What’s your favourite film camera?

[erikaddis]

LEICA MINI 3

Extremely simple to use, small and lighweight, tack sharp SUMMAR lens from corner to corner, built-in UV filter, 38/38 perfectly exposed frames, film after film. This camera loves high contrasts - deep shadows and highlights with plently of visible details, very hard to get with today's advanced digital cameras. There is more details on film than on 50 MP scans. You can get more detail with 100 MP scans. Hard to believe. Black & white pictures are terrific. Very large enlargments on paper possible. Leica Mini 3 - PERFECT BEAUTY.

 

[SETI]

1) Bronica SQA-i

2) Pentax 645N-II

3) Canon EOS 3

 

[Chaplain Mark]

<<Snip>>

They are all only tools, but rather sensuous ones.

Very well said, and welcome to the Forums....!!

 

[kivis]

Using the equation of cost versus value, I'd say the Nikon FE (not FE2). Costs about a $100, built like a tank and gives excellent exposures 95% of the time.

 

[Geoffrey Rivett]

Never in 40 years of using rangefinder cameras, Leica II, IIIf, M 2 and M3, have I had the slightest problem of coupling lenses, Leitz, Canon or Nikon LTM to focussing, and I tend to operate in the 22 - f4 range.

What sort of equipment have you been using?

 

[Geoffrey Rivett]

As many serious amateur photographers used to have the facilities to print film, what has happened to us? My kitchen doubles as a darkroom, and developing and enlarging black and white film comes easily to me - but most photographers that I meet are almost horrified at getting their hands wet.

Using a film a week, I have the joy of a darkroom couple of hours weekly as well. One can still buy enlargers on eBay - like my Leitz Valloy 2. But the cost of a new enlarger if one can find one is near prohibitive. Very sad. At least Ilford Harman still make graded paper (grades 2 and 3).

 

[rodrigopaixao]

Ok so, I’m not what you think is the “best” (whatever that means), which of your film cameras do you like the most? The one that feels like the default choice. The desert island camera (assuming there was a supply of film on said island etc...)

Oh, and pictures, please. #filmcameraporn and all that...

BTW, mine is my Leica M4-P - it looks like crap, but it’s a wonderful thing!

Hello All,

I am very glad with this space in DP forum.. And my great love is my Black Canon Ae-1 with 50mm 1.4 . I will send photos soon ..

RP

 

[jvdwaa]

Olympus OM4

I still have it, including some OM-lenses (1.4 50, 3,5 50mm Macro), my favorite Tokina 28-135mm slide zoom and the T45 flash (fast enough to keep up with a winder!).

I don't think I will ever sell it, although I haven't used it for 15 years.

 

[PerL]

Ok so, I’m not what you think is the “best” (whatever that means), which of your film cameras do you like the most? The one that feels like the default choice. The desert island camera (assuming there was a supply of film on said island etc...)

Oh, and pictures, please. #filmcameraporn and all that...

BTW, mine is my Leica M4-P - it looks like crap, but it’s a wonderful thing!

Wonderful initiative with this forum!

Despite having owned DSLRs since the year 2000 I still feel more for the SLRs I have owned and own.

 

[Winterfrost]

I guess I'd say my Nikon F3HP, which I used from 1980 to about 2004 when I finally broke down and purchased a Nikon D70s, and I've had digital ever since then. I traveled a lot and most always shot slide film. I've recently been digitizing my hundreds of slides from this camera, and I have found that I really like the look of photos done on film. I still have the F3HP as well as a slightly earlier F3, and both still work should I decide to use them again.

My first film camera was a 1966 Yashica Electro 35, which was actually quite an interesting camera for its time. It had a lovely but fixed 46mm lens, you would set your desired aperture but the camera controlled the shutter speed....hence the Electro in the name. When I started using it in about 1970, the light meter was already broken (apparently a common problem with this camera), so everything I shot was without a meter. When photos turned out right, they were quite nice. I bumbled along with the Yashica until I got the F3 in 1980.

I can't remember what I did with the Yashica, but I recently bought a minty looking one on ebay for a very low price, just for the nostalgia of it. It looks unbelievably pristine, like it had never been used. Wouldn't you know it, the meter doesn't work! I actually got it to work early on when I was playing around with it, but then after that it never lit up and worked again.

I have my grandpa's Electro 35 GS from 1966 as well!

The issue with them is what they call the "Pad of Death". It's a foam pad against which something rests when it is cocked. That pad wears out over time, sometimes falls off altogether. Google it, it is well-documented and illustrated. Camerasmiths know how to fix it, and there are even step-by-step instructions, if you want to give it a go yourself. One method involves ripping off the front leatherette and removing the lens. Another can be done just by removing either the top or bottom plate, but it's finnicky to get in an do what is needed.

Without this working properly, you only really can count on 1/500s and Sunny 16. Maybe the 1/30 flash setting works as well?

I do fear, because of this, we already opened "Pandoras Box" now, some prices for analog gear are skyrocketing.... ;-) Nevermind. I do like my 35 GT very much. It would have even being fixed by now (like new condition - only the filterthread is being subtle bent) but Aliexpress haven't had delivered that item yet....remember that Celebrity, which put a Contax T3 into the show, i guess it was David Letterman...how could these Youngsters do this..? ;-)

Good Light.

--
"The Best Camera is the One That's with You" ~ Chase Jarvis

 

[Smaug01]

My Pentax LX. Followed closely by my Pentax ME Super. I am thinking about picking up a Minolta CLE as well. That would probably shoot to the top of the list as I value portability highly.

 

[mrgooch2008]

Yashica G

 

[Smaug01]

 

[palerma]

I miss my Fuji GX680,the best studio medium format camera ever.

6x8 format with rotating back and fabulous lenses.




My old studio.

 

[Keithadb]

For me it has to be the Nikon F6, a beast of a camera but with the best ergonomics of any camera I've owned by far. I'd love Nikon to update it to work with E lenses though.

 

[Arjayess]

I use my 7 II several times a week and I have to say that I love it. It handles well and the lenses are superb.

 

[tulsagirl]

Rolleiflex Hy6

The Hy6 with a 6x6 back is my current film camera, but the Pentax LX is a pretty close second. Third place would be at the Nikon FM-2

Claire

Gilcrease Museum

Tulsa, OK

 

[BJL]

I still have two Pentax K-1000's in the camera closet. One reason for preferring them to my several newer FSLRs is that they can use infrared film, which most cameras with automatic film advance cannot. Infrared is one place it is far harder to go with digital cameras.

Also, no batteries needed, strictly speaking. (If the in-camera light meter battery fails, I could use my digital camera as a light meter! Or probably a phone app.)

 

[ChicagoRob]

Canon F1. Super build and reliable after 48 years.

 

[henrikcastens]

My best film camera is the Leica M4. It is built like the M3, but it has all the features of the newer Leicas (except for the light meter). I just love that camera so much! It is as dear to me as my wife (don't tell her I said that).

As for the light meter - I actually sold a Leica M6 and kept the M4. I enjoy so much more to shoot without a light meter. It keeps me in "the zone".