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Fun Cameras- What's your favorite and why?

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FoolyCooly

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One favorite-

Nikkormat FTn that was manufactured sometime between 1967 and 1975.

What I like-

Pulling the film advance lever makes really neat sound.

Turning the silky smooth focusing ring on the 50mm lens until the image came into sharp focus in the bright viewfinder.

Pressing the shutter button and hearing the distinctive mechanical clack.

Doing it all over again.















Holding it reminds me of the smell of dectol and they way my bathroom looked in all red with the safe light on.

In the days of film I was more concerned with capturing the moment. I cared little about grain, dof or precise focus. Back then photography was about passion and not turning out hundreds of technically precise images.

--
The best camera is the one you have with you.
 
My Kowa Six- opening the waist-level finder, flipping out the magnifying focus aid, and looking down but looking forward. And a reversed image to boot.

Focusing was a joy with the large ring around the lens barrel (85 mm, f2.8) and you really knew when the shutter button was pressed, as that big ol' mirror swung out of the way.
(Mirror slap ? Plenty). Self-timer, or mirror lock-up on the later model MM let you get around the slap, but wasn't nearly as cool...

And the very mechanical film advance/ mirror return/ shutter **** by turning the large knob on the side. A great slow-working camera, with everything manual except the lens diaphragm. Twelve shots on 120 film (24 on 220 film but what a PITA !)

A Gossen light meter, a sturdy tripod, my Kowa Six, and I was ready to learn (and practice) photography.

Digital is great, I love it. But nothing compares to seeing your print come up in the developer, the anticipation while waiting to get into the fixer. Did anything look better than your print under the safelight ? ;)
 
Any Polaroid camera. For sheer fun nothing beat watching the picture develop. Now with digital that's nothing special, but back then it was a blast. It was a Polaroid 104 that my father-in-law gave me that started me in photography. Now that I think of it that gift has cost me a fortune over the years.
 
My Zone IV cherry wood 4x5 camera is my favorite toy. I love several of the features it has. The arm the pulls the ground glass off the focal plane so you can more easily load film should be on every view camera.


I also love my holga

I just got an olympus e-pl5 m.43 camera. first digital i ever bought with no intention of using it for professional work. I love the little camera nad beats the pants of digital compacts. fun to carry around
 
FoolyCooly said:
FoolyCooly wrote:

One favorite-
Click to expand...
Pentax Q.

* it's tiny

* takes tiny lenses; the novelty still hasn't worn off on me; I can really get used to the weight too

* when you take a lens off, you see the tiny sensor. C'mon, it's not often you see a tiny sensor exposed for all the world to see like this :)

* software interface and buttons are very conducive to pic-taking

* cam can be set to save in JPG yet allow you to slectively save a RAW file (after you have taken the shot); simply hit a button

* despite all my repulsions to modern retro stylings, it won me over and isn't half bad to use, despite its blockyness and lack of evf (and iffy stability of out-of-the-box version 1.0 firmware)

* has a tiny flash that pops up to the side, away from the lens

* I've never seen a dual kit lens fit in such a small retail box or camera bag. Or pouch :)
 
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jess shudup said:
jess shudup wrote:

My Kowa Six- opening the waist-level finder, flipping out the magnifying focus aid, and looking down but looking forward. And a reversed image to boot.

Focusing was a joy with the large ring around the lens barrel (85 mm, f2.8) and you really knew when the shutter button was pressed, as that big ol' mirror swung out of the way.
(Mirror slap ? Plenty). Self-timer, or mirror lock-up on the later model MM let you get around the slap, but wasn't nearly as cool...

And the very mechanical film advance/ mirror return/ shutter **** by turning the large knob on the side. A great slow-working camera, with everything manual except the lens diaphragm. Twelve shots on 120 film (24 on 220 film but what a PITA !)

A Gossen light meter, a sturdy tripod, my Kowa Six, and I was ready to learn (and practice) photography.

Digital is great, I love it. But nothing compares to seeing your print come up in the developer, the anticipation while waiting to get into the fixer. Did anything look better than your print under the safelight ? ;)
Click to expand...
Sounds like a very cool camera.

I think every photographer should experience processing their own film and making a B&W print. It truly is a magical experiance.

LOL, I was looking for T-Max while at Walmart today. All I came up with was Fujifilm 200. My son has the day off tomorrow. I'm going to show him to take a picture using a film camera then we are going to get it developed at a One Hour Photo if I can find one. It should be fun.
 
Mahmoud Mousef said:
Mahmoud Mousef wrote:
Mahmoud Mousef said:
FoolyCooly wrote:

One favorite-
Click to expand...
Pentax Q.

* it's tiny

* takes tiny lenses; the novelty still hasn't worn off on me; I can really get used to the weight too

* when you take a lens off, you see the tiny sensor. C'mon, it's not often you see a tiny sensor exposed for all the world to see like this :)

* software interface and buttons are very conducive to pic-taking

* cam can be set to save in JPG yet allow you to slectively save a RAW file (after you have taken the shot); simply hit a button

* despite all my repulsions to modern retro stylings, it won me over and isn't half bad to use, despite its blockyness and lack of evf (and iffy stability of out-of-the-box version 1.0 firmware)

* has a tiny flash that pops up to the side, away from the lens

* I've never seen a dual kit lens fit in such a small retail box or camera bag. Or pouch :)
Click to expand...
I had to google Pentax Q. All I can say is that I WANT one. Very cool camera indeed.
 
mgd43 said:
mgd43 wrote:

Any Polaroid camera. For sheer fun nothing beat watching the picture develop. Now with digital that's nothing special, but back then it was a blast. It was a Polaroid 104 that my father-in-law gave me that started me in photography. Now that I think of it that gift has cost me a fortune over the years.
Click to expand...
I just had a flashback to my teens. WOW I wish I still had all my old polaroid photos.
 
Kodachrome200 said:
Kodachrome200 wrote:

My Zone IV cherry wood 4x5 camera is my favorite toy. I love several of the features it has. The arm the pulls the ground glass off the focal plane so you can more easily load film should be on every view camera.

I also love my holga

I just got an olympus e-pl5 m.43 camera. first digital i ever bought with no intention of using it for professional work. I love the little camera nad beats the pants of digital compacts. fun to carry around
Click to expand...
I've only had the pleasure of using a field camera for 3 exposures on polaroid. It was lots of fun but very tedious process if I remember correctly. The detail they are capable of is amazing and well worth the trouble. Holga is definitely one of the great fun cameras. I've been eyeballing Lomography Fisheyes for some time now. Next time I see one for sale locally, I'm going to buy it. Regarding the E-PL5, it's becoming one of my all time faves.
 
FoolyCooly said:
FoolyCooly wrote:

I had to google Pentax Q. All I can say is that I WANT one. Very cool camera indeed.

--
The best camera is the one you have with you.
Click to expand...
Fantastic build quality and it screams fun. Glad you got the fever :)

Prices on the Q are good too, unlike at release time. Output should be compared to an advanced compact; it does very well against the competition but won't trample on DSLRs. I have the prime (great for low light) and the standard zoom. Great little combo.

I was just smiling from ear-to-ear when playing with it when I first got it. I still do :)
 
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On the one hand that is like asking me to pick a favourite child!



Soooooooo many and all have been fun.

several point and shoot film, several film slrs (Pentax K and screwmount, Nikon, Olympus)

A couple of polaroids (including a huge 600SE rangefinder with interchangeable lenses)....

three or four point and shoot digital, 3 or 4 apsc dslrs (Nikon and Pentax).

Honourable mention to my current Kx......the first cheap seriously decent high iso camera.

On the other hand though, the little Pentax Q is more fun than all the others combined for sheer small size with interchangeable lenses and with fast lenses it can do things not readily doable otherwise....it is also by a long way the hardest camera for me to use (so far)....but just so much FUN!.

Easy to justify it if you have really good old lenses that can go on a variety of cameras/formats.
 
I've been shoting for 40 years, and shot with everythig including medium format to process camera, andI chose the E-M5 because it's the first time in years I owned a digital camera that reminded me of the film SLRs I stopped using 10 years ago.

dSLRs are big, bulky, heavy, or ugly looking.
 
it's a a 60 years old 6x6 folding camera with no lightmeter, the viewfinder is just a hole and i have to guess the distance and the exposure (well for exposure sometimes i help with a compact digital) can't change the lens.

it's the most basic form of photography and is a great fun, i like to think about the shot, charge the shuter and then close the camera and wind the film without knowing the result.

it's not a question of digital vs analog, i like alot to play with my mirrorless, put a 800mm lens on it. and i like to do 1000nds of useless shot with my digital compact camera.

but i think it's truly impressive that the agfa isolette was a inexpensive camera of the 40s-50s small enough to enter in the jacket pocket, and in 2013 you can buy it on a budget, clean the glas and take impressively good images.
 
wyoming said:
wyoming wrote:

it's a a 60 years old 6x6 folding camera with no lightmeter, the viewfinder is just a hole and i have to guess the distance and the exposure (well for exposure sometimes i help with a compact digital) can't change the lens.

it's the most basic form of photography and is a great fun, i like to think about the shot, charge the shuter and then close the camera and wind the film without knowing the result.

it's not a question of digital vs analog, i like alot to play with my mirrorless, put a 800mm lens on it. and i like to do 1000nds of useless shot with my digital compact camera.

but i think it's truly impressive that the agfa isolette was a inexpensive camera of the 40s-50s small enough to enter in the jacket pocket, and in 2013 you can buy it on a budget, clean the glas and take impressively good images.
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty neat. Definitely one to add to the collection. I love old cameras.
 
Member said:
Mike_PEAT wrote:

I've been shoting for 40 years, and shot with everythig including medium format to process camera, andI chose the E-M5 because it's the first time in years I owned a digital camera that reminded me of the film SLRs I stopped using 10 years ago.

dSLRs are big, bulky, heavy, or ugly looking.
Click to expand...


DSLRs for me are more like a wrench. You use them for a very specific job, when they are old and worn out you replace them with a new one.

There are very few digital cameras that I've truely loved. My first digitals were a Sony D770 1.3 MP $1400, Sony Mavica FD7 floppy disk camera, Sony DSC-S70 with a Zeiss Lens.. uh-oh that's a lot of Sonys. LOL, I used to work for them.

I had some great times with a Nikon Coolpix 995 and a new fave which is the Olympus E-PL5. Putting a 40-year-old lens on it brings back some of that nostalgic feeling.

















--
The best camera is the one you have with you.
 
Your memories take me back to my Nikkormat FT2 and a great 35mm f/2 Auto Nikkor for family candids and landscapes. That was a long time ago! Of dozens of cameras owned since, (buying and selling is also a hobby) a current Fuji X10 honestly offers the most "fun" I've ever had with a camera.
 
...all the digital cameras I've owned. From the Kodak DC4800; to the Oly C5050, C8080, E-330, E3; To my Sony A850 and NEX7. These have been fun for various reasons---the Kodak for the first digital instant gratification, the 5050 for harking back to the Rollei, but with lots more features, the 8080 for the superb images I got from it, and the e-330 improving on that a bit; The E-3 for its ruggedness and weatherproofing, liberating in its way (which I miss). The A850 for the quality of the images and ease of use, the NEX 7 for its amazing combo of size and power.

But there was nothing quite like the Rollei and zone-focusing (which is back a bit with the NEX7 and focus peaking used with manual lenses), or the Fuji rangefinders with a hand held meter.
 
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