camera buried under a pile of other junk, the stuff at the bottom of a box of junk randomly thrown together.

<p>One of the things I love about this pursuit is the potential for creating the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear. While there's a certain amount of risk in this proposition--it is possible, after all, to end up with nothing but a P.O.S.--more often than not I'm rewarded by having, and usually using, a camera that would have otherwise met an untimely demise.

<p>Yeah, a rescuer of lost camera souls, that's what I am--that's the ticket!

[marbing]

For Mike Elek:

This Film for Classics site looks like it is offering Kodak Portra in 127 format.

 

http://www.filmforclassics.com/

[cheryl_smith]

Well, I thought I was in the minority with the "if you wait, it will come" approach...go figure!

<p>Just went to a box-lot sale at a local auction house for something to do tonight. Picked up a box with another little Hawkeye, a couple of unused rolls of Kodacolor C620 that expired in the early 60s, tons of flashbulbs, 2 projector lenses & bulb, and something called Kodak film cleaner that probably expired 30 years ago. All this for the price of a fast-food meal. I may go back tomorrow and bid on the box with the Minolta AL and the Argus super seventy-five: I can feel them calling to me "Rescue us...use us...we need you..." What fun!

<p>I will say that my first camera purchase was a bit of luck too, didn't really know what I was getting into, just vaguely that I wanted a decent/cheap camera that I couldn't hurt. So I picked up the SRT-101 (just looked more solid and sophisticated than the little P&S I had), along with the Yashica 635 (that one just looked neat--I'd never seen a TLR before). Turned out to be a pretty good thing for my naive self.

[tito sobrinho]

Cheryl, here is my list:

 

Gifts: Yashicaflex brand new(1956). A gift from my father.This was the camera that introduce me to serious photography.

 

Two Mamiyas C33 (I gave both to my gardener). Mamiya C330f with the normal 80mm lens in excellent condition. Rolleicord VB almost mint, Nikon FTn with the 50/1.4 almost mint. Big Kodak folder (116 film?) with the red leather bellows. All of these as a gift from a local Pawn Shop owner.

 

Kodak Retina IIb with Xenar 50/2.8. Reflex viewer for my Horseman 985. Both a gift from a friend.

 

Another friend gave me an Ikonta Nettar 515/16 with a Novar 75/4.5.

 

Summicron M 90/2. Elmarit M 135/2.8. Eastman Kodak #1 5x7 that had a Protar series VII convertible in a Compur shutter 11 3/16", 13 3/4", 7" + Tessar 120/2.7 in a Compound #3. Weston Master V with the invercone. Since the Eastman bellows was in bad condition, I mounted the Protar on my 5x7 Deardorff. All of these as a gift from a local camera store.

 

4x5 Beseler enlarger with the motorized control and 3 lenses. A gift from a local 1 hour foto processing chain owner. I need to pick up as he gave to me 6 weeks ago.

 

Trades:

 

Mint Rolleiflex E Xenotar 80/2.8 with case, instruction manual, box for a 3 days vacation at my beach condo.

 

Retina II+Summar for an excellent condition 4x5 Linhof super rolex 6x9 to be used on my Deardorff. Super Ikonta A (so so condition) for a mint Yashica 124G with box, case, instruction manual+ wide, tele lenses.

 

Bought for a song: 4x5 Crown Graphic with the Graflock back with an Apo-Lanthar 150/4.5. this lens is excellent for a 4x5 but I mounted it on my Horseman 985 (2x3). Excellent condition Kodak Bantam Special 45/2 in a Supermatic shutter. Kodak Ektar 203/7.7 mounted in a Flash Supermatic shutter.

[greg_rust]

Cheryl,

 

For me, I think it was both. For years I have been very interested in the Bauhaus school of design. In the last few years, I became interested in folding cameras. I learned about the Voigtlander Perkeo folders and now I have two. I use them a lot. They are my favorite cameras. They are very compact and have a very clean design. I recently learned that it was designed by the person who started the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius. Now I feel even more attached to these cameras. They seem to be part of my personality.

 

Greg Rust

[gabriel_benaim]

Well,

 

My cameras definitely found me, and it's a good thing. I hadn't done any serious photography since college, about 15 years. This summer, going through the boxes at a yard sale near my house, I found a couple of old Rolleis, an original standard and a cord 3. Since then, it's been photography all day, all night, in stereo. Great cameras, in great condition, really made me want to take some great pictures. I've been developing and printing b&w for the past cpouple of months, and can highly recommend the tlr as an all around camera.<div></div>