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What is / are your most memorable camera(s)?

Blumlein 88

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Argus C3 35 mm.
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Known as the Brick by newspaper photographers. They were tough. Not really a great camera. Really quirky focus as it wasn't thru the lens. I purchased it for something like $5. It was already old when I got it. I learned to develop film, and how to adjust all the settings to get good photos in various amounts of light. I'm not sure the photos were any better than the Polaroid cameras of the time, but I learned a lot using it.

HP Photosmart C30. My first digicam. 1 megapixel. I was using a Canon AE1 program, but wanted to try out digital. I remember it as my family had a large birthday party for my Grandmother 2 days after I bought it. So I had it and was taking lots of pictures. She took ill the next week and passed away. So I've quite a number of the last photos of her and her family together. So a reminder the camera you have with you beats the great one you left at home. This camera did have a weird quirk in how it did color in the software. A bug cause it to take a certain range of medium blues and turn them into a much more saturated electric blue. Fortunately not a sky blue, but slight more blue than that would cause the glitch in the image.
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The Nikon Cool Pix 990 3.3 megapixels. The first digital camera to make me think digital really could supplant film or at least compete with it somewhat.
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Kodak Instamatics using 110 film like this:
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I hate them. I took a trip to Europe when I graduated high school. I forget what I had, but I'd replaced the Argus. I was convinced by relatives that a little camera like this, so easy to pocket and the film so convenient was a much better choice to take with me. And that it really took good pictures. So I took it, and took many rolls of film. What a mistake. Terrible camera, terrible pictures. Was recently scanning some negatives from that, and it is a bit of an improvement, but just such terrible optics. So this is the camera you always wished you left at home as it will cause you to re-examine the idea having any camera with you is better than not having one.
 
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GGroch

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Great topic. The circa 2000 Olympus C-2100 Uzi was the first digital camera that I got consistently good results from. Just 2 MP but the Canon manufactured 10x stabilized zoom meant I almost always had enough pixels on the subject. I used it for almost 10 years. Still a classic I think.
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It even influenced my 2011 replacement, a Fujifilm X S1 which is pretty much the same camera, just better in every way. Once again, the electronics and lens are great so I do not have to think much. Plus, with 26x zoom, it does things my phone can't. I'll probably be looking for an X-S1 replacement in about 2021.
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Juhazi

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Pentax MEsuper was my second SLR, bought as new in 1984. Still regret of changing it to LX.
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I still have the Nikon F65. My first DSLR was Nikon D70 (2004-still) and latest is Nikon D300s.
 

milw50717

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My two favourite film cameras are the Minox 35ML as a travel/pocket camera and the Olympus OM-4T for when something more is required. I still use copies of both today as I still develop 35mm film. Lots, and I mean lots, of my photos were taken on these two cameras

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In these days of digital, perhaps the Nikon D90 that I used the snot out of taking photos of the family before upgrading to a full frame Nikon.

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solderdude

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Have a collection of about 100 analog cameras (includes the C3)

The most fun ones are the Minox 35 range (have most of them) and Rollei 35 (a few of them) as they are small and take great pics. Also the Olympus XA series (XA 1 to 4).
Of the small ones I also owned the Contax T2 for a while.
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Ron Texas

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My D850 is so good it makes me forget about everything else I ever used, including some antiques and the Iconic Brownie.
 

amirm

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I don't have good memories of my film cameras. Expensive to use, waiting forever for the developed slides, etc. So for me, the most revolutionary camera was the first digital DSLR camera I bought, the Canon 10D:

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It forever changed my photography hobby. It got me back into it, taught me immense amount and got me better pictures than I ever could before.
 

RayDunzl

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Dad was an amateur photographer, being 4F spent part of WW2 in Orlando training reconnaissance photographers.

Remember darkroom nights in the bathroom.

And he eventually got a Polaroid. It's still here.

Pictures in a minute.

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Ron Texas

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I don't have good memories of my film cameras. Expensive to use, waiting forever for the developed slides, etc. So for me, the most revolutionary camera was the first digital DSLR camera I bought, the Canon 10D:
It forever changed my photography hobby. It got me back into it, taught me immense amount and got me better pictures than I ever could before.

I agree completely, especially the last two sentences.
 

Blumlein 88

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I do remember getting one of those electric winders that allowed you to shoot several shots rapidly. I loaded up some film, tried it out on some playful dogs to see what kind of shots I could get. Depressed the button maybe 3 times in a few seconds and one roll of film gone. I said to myself, "well there goes about $8 in 8 seconds for you." That was about the cost then for film and developing and prints.
 

LTig

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My Nikon FM-2, bought it in 1986 (when my Minolta XD5 started to show problems in really cold weather) and retired in 2007 (when I switched to digital). It was the cam I used longest in my life so far. It never failed me and worked reliably at temperatures of -20 degree Celsius or below with strong wind (ski mountaineering). Once it was so cold that the film got ripped during transport. AFAIK the FM2 was the only camera on the market which could be taken into arctic conditions without removing the lubricating grease (the shutter is self-lubricating).

My FM-2 even survived a bucket of sea water, caused by a jumping orca whale in the Vancouver aquarium (both me and the cam were totally drenched); it had to go to the Nikon service about a year later because the ISO could no longer be adjusted and I feared that this would be the end of it, but I payed something like 50 € and it was perfect again.

In 1989 there were rumours that Nikon would stop production so I quickly bought a second body. As it turned out it was produced much much longer until 2001. Both bodies are no longer used but still in working order.

Here is a photograph taken with the FM2. Our guide did not trust the snow, and while checking with his ski stick how deep the snow is he triggered an avalanche:eek:. Nothing happened to us:D but we decided to turn around for this day.

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When the Nikon was too heavy I used a Rollei 35 SE and later a Ricoh GR1s. Both are retired but still in working order.

My first digital cam was a Nikon Coolpix 2500. I quickly realized that 2 MP is far from sufficient when I used it on a ski mountaineering trip. I shot a nice photograph but could print it only at a max size of 20 x 30 cm, which was disappointing:

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I sold the Coolpix and later got a Fuji Finepix F10, the first P&S with good high ISO quality (for its time, of course). It made really good photographs and today lives in the glovebox of my car:

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My current DSLR is a Nikon D800 which I got in 2012, and I have no reason yet to replace it, neither by a D850 (no builtin flash) nor a Z6 or Z7. It was a major step in image quality. I don't think that I'll be able to use it longer than the FM2 but I try to. Here is one photograph made in 2013:

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milw50717

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I do remember getting one of those electric winders that allowed you to shoot several shots rapidly.

Motor drives / Power winders are cool though - just listen to the start of Girls on Film ;)

I have one for my OM4 and one built into the Nikon F5. They are rarely used in anything other than single shot mode though.
 

LTig

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[..]It forever changed my photography hobby. It got me back into it, taught me immense amount and got me better pictures than I ever could before.
Cannot subscribe to all. Digital did not change that much besides taking too many photographs first. What really changed my photographic skills was a 1 week long workshop with Jürgen Winkler in 2010. He taught mostly seeing. Since then I take much less number of photographs but the failure rate is much lower.

Of course, being able to shoot at ISO 6400 and getting usable photographs (up to ISO 2000 the D800 is very good) was a major step forward. Analog I could go up to ISO 1600 with Ilford XP-400 B&W film, but color was limited to ISO 400. I once shot a concert with a color film for artificial light at ISO 640 but the blacks were just grey.
 

amirm

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Cannot subscribe to all. Digital did not change that much besides taking too many photographs first.
What it changed for me was that you could have instant feedback. That accelerates my learning immensely. When I go on a 3-day shoot, I can see what works the first day and refine for the next two days. With slides, I would not know what was going on until 6 weeks later, impossible to re-do.

Ability to tweak images in the computer was also fantastic. Yes you could scan slides but that added to the drudgery.

And yes, being free to experiment with more images also was very helpful.
 

LTig

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What it changed for me was that you could have instant feedback. That accelerates my learning immensely. When I go on a 3-day shoot, I can see what works the first day and refine for the next two days. With slides, I would not know what was going on until 6 weeks later, impossible to re-do.
This is one of the biggest advantages, for sure. But it did not have that much of an influence on my kind of shooting I think. Shooting analog I took several photographs when I was not sure that the setup was correct (I mainly shot slides). Shooting digital I usually check sharpness (switching to 100% pixel peeping is just one click on the Nikon) and blown out colors.
Ability to tweak images in the computer was also fantastic. Yes you could scan slides but that added to the drudgery.

Agreed - sitting one night in the dark lap produced only 30 b&w prints. Raw converters are much faster, and printing is mostly online.
And yes, being free to experiment with more images also was very helpful.
True - but you have to learn to delete, otherwise the card/disk fills up quickly.
 
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mi-fu

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I remember it as my family had a large birthday party for my Grandmother 2 days after I bought it. So I had it and was taking lots of pictures. She took ill the next week and passed away. So I've quite a number of the last photos of her and her family together.

This is probably the best thing about digital cameras. We don't need to think about the cost of film and etc. Just keep shooting. Sometimes the most important pictures are not the most beautiful pictures. They are images that give you most meanings. Digital cameras are very good for that.
 
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mi-fu

mi-fu

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Here is a photograph taken with the FM2. Our guide did not trust the snow, and while checking with his ski stick how deep the snow is he triggered an avalanche:eek:. Nothing happened to us:D but we decided to turn around for this day.

This is a great story!

FM2 probably is the last fully mechanical camera that can be seen as a true classics, before electronic shutters entirely dominated the market. The another one should be Leica MP.

It is a joy to simply listen to the shutter sound of FM2 and Leicas.
 

FrantzM

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Nikon FE ... It may still be somewhere in my belongings ..
Hasselblad 500 .. Loved that camera
Yashica MAT 124G (Better pictures than it should at that low price)
Rolleiflex SLX
Olympus OM2
 
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