unfashionable cameras

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colpepper

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Before the pixel pixies took over and film was still a force to be reckoned with, there was a pecking order of cameras. Near the top were Leica and Contax, Nikon and Canon, with other cameras, often undeservedly, down the list.

I once had a Chinon, a perfectly good camera with a sharp f1.7 lens but somehow lacking in kudos as only Dixons sold them. I replaced it with an OM1, a lovely camera but the photos were no better. Cosina was another brand that never turned people on. Mamiya 35mm cameras didn't had the cachet of their medium format cousins.

Any other also-rans of the camera world deserving reappraisal?
 
I still have my very first SLR - a Zenith B. Bought new for £25 and coming up to 40 years old now. Still in working order. It has a Helios 58mm F2 which people are now buying up to stick on Panasonic GF1s and similar m43s.
 
You didn't mention Pentax!

To be honest I don't really know who highly they were rated but they seemed popular enough.

I got into photography at college in '86 when I was 16. I was there doing electronics by on Wednesday afternoon you could select a different activity for a number of sessions. They had a load of Pentax K1000's with 50mm f/1.8 lenses. One session you would go out and take photo's, next weeks session you would develop your negs, and the week after do some prints.

I subsequently got my own K1000 for my 18th birthday and used it loads for a few years until I distracted by starting my career in engineering. I've still got the camera and it is in full working order. Often tempted to put a couple of roles through it.
 
My film cameras were Fujica, a STX1 which I loved - fully manual excellant thing and a AX5 all singing, all dancing.

I had some brilliant lenses with it as well. 80-200 f2.8, 135mm, 50mm f1.2 etc.

Sold it all for not very much to buy my first digital slr.
 
My dad still has a Chinon CP-6 that I learnt my craft on back when I was about 7.

Great camera with the Pentax K mount so had quite a few lenses that could be used with it.

Still cranks out the goods today! I think he took it to Jordan with him a few weeks back with about 6 rolls of Ektar. Waiting to see the results!
 
I turned to Chinon after moving on from my Zenith B. I got a CP7 - my first 'proper' SLR with electronics and an LCD. Totally happy with it and I still have it. It's on the list of cameras to run a film through.
 
Minolta's manual focus cameras were unfashionable but are now cool ;-) The Minolta Rokkor lenses are gems and are still good value as they don't really transfer to digital cameras . I also love my Fujica st605N, never a cool camera but for an M42 camera it is small and high quality and looks the biz, really nice to use.

As for Chinon...I have a nice 28mm f2.8 Chinon M42 lens that is tack sharp but has sadly succumbed to front element fungus and is beig used as a paper weight. . Sold by Dixons in the 80''s along with Centon's and Prinzflex .
 
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markmullen said:
When I was about 11 and wanted an SLR my dad (a retired pro commercial photographer) wouldn't let me buy anything with an auto mode (even aperture priority) so I had to learn about exposures properly, the only camera on the market without any auto modes was a Praktica! I took some bloody good shots on that little beauty
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Your dad was a wise man. My Pentax K1000 was completely manual too. You made sure every shot count.
 
Ricoh KR10-Super. Surprisingly good, aperture priority, with K mount so can use good range of lenses. However, largely forgotten.
 
If we're confining discussion to the late 70's and 80's, then Pentax were quite high up the pecking-order as I recall, only being beaten by Olympus behind Nikon and Leica at the top...though the Pentax star was waning rapidly as they spectacularly failed to capitalise on early innovations... and the Pentax rival to the 'pro' Nikon F3 and Canon F1, the fabulous LX, almost vanished without trace, despite being a seriously brilliant camera.

Canon were actually further down the ladder in those days...they never did break Nikon's stranglehold on the Pro-scene until after the digital revolution. The F1 was a great camera, but Canon's haphazard lens-mount programme p'd off a lot of people who bought lenses only to have them rendered obsolete overnight by yet another lens-mount change by Canon...

Minolta, while huge in the USA, never caught the imagination of the UK market.

Further down you had the cheapies - Chinon (a poor man's Pentax as I recall) and the e-bloc nasties which had a peculiar inverse-snobbery appeal to them which made them more popular than their ultra-crappiness deserved...
 
Evening Star said:
Ricoh KR10-Super. Surprisingly good, aperture priority, with K mount so can use good range of lenses. However, largely forgotten.
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I had a KR-10M as my first 'proper' camera after I cut my teeth on a Praktica. That was an absolutely awesome camera for the money although I was never really brave enough to use it to its full potential and it's now lost to the four winds (I threw it out at some point, no idea when).

I've recently plundered my dad's collection of cameras for a Fujica SLR and some M42 lenses. Hoping to play soon.
 
Arkady said:
Pentax were quite high up the pecking-order as I recall..
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Pentax were highly thought of in the education system with Spotmatics a kind of default camera, priced within reach of enthusiasts without the system complexity or price of Nikon. Their reputation suffered in late models, the late K1000s being no better built than a Praktica judging by the shutter and film advance breakdowns I saw.

One pro I assisted bought into the MX/ME system to replace his aging F2 bodies, a mistake as they weren't the most reliable or robust of cameras. The LX came out later IIRC and did look like a good camera though I only knew one person who actually owned one, which is fairly telling.
Changing mounts was the death knell of many a reputation. Collectors of M42 lens exotics were left without a new body on which to use them and as with Canon, even those who were prejudiced against Nikon were eventually drawn to their perceived 'timeproofness'.

I once read an excellent elegy to the Spotmatic by a serious photographer (typically I can't recall who except she was female) in which she extolled the virues of her cameras and the bereftness she felt at having to eventually replace it, when everything feeling wrong on the new camera. She claimed to know the precise aperture stop and shutter position by feel alone and could alter both while looking through the lens.

IMO Pentax lost their way when they pursued Olympus down the micro SLR route which most professionals never really trusted in spite of the obvious benefits and range of accessories. I agree that a clean LX would make a very good platform for buying some classy K-mount bargains.
 
gingerjon said:
I had a KR-10M as my first 'proper' camera after I cut my teeth on a Praktica. That was an absolutely awesome camera for the money although I was never really brave enough to use it to its full potential and it's now lost to the four winds (I threw it out at some point, no idea when).
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Interestingly, I also went Practical (STL) to Ricoh. Still have my KR10-Super ... found it recently while turning over the loft. Put in some fresh batteries to find it is totally dead. Wonder if worth getting it repaired :thinking:, although will need a replacement for the milk bottle standard zoom lens I purchased with it.
 
The camera I quite fancied from the late 60s early 70s was the Mirands SLR. It was sort of mid range in price, but had a removable prism and could accept a waist level finder - a feature only usually found in flagship cameras from the big-name marques. Never did get to own one though.
 
Nobody has mentioned the original SLR - the Exacta. Brilliant cameras. The 2b with an f2 Pancolour was top of the league.:love:
 
Coaster said:
Nobody has mentioned the original SLR - the Exacta. Brilliant cameras. The 2b with an f2 Pancolour was top of the league.:love:
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LOL The Exacta Varex. I remember it beng on sale along with the Pentax S1a and SV. I used to drool over 'em in the mags every weekend. :D
 
As the thread has turned into cult classics can I offer the Plaubel Makina? I've no idea what they're like, have never handled one but am assured by serious film heads they're the bee's knees. Interestingly there's one on ebay at present here. It'll be interesting to see what it goes for.
 
Arkady said:
e-bloc nasties which had a peculiar inverse-snobbery appeal to them which made them more popular than their ultra-crappiness deserved...
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I still hold fond memories of the Praktica PL Nova 1 that was my first SLR.

Not especially refined, but it was solid, reliable and tough as nails. That camera and a Vivitar light meter taught me a lot.
 
I was lucky I had a younger brother who spent all his money on camera's so when he upgraded I grabbed his Nikon FM from him, I only bought one other camera a Canon EOS 650.

I wish I still had my FM and I wish someone would make reasonable priced digital backs for all the old classics, if they did I would have another FM and back in a heartbeat.
 
iancandler said:
I wish someone would make reasonable priced digital backs for all the old classics, if they did I would have another FM and back in a heartbeat.
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I believe a couple of the big names were working on a re-usable drop -in digital medium for 35mm film cameras a few years back. I understand the idea was shelved when cheap compact cameras were being produced with far more pixels than could be acieved with any method they came up with. That's the official version anyway -probably nothing to do with marketing strategy. :D
 
CT said:
I believe a couple of the big names were working on a re-usable drop -in digital medium for 35mm film cameras a few years back. I understand the idea was shelved when cheap compact cameras were being produced with far more pixels than could be acieved with any method they came up with. That's the official version anyway -probably nothing to do with marketing strategy. :D
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I remember talk of digital backs for Nikons, one of the reason I hung on to mine but I've never seen one.
 
I'd have a Digital Back for my EOS-3 in a heartbeat... Oh, hang on, that'd just be a 5d pretty much, wouldn't it :LOL:
 
Arkady said:
..and the e-bloc nasties which had a peculiar inverse-snobbery appeal to them which made them more popular than their ultra-crappiness deserved...
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:D Almost sig-able! I like it.
 
colpepper said:
I agree that a clean LX would make a very good platform for buying some classy K-mount bargains.
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I bought mine for 50 quid in a charity shop. Complete with a range of finders, an f1.2 50mm lens and a bunch of other gear. All boxed!
The mirror sticks though, and I'm an Olympus fan, so it just sits in the display cabinet at the moment!

I started with a Zenit E when I was about 8 years old. Still got it.
It's still a pile of crap too!
 
Woz! said:
so it just sits in the display cabinet at the moment!
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:nono:

You owe it to yourself to get the mirror sorted, cameras die in display cabinets just like dogs die in hot cars:D
 
Evening Star said:
Ricoh KR10-Super. Surprisingly good, aperture priority, with K mount so can use good range of lenses. However, largely forgotten.
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That was my very first camera when I was a teenager, and although I sold the original years ago, I have just bought another one off ebay for old times sake for £7.00! I remember paying £150 for it second hand when I was 17 and doing my photography degree!
 
my first was a Zenith,then a Olympus om10,then a Richo kr5,but I also liked the look of a certain Yashica can'y remember the model.
 
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