What’s your favourite film camera?

[mikeD60]

Holga GCFN 120. With a repaint job and 3 items from holgamods.

 

[Glicodan]

The Canon F-1/ New F-1 takes my pick because they are built like brass tanks, can still operate without a battery, manual match-needle metering, take multiple accessories and they look great.

I've been meaning to get hold of one of these for a while. You may have just pushed me into GAS territory. They do look great!

 

[Laurence J. Segil]

Now too heavy for my aging back to see the use that it deserves, my favorite camera system is the Rollei SL66e 6x6 medium format with its Zeiss lenses. I feel that many of my best film images have come from this camera. Versatile, easy to use though a bit awkward to handhold, mechanical but for the light meter (SL66 has none, SL66se adds spot metering). Bellows focusing with adjustable tilt is a marvelous feature for a medium format camera. I have shot with many other cameras of formats from 35mm to 8x10, but my heart still belongs to the SL66 (I am surprised not to be seeing any love for the Rollei TLRs on this thread as yet). I've used the Mamiya 7 system and did not find it as satisfying and did not feel the results measured up to the Rollei. Of course large format film offers advantages that roll film can never achieve, but medium format does enable a portability and some spontaneity that large format does not permit. However, there is nothing like an 8x10 Platinum/Palladium contact print.

My all time favorite (mostly for sentimental reasons and its vintage look) 35mm film image was made with the Zeiss Ikon Rangefinder (a short lived camera modeled on the Leica M7 but with a superior viewfinder/rangefinder) with a Leitz Summar 50/2 lens on Tri-X (I pair the ZI body with a Zeiss ZM 35/1.4 Distagon most of the time). An early pre-war model Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta C 6x9 is a pleasure and gives a nice vintage look with its 105/4.5 Tessar lens. For 35mm I also enjoy the Nikon F3HP (when I want AE) and the FM2, the 28/2 AIS is my favorite of the Nikkor SLR lenses. I think that there is something special in the look of the vintage Nikkor rangefinder lenses, particularly the 35/1.8; I shoot with them on an SP or a Bessa R2S.

Of chrome film Kodak's E100VS has always been my favorite for landscapes with Velvia 50 close behind. In B&W I still like the look of TXP for mood, otherwise TMY or Acros.

OK, very long reply to a simple question, but my favorite has to be the Rollei SL66 of all my available options for film.

LJS

 

[CMCM]

I agree....I enjoy looking at mine and the truly beautiful construction of it. Yours is the "G", which I believe came out in 1968. Mine was earlier from 1966, and it had a cold shoe, but otherwise looked mostly identical to yours.

 

[IacoPolo]

I am relatively new to film photography. My favorite camera for now is the Hasselblad 500cm.

 

[Dave Hurwitz]

I have a few lying around, none that good except my Nikon N80, which was the best film camera I have owned. Not that it has any antique value, or status as a great camera, but has great ergonomics and all the buttons in the right places. And I have to admit, scanning slides years after taking them, there is something about the color I don’t see on digital pics.

 

[Robert Clemens]

The Nikon F4 with motor drive. (Close 2nd: Pentax 67.)

 

[Parry Johnson]

What is your favourite, or what was your favourite? If you accept the latter, my favourite was a Mamiya 7 II, a medium format (6x7cm nominally) rangefinder, which was very satisfying to use and could produce stunningly good images.

Unfortunately, I used it for less than ten years before it was stolen and I moved to purely digital photography. Probably a blessing in disguise as the insurance money was fully used to get digital replacements, which I have never regretted (although it would be nice to still have the Mamiya as well).

Sadly, my Mamiya TLR system was also stolen along with a couple of other cameras -- I really don't know why they bothered, as it would stick out like a sore thumb if they tried to hawk it.

Anyway, I had a nearly complete system: C22 and C220f with porrofinder, paramender, 65mm, 80mm, 105mm, 135mm and 250mm lenses. They were fun to shoot with, grabbed some attention and the optics were quite good.

The insurance money did, however, go towards paying for a Fuji S2 Pro and a couple of Nikkor 4x5 lenses, so that helped me to both leap into the digital world and go backwards in time to 4x5 film and cameras (which I had already, just without modern lenses).

 

[Trevor Sowers]

For having fun with the camera it is my Canon New F1

For getting the best slides I can I use my EOS 1V

 

[Barry Twycross]

Mine's the Minolta XD7 (or XD11 same thing).

After I impulse bought a cheap (East German) SLR, and started to work out what I really wanted in an SLR, I surveyed the market for what was available. I settled on the XD7 as the best available. At the time there was no way I could afford it, so I got an SRT instead and collected the lenses.

About 7 years later I found a second hand XD7 I could spend a bonus on, and loved it. The XD is a seriously nice camera to use. The controls work just as I wanted a camera to. I used various XD models for the next 10 years or so, until I went digital. I never thought much of the auto-focus fad (but these days don't want to be without it.)

 

[jeremy north]

I'm trying to get my hands dirty on a lot of different types. My first Pentax MX will always be my workhorse, I expect. I love my new Olympus 35RC for how compact it is, while still manual. It's my favourite daily carry. And I'm really enjoying 6x9 on a Zeiss Ikon folding camera.

but my desert island camera has to be the Olympus Pen FT. Such a fine piece of work, and a joy to handle. I can snap away all day and the half-frame vertical orientation is perfect for me.

That's a good choice. I have the Pen F. The FT I believe has a pellicle mirror, is that correct?

 

[Jorri]

That's a good choice. I have the Pen F. The FT I believe has a pellicle mirror, is that correct?

It has TTL metering, so that could be right, yes!

 

[Heritage Cameras]

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

6x8 format with rotating back and fabulous lenses.

I miss mine too.

When I was much younger (and fitter) I used to carry a GX680 body, three lenses, a couple of backs and accessories in a huge bag, sort of balanced out by a serious Benbo tripod and geared head. Landscapes and architecture were my subjects of choice with this outfit.

I must have been mad (!), but I loved the camera and the results.

 

[bosjohn21]

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!

any non collecters m except I am not fond of the M5 for medium format fiji 645 sixty mm

and most rollies

--
John aka bosjohn21

 

[betwattled]

This is, without doubt, the prettiest and most tactile of my collection:




Leica iiif with Elmar 50mm f/2.8



--
Manual Gear List: Hasselblad 503cx, Mamiya C220, Bronica rf645, Leica iiif and other sundries.
http://www.instagram.com/thor.nogson/ - I follow back all serious photographers...

 

[mandm]

Great format, I shot the Pentax 67 and made 20+ 20"x 30" prints for a display back in the late 1970's, and the wood handle is a must have.

 

[mandm]

Great camera, I still have a new, never used 124G, I purchased 3, 1 was a backup that I never needed to use and forgot about it, I found it 15± years ago.

 

[mandm]

After the film advance failed for the 3rd time in 2 years on my Kowa SET I purchased The 'F', it never failed as I shot over 32,000 frames of film in high school; rain, snow, mud, never a problem. My 'F' worked flawlessly for the next 15+ years when I switched to the Bronica 645 and Yashica Mat 124G.

Now I shoot the Nikon Df with a 17-35mm 2.8 Nikkor, my most used lens.





--
mandmp; 100% of my income since 1972 has been due to a camera in my hand. My hobby turned into an enjoyable & profitable career. Retired in 2008ish I now shoot for fun and for charities (for free).

 

[bcapphoto]

For me, it would be my Leica M6 and 35mm Summicron v3. Mmm!

 

[wooders636]

Easy for me, my classic M6. I’m totally smitten with it.