Camera of Fond Memory

Considering all the cameras that have ever passed through your hands, all the ones that have been and gone, is there any single one you would like to have back the most?

Just curious.

Mike

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Featured Comments from:

Ash Crill: "I'd like to have the camera that first inspired me to learn photography—my original Fuji X100 from 2011."

Ricardo Silva Cordeiro (partial comment): "The original X100. Such a landmark on both the digital camera scene and on my personal work. I replaced it with the (latest at the time) X100F to then realize that it didn’t made sense to have it when I already had an X-Pro2. Even if I like the X-Pro2 more and it makes more sense on a rational level, there is really something about the form factor and fixed lens of the X100 line that is appealing. Thinking back maybe I should have kept the original X100, as a collection item that I would also use at times, and as an object with sentimental value."

Kye Wood: "Fujifilm X100. The original model. Like any relationship that ends, there may be times of nostalgia following your parting. But you moved on for a reason. To look back with regret is to miss the chance to enjoy what you have now."

Sherwood McLernon: "Never had any regrets (I still have them all)."

01af: "I still own all cameras I ever owned—so, no."

Crabby Umbo (partial comment): "I never owned one, but I rented a Mamiya 6 a few times, and I kick myself for not buying one when they were reasonable. Literally everyone I know that owned one, are kicking themselves today for getting rid of it. 120 roll film, in a tiny eye-level rangefinder format, fantastic!"

John: "Knowing I wouldn’t use them, because they’re film cameras, the cameras I miss are the Mamiya 6 with all three lenses, the Contax G2 with the 21mm, 28mm, 45mm and 90mm lenses and the Contax 645. All of these still fetch hefty prices."

Paul: "I totally regret selling my Leica M6 and my 35mm Summicron lens which I bought when I was twenty six years old. Never managed to adapt wholly to any other camera since. Saddest point is I doubt I will be able to afford another one in the foreseeable future."

Carsten Bockermann replies to Paul: "Exactly the same here (yes, I was also 26 when I bought my first Leica)."

Phil Martin: "I do still have most of my cameras but sold on my Rolleiflex 3.5T, near mint with grey leatherette, to a student in one of my evening classes, as I didn't think I'd use it again. I probably wouldn't have, but the CD player I bought with the proceeds has long died with little care but I still miss that camera."

JohnW: "Of the 24 different cameras I’ve owned the only one I miss is my Rolleiflex 3.5T with the 75mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens. With Agfa CT18 the images were so three-dimensional you wanted to reach in and touch things. Astonishing lens. Alas, it got stolen in a B&E [breaking and entering, i.e., burglary —Ed.] many years ago for which the insurance company paid me eight times what it cost me new; that’s how expensive they had become. Oddly enough, both prices were exactly the equivalent of a month’s salary."

Ron Lacy: "The Nikon D700 is still the camera I wish I had never sold. The 'baby D3.' Full frame sensor, nice size, beautiful images, and the 'wow' factor. It wowed me from the first image to the last. I enjoyed photography more when I had that camera. Why? Not really sure, but if I had one camera to own again, it would be the D700."

[A different] Mike: "Nikon D700. Needed to sell it in the moment, but have missed it almost every day since then."

albert erickson: "Since you asked about regrets, I have one, a Nikon D700. It was my favorite camera and I traded it for a D800. The D800 was a great camera with much better dynamic range and higher ISO ability, but it never grew on me as the D700 did. I have thought about buying another one but I still own way too many cameras, and have yet to grow more hands to use all of them."

Dogman: "I still have the camera of my fondest memories.

"It's a black plain prism Nikon F2. It was the first new Nikon I ever bought. I had a couple of Nikon F's at the time but I had bought both of them used.

"The camera came in the UPS truck within a few days of my deciding to be a photographer and quitting my day job. I got my first real photography job that paid almost enough to live on—as long as I lived on beans and rice and cheap beer. Eventually I was hired by a daily newspaper where I worked for over 15 years. And during those 15 years I was using that Nikon F2 daily. That camera took more use and abuse than anything should have.

"At one point it fell out of my hand and smashed onto the floor. I sent it off for repairs but it was returned as being unrepairable. I took it to my insurance agent and she approved it as a total loss. But I asked if I could buy it back from the insurance company for sentimental reasons. It was approved and I paid $50 and took it home again where it languished for a couple of years. Then one day I had a wild idea and sent it off to Nikon Professional Services along with another camera. Surprisingly, NPS repaired the camera completely, and I started using it again for work. When I eventually quit that job, I sold off most of my camera gear except for that beat up F2 and another Nikon with a few lenses. I used it for several years after that.

"It's packed away and I don't use it anymore but I have fond memories of using that camera on some memorable assignments."

Roger: "The Nikon F2 I bought from Art Kramer back when the CompuServe Photography Forum was a thing."

Dan Khong: "That would be the Canonet (1963). My father's friend in Japan gifted it to him. He passed it to me. Then I sold it because SLRs were—by the late 1960s—cooler to own and shoot with. Years later, I still think of it."

JimF: "Yashica D which I bought new as a 6th grader with my newspaper money. It was mint when I sold it around 1990. Wish I hadn’t. Every one I see now even at an unreasonable price looks trashed."

Vijay: "Konica Hexar AF. Lightweight, great lens, great feel in the hand."

Stephen Cowdery: "The 1952 Exakta 66. It was horrible: Clunky, heavy, with a film advance that refused to give even spacing. It even smelled funny. I loved it, especially the 80mm ƒ/2.8 Tessar lens. The body finally gave up the ghost but I had the lenses adapted to a Mamiya 645."

Scott Innes: "Minolta SRT-101 with a Rokkor 50mm ƒ/1.4. Was a sweet backup, even post-Y2K, that was always loaded with B&W."

Eric Rose: "Nikon F2, hands down my favourite 35mm camera.

"Above that would be my Hasselblad system. I sold it to a friend and moaned about how much I missed it for several years. Another of my friends either got tired of me moaning or felt sorry for me and contacted our mutual friend. It seems he never used the 'Blad system and was willing to sell it. So my buddy bought if off him and gave it to me as a present. Now there's a friend!! We just did a three-day trip together to some sand dunes in Saskatchewan and I probably got some of my best shots of the trip with that very system."

Svein-Frode: "The Sony F717. Apart from the dated image quality, it's hands down the best and most enjoyable camera I've ever owned. So many useful features and great ergonomics. Still to this day, nothing comes close."

Mike replies: I had the previous model, the F-707, and I agree it was just fantastic good fun to use. I loved mine. If there were a modern version of that series, not crudded up with all the unecessary modern marketing features, I would put a very high priority on getting one.

Jeff Markus: "My first real camera was a pre-war Rollei, circa 1937–38, beat to hell, but I loved it. Stolen by my landlord over a damage deposit dispute. Worse yet, in the box with the camera was the film from my latest shoot, not yet processed, which I considered to be by far my most successful effort yet.

"I had gone to San Francisco to participate in and photograph a massive anti-war demonstration, and had sought out the best vantage point to get the story in one shot. The march came uphill to a T intersection, then made a right turn, and from there I saw a wide swath of many tens of thousands of marchers completely covering a broad boulevard and the adjacent sidewalks, a huge sea of people filling all the space between the buildings as far into the distance as I could see. After getting those shots I looked around to see what was interesting nearby. Well, there was Wavy Gravy, and he's always been a fun guy. And General Hershey Bar, with the toy soldiers, tanks and artillery pieces on his epaulettes, and a large fighter jet on the front of his hat.

"After the march there was going to be a concert in Golden Gate Park, at the polo grounds. I left the march early and went over there so that I could stake out a good position in front of the stage. When I arrived the place seemed deserted, save for a few people in a short grandstand behind the stage. I wandered over there and found a lot more people milling about behind the grandstand. Ran into Graham Nash, who gave my Rollei the once over, and then let me do some shots of him. Buffy Sainte-Marie leaned down from the stands above and I did some shots of her, then she asked to read my palm. Graham said there were some people I should meet, and took me over to a group with Stills, Crosby, John Sebastian, and some others. By this time I was feeling completely overwhelmed, so stood off to the side and discretely did a few group shots. Wandered around getting pictures of other interesting looking people until my film ran out.

"I shot six or seven rolls that day, three times more than I had ever done before. I was into a flow, the very first time that had ever happened to me, and it was magical.

"The music was not going to happen for another couple of hours, so I took off to find some food. Came back and the concert had begun. Must admit that my original decision to come to SF had been to see CSN&Y, specifically to see Neil Young, as I'd been a fan since the Buffalo Springfield days, and had never seen him play live. Neil never showed up, and it was several more years until I was able to shoot him performing, with Crazy Horse at the Marshall Tavern, just south of Point Reyes.

"So losing that Rollie, and my film, was quite traumatic, but over the years I've managed to gather four more of them, along with maybe seventy or so other cameras of all shapes and sizes. My ex-wife used to complain that while I bought a lot of cameras, I never sold any. Well that's not quite true. I sold off a Rajah 4x5 field camera, just a floppy mess that I wasn't able to tighten up enough to make usable."

Henning Wüst: "Believe it or not: still missing my first 'true' digital camera, the Nikon D1X."

Michael S.: "I regret having sold my Contax T2 for buying the T3 when it came out. The T3 is certainly a better camera, but the previous model had a completely different and unique feeling. But what I really miss is the historical context of that era: the easiness to find film, the cheapness of buying it and the convenience of developing it wherever. Don’t get me wrong, digital is way far better in most of aspects, but for whatever reason it doesn’t make me love cameras. But probably it’s just me...."

Juan Buhler: "My Pentax MX with K24mm ƒ/3.5 and Leica M6 with Summicron 50mm, in my bag with a few rolls of Tri-X. But I still own those exact same bodies and lenses. What I actually miss is being in my early 30s, late summer in Paris, taking Peter Turnley’s very first workshop, rushing to drop the film in time to get contact sheets to edit with Peter the next morning. I’ll go out on a limb and say that most of us miss how cameras made us feel, or what we were doing with them at the time. I’m perfectly fine with my modern Sony or Fujifilm bodies right now; they produce way better images. I keep the old cameras only out of nostalgia, pretty much."

Ed. note: Juan Buhler, whom you have met before here, worked at Pixar and has been one of the very best street photographers in the world during the first two decades of this millennium. He has for some reason not been discovered by the gatekeepers of the photographic establishment, who are not paying attention.

David Elesh: "In 1956, I bought a used Leica IIIf for $65, a lot of money for a high school sophomore. It had a self-timer, but it did not work. I didn't care. I loved making images with it. In 1962, my brother borrowed it to take with him for his junior year in Paris. Upon landing in Belgium, he traded it away for what was purported to be a 14th century map of Europe. He later traded the map for two unsigned prints, one ostensibly by Modigliani and the other ostensibly by Picasso. When he returned home, he gave me the prints. Despite several efforts, we were never able to confirm that either was actually by the artist. I still have the Picasso on a wall, but I would much rather have my beloved Leica."

Rob L.: "My biggest regret in the Canon 7Sz I helped a friend sell, golly that was a great weird camera. Second is selling my D7000 for a D600; full-frame was never worth the hassle, with the exception of the Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4."

Edward Taylor: "My favorite camera of all time was the Canon F-1. I worked with it as a photojournalist for years. It was a great professional camera and beautiful to look at. Interestingly, I almost never hear mention of it. Lots of pros used it at the time, but it just seems to have fallen out of consciousness. I still have a brand new one that has never been used. It was my backup. But, my main F-1 never broke or let me down, even though it turned brass-colored with years of use."

Michael Houghton: "The camera I shouldn't have sold is the Voigtländer Bessa R, but I'm not sure I really want it back that much; for my purposes my old Zorkis are fine. However: I owned and gave away an Exakta 1A. I don't regret gifting it at all, but I might buy myself another. Simply because it's the most admirably bonkers, adorable little chubster of a camera, with an absurdly optimistic, surprisingly functional, nutjob-mad shutter mechanism."

Comments

[Frank Lepore]

I still have all my cameras. 40+ years and counting. 11 cameras and counting.

[Kjell H A]

My pentax LX.
I used it exclusively with a 100mm f/2.8 macro and a 35mm f/2.8 for years around 25-30 years ago.

[Aaron Hines]

The only cameras that I don't regret selling were attached to phones...

One of the cameras I have a real soft spot for was my circa 1998 Olympus D-460. While only 1.3 MP, it produced sharp, contrasty, beautifully-rendered images. Alas, it died after years of use. Probably for the best, since the images are no larger than thumbnails on my 5K iMac!

Another camera I have tremendously fond memories of is the original Olympus OMD EM5 paired with a Panasonic 20mm lens. My current Nikon Z6 has a similar feel and much better image quality, but it definitely lacks the soul of the EM5.

[Ragnar Hartman]

I've been a kind of an equipment junkie in my 60 yrs of picture taking, and the one I keep thinking I should've never sold was a 50Yr Anniversary Leica CL...I had a 28, 40 and 90 lenses...perfect combo. Too bad I can't afford to replicate it, now.

[Roger Overall]

I'd commit a small degree of murder to get back my Canon AE-1.

[Kodachromeguy]

Have back the most? Maybe my Leica M3 (which I bought in Buenos Aires), but realistically, I am better off now with my M2. The M2 lets you use a regular 35mm lens, while the M3 required the special model with the goggle eye attachment to convert the view.

I also sort of regret selling my Rolleiflex 3.5F with Planar lens. But after I realized that I did a real boner to sell it, I replaced it with a 3.5E Xenotar model. By some quirk of manufacturing, this 3.5E is slightly better optically. No more selling, no more churn from now on.

[Stan B.]

I'm fortunate to still have the one I've come to value most throughout the years- the GR. My humble, every day companion and savior.

[Bruce Appelbaum]

A Nikon S rangefinder that I bought for $99 used at Olden Camera in NYC with a 50mm lens around 1973. Automatic nothing, but I loved using it.

My ex-wife borrowed it before she became the ex, and that was that. No way to recover it.

She also has my high school ring. Ditto.

[Aaron J]

Probably induced by the covid shutdown, I got highly sentimental about camera gear in the spring. So much so that I actually re purchased three cameras that I sorely missed.

When I started photography almost 20 years ago I was a newly married grad student. So, of course we had no money. I purchased a used Rebel 2000 with kit lens on the advice of a photographer friend. It worked fine. But, I don't have any nostalgia about it. I used it for a year or so until I discovered that with some patience one could buy old manual focus camera gear on Ebay, part out what I didn't want and break even. Seems there were more large lots of camera gear then than now. But, maybe not. Over time I gathered quite a collection of Canon FD lenses without my wife divorcing me since I promised her I'd always break even. At some point or other I was able to try most of the FD film bodies. But, the two FD cameras I recently repurchased were a Canon FTb and Canon T90 (no sticky shutter). I loved the simplicity of the FTb. But I spent the most time with the T90. I learned all about exposure on slide film with that camera. The T90 had a multi-spot metering mode which was great with slide film. It made it fairly easy to see what was within the slide film's narrow latitude. I sold it when, like pretty much everybody, I finally moved on to digital. I've run a few rolls of film through each of my 'new' old cameras over this summer. And, while it's been enjoyable, and I think I'll probably continue to shoot some film, it reminded me why I went digital in the first place.

My first 'real' digital camera was a used 5D I got in 2007. I shot that camera for nearly 6 years until the mirror fell out it. I had the mirror replaced by Canon and then sold it for other gear. I think what made me nostalgic recently about it was compared to the complexity of today's digital cameras the 5D was simple and straightforward. No live view. No auto ISO. No overwhelming menu options.

It's not lost on me, however, that my turn to nostalgia hasn't actually returned me to 'simple' photography. Now I just have more cameras.

[Eolake Stobblehouse]

They are all more or less outdated.

But as objet dart, as it were, I'm happy to have my collection of pre-1980s cameras, like the OM-2, Nikon F and F2, Leica F3, Spotmatic...

Eolake

[Andrew Lamb]

Rollei 2.8F, with a Xenotar lens. It was magical with b/w film. I have no idea why I sold it. None.

[Jonathan Schick]

I'm very happy with the ones I've kept, none of which are the latest generation, but if I could get one camera back it would be a close call between the Pentax MX or Nikon FM, probably in favour of the Pentax which I owned for years. Both had all that you needed and nothing more, and both are in my view objects of beauty. I'd add the Olympus OM1 in the same category, but I never owned one of those.

[Tony Ayling]

I wish I still had my old Nikon FE film camera. I would use it with either a 24mm f2.8 or 55mm f3.5 macro lens and would carry it around without a strap. I’d have the camera and spare lens clutched in one hand while walking in the wilderness for years and never dropped it, Loved that camera but after about 20 years the shutter started playing up and I sold it cheaply.

[PDLanum]

No, not really.

I tend to keep cameras. The one that got away was a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 that was my father's and one of the first cameras I ever used (one or two rolls of film). After he had his stroke, he tried to "fix it" as he had done in the previous 60 years off and on. However, he had lost a lot of manual dexterity and his choice of tool to disassemble were two pairs of vice grips. Otherwise I still have most of the cameras I have used/purchased over the last 60 odd years. A few of them are broken, but I have a real problem with getting rid of memory generating things.

[Len Metcalf]

I often long for my Ebony 45SU that I sold almost ten years ago. But try desperately to remember the pains of managing film, the chemicals that make me sick when processing it and the pains with scanning, post processing and dust removal before getting to a print. A simple upside down back the front view on the digital back would be a simple solution to implement. Though I do miss using a handmade wooden camera and the slowness and deliberate approach. Swings and tilts were fun. Now my workflow is simple and strong. I feel blessed that my work is stronger in digital unlike most.

[Jonathan]

Not such much that I want another one like it, rather I wish I had never lost it. I had a Pentax K1000 as a kid. I had saved up money to buy it working after school. It was stolen out of the car when I was 17 and I couldn’t afford to replace it. Photography fell out of my life for more than a decade (closer to two). I would give anything to have that camera and that time back.

[Marshall Arbitman]

No question: A Pentax MX with a 50 1.7. It became part of my body. Until I needed glasses and could no longer see all of that huge screen.

[John Berger]

Oh yes ! The original film Leica CL with 40 mm Summicron was an elegant machine....compact, the right weight, that Leica mystique.....and a perfect match of lense and body. A fine workman's tool that gave stunning results with my high film standard of K64.....when I did my part, my results were beyond excellent.....so why did I EVER let it go ? No doubt trading toward something "better". Sigh... thanks for the memories, but I know I can't go home again, and I KNOW I can't go back to film again. Sigh.....memories.....

[Malcolm Leader]

My 1969 Pentax Spotmatic. I took hundreds of rolls with that camera (that I all developed myself). The advance sprocket failed and I couldn't afford to have it fixed. I still have that camera (in parts).

[Ed Kirkpatrick]

My Wisner 4x5 Technical Field Camera. I loved using it. It was a work of art and perfectly functional in every way, but those days are gone as is the outfit.

[Max]

I miss three cameras I've previously owned:

My Contax S2 with Zeiss 28/2.8, 50/1.4 and 85/2.8. I miss the whole kit, as it was a joy to use and the results were good.

My Pentax 645n and smc-a 55 and 150 lenses. If I could've found a split image focusing screen for that camera, I'd probably have kept it. With the standard focusing screen, I had problems consistently nailing focus with manual lenses. I didn't like the original 645 enough to switch to that and got sick of trying to find a seemingly non-existent focusing screen, so I sold the system.

My Leica R4 with 50mm Summicron was lovely to use, with a great big bright viewfinder. It also gave wonderful results, but the glass was just a touch too rich for my taste.

I DON'T miss my old Canon AE-1 or A-1; neither was particularly pleasant to use, and the glass wasn't anything to write home about. Nor do I miss my hand-me-down film Rebel. I also don't miss my Sony A55 (poor viewfinder), or the Minolta lenses I mounted on it (there wasn't anything wrong with them, they just weren't special in any way.)

Reflecting on this list, it cements something that I've been slowly coming to realize about myself: I need a good viewfinder to really bond with a camera. The Contax and Leica both had viewfinders that I really enjoyed looking through and they're the two I miss by far the most. The Sony had an awful viewfinder, and I'm glad to be rid of it.

[Larry Canaday]

Pentax MX, but only if it was digital.

[Benjamin Marks]

Pentax LX.. Bought it twice. Sold it twice. Pentax really had the haptics/ergonomics figured out with that one.

Sold a Zone VI field camera made of peach wood. Miss looking at it, 'cause it was pretty. When I headed out though, I took the Linhoff or the Shen-Hao (which took Linhoff boards). The ones I used the most had the option of backs from 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9, 6x12 . . . well, you get the idea. If ya don't use it, it's just sculpture . . .

[Lawrence Plummer]

Sorry Mike, the concept of a camera "gone" just doesn't seem to be one I'm familiar with!

[longviewer]

I bought a Pentax K-r for under $50 that had issues; 20 minutes later it had none. If I had stopped right there I'd have saved so much time and cash wasted wheeling & dealing and so little shooting! That was the magic 12Mpx Sony sensor preceding the sweet-16, a great successor to the k-x with clunky 720p video; with my HDTV I'd hardly tell even today how much I was missing. Such things are much further back than the rear-view memory mirror shows, sad to say.

[Mike Ferron]

Black Mamiya 7ii and 65mm lens. I was a fool to sell.

[Jim Zietz]

In 1977, I got a Leica M5. It wasn't considered the "best" Leica, but it was my favorite. It fit my hands. I also got a 35 mm Summilux lens at that time. It wasn't the "sharpest" lens, but I made some of my best photographs with these two tools.

Right now, I have an M6 with a very sharp 35 mm Summilux ASPH and it is not quite the same.

The main reason I sold the M5 was because I thought the battery would not be available. That was a mistake.

[Crabby Umbo]

Have to say, I miss my Rollei with the Planar 3.5 the most...I traded it in to finance a 250mm Carl Zeiss for my Hasselblad, which I still have, but I miss that the most...

I never owned one, but I rented a Mamiya 6 a few times (the non-MF one), and I kick myself for not buying one when they were reasonable. Literally EVERYONE I know that owned one, are kicking themselves today for getting rid of it. 120 roll film, in a tiny eye-level rangefinder format, fantastic!

Since I made most of my oney with sheet film, I still own my selection of Goerz Red Dot Artars in Compur shutters...those are going in my casket with me.

I also do miss my mint Canon FTb's I had, with mint, multi-coated, last series breech-mount lenses. Wish I had them today. I loved my Contax 35mm stuff, but miss the 25mm, 35mm, and 85mm lenses more than the actual bodies.

[Robert Fogt]

Easy. My unmetered Rolleiflex E3 with 75mm 3.5 Xenotar and and aftermarket Beattie Intenscreen. While there'd be only a very slight chance of me actually putting a roll of film through it for old times' sake, what a joy it would be just to place it here and there around the house and look through it at things I see every day. Twiddle the focus. Listen to the sound of the Synchro Compur. Bliss.

[Dan Boney]

My first 35mm film camera, a Yashica Electro 35. Great 45mm f1.7 lens, excellent overall size/handling, and just seemed so advanced at the time -right down to that atom symbol on the front of the body... Started my whole interest in photography (well, beyond my very first which was a Kodak 127 film camera that taught me how to develop film...). Sold the YE35 to get a “more serious” Nikkormat FTN which was a delightful camera as well... Truly miss the robust simplicity of those cameras...

[Chris Kern]

My father’s Zeiss Contax IIa. It was an outstanding prewar rangefinder: very accurate focus, and the collapsible 50mm Sonnar f/2 lens was extremely sharp for its era and exhibited little flare, despite being uncoated.

The story was that my grandfather purchased it from a German-Jewish refugee. My grandfather wanted to help him out, but the guy wouldn't accept charity and so my grandfather agreed to take the Contax in return for some cash.

Some of my earliest “serious” pictures were made with that camera in the 1960s. I have scanned a few of the negatives. A couple of samples:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chriskernpix/50246689146/in/datetaken-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chriskernpix/47580858581/in/datetaken-public/

(Is there some better way to include images in a reply other than just posting the URL?)

I have a postwar Kiev clone of the Contax IIa that my father picked up somewhere in Eastern Europe during a foreign service assignment in the 1970s, but the real Contax disappeared at some point during one of my parents’ household moves.

[Josh Hawkins]

My Leica M2. Technically I still have it, it's just got a busted shutter and I can't afford to repair or even use it. Rangefinders are just more my speed, and I like not having a meter, or a rear screen or color images...

[Geoff Smith]

My Olympus 35RC rangefinder film camera and my Dad's old Voightlander with the lens on the concertina fold out belows (can't remember the model name)

[Dr Stephen Fox]

In 1978 I bought a brand new Nikon F2AS complete with 35mm, 50mm, 135mm and 200mm nikkors. How I miss that set; things were simpler in those days.

[Robert Roaldi]

I should have kept the Rollei 35 just so I could look at it now and then. But if I were to ever take up film photography again, I'd want an MX again.

[Albert Smith]

I had a terrific 1979 black Nikon F2 that I bought in Singapore with a metering finder that was less than functional. I found a perfect non-metering pointy prism that was beautiful on the camera. I was using non-metering Leica M cameras at the time so having an SLR without metering was no problem. I use to joke that the F2 could take a picture and then could be used as a hammer to put a nail in the wall to hang it. I took the F2 to the Persian Gulf when I served in "Desert Storm", shooting Tri-x for months under extreme conditions of sand and heat and it never failed.

Traded it in with some other Nikon gear to buy a N8008s. Loved the AF Nikon, but would love to have that F2 again.

[David Saxe]

Absolutely. I had a Hassleblad X-Pan in 2003 and I sold it to buy a Leica M6. I don't regret buying the M6, But I sure miss the Hassleblad. I still check them out from time to time on Ebay but they cost double what I paid for it new.

[Pete F]

Contax G1 with the 28, 45 and 90mm lenses. Sold all when I decided to commit to digital. Still questioning that decision.

[Gaspar Heurtley]

My first DSLR, a Pentax K100D.

And no, that's not nostalgia kicking in.

It's one of the most comfortable cameras I've ever used and the image quality of that sensor (looking at my prints from 2007-2008) took the test of time surprisingly well.

[Phil]

Benjamin Marks and Kjell H A both beat me to it but....my Pentax LX. I had the 35mm/f2 and the 17mm/f4 fisheye, among others. I bought the body right after finishing my undergrad and getting my first job. Built up the collection of lenses over the next year or two. Almost decided to go to photography school with that kit (went to grad school instead: that's another story). It was all stolen out of my house in 1995. I had good insurance so I could replace everything. So I did... with Minolta gear. Now, I wish I'd just got new Pentax gear but that's all water under the bridge. 25 years later, after shooting with a few generations and film and digital, I shoot m4/3. I think my Olympus E-M1 is a close approximation of the feel of the LX and to be realistic, I don't think I want to bother getting an LX to just find out. That might just be one of those things you can't go back to.

[Bob]

No doubt. A Mamiya Sekor 1000DTL. It was my first real camera, bought because it mimicked the Pentax Spotmatic that my teacher had but I couldn’t afford. Reliable, stone simple, built like a brick. The polar opposite was the Zenit B, a clumsy Russian imitation of the Pentax. Nothing about it was competently done.

[Sroyon]

I'm actually happy about all the cameras I've sold or given away. I had a pre-war Elmar 90mm f/4 and a Voigtlander 25mm f/4, both Leica thread mount, and both of "fond memory" as you say in the title of your post, but they're not ones I'd "like to have back" as you say in the body. I didn't use them enough, so I let them go.

The one camera I miss (for purely sentimental reasons) is my childhood National 35, the only mass-produced camera ever made in India. When I was in school, a classmate of mine who I think had mental health problems stole it from my bag and threw it into a pond.

[Mike]

I started photography in the digital age, so no. My first DSLR was a Canon 20D and every "main" camera that I've purchased since has been an improvement (5D, Nikon D600, Nikon Z 6).

Have also gotten into film photography recently during the 'rona, and bought a super clean Nikon FE on a lark from my local shop and I like it more in every way over my dad's old Pentax ME Super which I also have.

[John Robison]

My first 35mm SLR, a Miranda D, with a 50mm f1.9 Soligor.
Bought used at Altman's Camera in 1970.
It had interchangeable focusing screens and finders. It was this camera that taught me that I preferred plain matte screens over anything with micro-prism or split-wedge focusing aids. When I switched to the OM-1 system in 1974 the first accessory I bought was a 1-10 focusing screen, plain matte with grid. Still have that OM-1 with that screen.

[Mats Andren]

I bought a Konica Hexar AF for my 30th birthday and kept it for a bit more than 20 years.
Although I have had the opportunity to own and use a lot of different cameras, that is the one that still has the most emotional attachment.
An odd, quirky camera with lots of limitations with a wonderful lens that just seemed to suit me perfectly.
I have been trying to find the digital equivalent for many years...

[Graham]

Oh yes. Zeiss Ikon Silver chrome.

[Joseph Iannazzone]

I always enjoyed my Olympus OM-1MD, used with a 24mm 2.8, 50mm 1.4, and a 75-150 zoom. The body and lenses were lightweight, well designed, and produced excellent images. It was stolen and replaced with a Nikon F3hp and the equivalent lenses, equally competent and I am sure more durable (I still have and use it), but I’ve never been as fond of that system.

[Bill Pearce]

I miss my Contax G2. The body was awful, the AF was a cruel joke. But the Zeiss lenses, made under license, I presume, but those were the best lenses I have ever shot on any camera. Better than Leica, Nikon, Olympus OM. Those lenses were sublime.

[hil]

Forty-nine years ago on my 18th birthday, my dad gave me a Nikkormat FTn, with a 50mm f/2 Nikkor. Eight years later it was stolen, with my second lens, the legendary 105mm, mounted on it. It was my first roll with the 105 and I never saw the negatives. The insurance company replaced it with a Nikon F2A that I still have. Nikkormats were by then not available new, or so they said.

A few years ago, I bought another one on the auction site. Love that camera. $25. Works great, meter and all. I still have that original 50mm lens. Now if I could replace the only other camera I've sold, a Leica M5, for the same price...

[schralp]

Would love to still have my Pentax Spotmatic that was stolen from my car while I was at the beach back in the late 80s. It was simplicity defined. Doubt they got much for it but I guess people don't think much about the value when they break out the window to rummage around. The Sony Radio/disc player was most likely what they were after and the rest just opportunity.

[hugh crawford]

I sold my Bronica S2a with a Nikkor 50mm lens to buy a Hasselblad when I got tired of lugging a 2000 watt-second Norman and 50-foot extension cord around to do outdoor flash. I've been offering to buy it back for 30 years.

I bought a brand new Alpa 10d that was literally gold plated with red leather when Olden bought out the factory for the price of a Nikormat. For some idiotic reason, I was 22 or so, I returned it. I love Alpas, but don't have the money to buy one or more precisely the lenses to go with one.

I've pretty much held on to most of my cameras that didn't get destroyed or stolen since then.

Cars that I regret selling, well that's something else.

[William Lewis]

Contax II with a pre-war uncoated 50/3.5 Tessar collapsible lens. It had that impossible to imitate glow from the way uncoated glass ages.

Not even the Leica IIIf or CL I've had come close.

[MrALLCAPS]

GX7 and the 6D.

[Ken Owen]

Yonks ago I received an Olympus Pen D2 half-frame film camera from my dad. It was a satisfyingly dense lump in my hands, frugal with film, almost silent in operation, and had a dinky little finder that showed your subject in the vertical orientation when held normally. Being a reckless kid, I broke it, botched a repair, then kept the pieces for a while before losing them who knows where.

[Richard Tugwell]

I've still got all the ones that would fit that category.. (Leica M3, Leica CL. Rollei 35S, Rolleiflex 2.8C, Olympus OM1 & OM2n. I've liked most of my digital cameras, (Canon 5x, Pentax K7, Leica M8/9) but they always just seemed like consumer goods. It would be sort of like mourning that washing machine that worked really well!
I'm now a Fuju man and I suspect that the Fuji X100T, or maybe XT-1 might qualify but then they would probably be replaced by an X100V, XT-3

[scott kirkpatrick]

My first "real" digital camera was an Olympus E-1, which replaced an Olympus C-2000 (2MPx going up to 5 MPx!!). The E-1 with its 50/2.0 macro felt just like a long lost Nikon F1 with the original 105/2.5, accurately shooting small things at modest distances. That also had an 11-22 that could do anything. Lost the E-1 and its lenses in a burglary, but when the E-M1 came out, I purchased an adapter and reacquainted myself with the 11-22. Didn't get a 50, because by that time the Oly M75/1.8 had taken its place as the Winchester saddle rifle (or puffin-cam).

[SteveAitch]

My Pentax MX.

I still have it, though it could do with a full service. But without Kodachrome, what's the point?

[Christer]

When I look at my old pictures I think kindly of my Contax IIIa which I had in the late fifties. When I look through the viewfinder when I see one of these cameras these days, which is seldom, I say to myself: "How on earth did I manage to make such good pictures with such a camera?

[Christopher Mark Perez]

For me, in a mild, remote, hazy kind of way, it's my last LF camera.

Arca-Swiss F 4x5 that I had with a Schneider 110mm XL, a Schneider 210mm APO-Symmar, and Fuji 300mm f/9.

[Pete Dawes]

Rollei 35B, which was used to do backup candid at a friend's wedding, landscapes by the score, and street photography. The wedding candids were glorious, encapsulated the joy of the occasion, and for street photography I haven't found another camera as usable as the 35B. Maybe a Ricoh GR would be a modern equivalent, but I can never bring myself to buy one, as I already have far too many DSLR that I rarely use.

[Henry Rogers]

I've had a number of cameras over the years and still have most of them. Of those that I no longer have, and the one that I regret most, is my first camera, a Kodak Brownie Box of longe before WW2 vintage.
I'm not even sure exactly when we parted company either. I expect it was probably during a house move sometime during the 1950s or 1960s. Here are two examples, scanned from my album. The negatives are long gone too:
https://pbase.com/hhmrogers/image/54565713
https://pbase.com/hhmrogers/image/55267745

Around 1952 one of my grandfathers gave me two cameras which I stiil do have and which he had bought 50 or 60 years before. There's a bit about them, with some ancient and modern images, at: https://pbase.com/hhmrogers/large_format

Henry Rogers

[Olybacker]

I have lots that I wish I had not bought!

But I guess if I had to nominate one, then it would be the Yashica 124G I sold early on in a period of severe illness. Especially if it had been a Rolleiflex which I really wish it to have been.

Old age has taught me that playing with cameras may be interesting and fun and a great diversion but owning only one or two leads to greater satisfaction and better photographic output. Especially if they carry on working well for a lifetime.

Or it could be the Fuji GS645 that I sold because I had too many cameras and needed the money.

How about asking the question, 'Which camera do you regret not buying?' or has that Thread been done recently?

[Michael]

Not one, but three cameras I would gladly re-own, if film were less of a hassle to obtain, process, and print. The lack of film type choices also controls my urge to re-own the;

Nikon 28tI...best walk-around, easy to carry, great results, point-and-shoot street camera EVER!

Leica R6 with 35mm Summicron and other lenses..best 35mm SLR system camera with bulletproof build quality and stunning glass.

Mamiya 7 with 43 and 80mm lenses. My all-time favorite when it comes to medium format. The 43mm was the best lens I ever owned for wide angle landscape imaging. Today, I would opt for a Mamiya 7 with the 65mm lens. A more practical all-around OCOL combination.

All of the above had certainly held their position of respect in their given fields as well as their $$value in comparison to most film gear.

[Fred Tuman]

During the 1980's I had a very close friend who worked at Ken Hansen's. One day he calls me and says "Bring $1200 to the store tomorrow, I have something very special for you" The next day I'm there, he shows me a near mint Black Leica M2. (Came from the 1st series in 1958 with the button rewind and the glass plate over the frame illumination window) The story about the camera is that the head secretary at E.Leitz, just retired and is selling off the things she acquired over her 30 year stay. Things were going good for me...my studio was working and personally I was starting to exhibit both in Soho and the East Village so the purchase was no problem. I paired it up with a black paint 5cm Summicron that needed the right body to match it to. A classic Leica is like no other photographic instrument. When properly calibrated and lubed, it has a sound and a slight aroma or smell that is unique.(As the late Ernst Hass would say..."Simpatico")
My favorite thing to do with that camera would take place on Saturday night. After having a delicious dinner of Seafood Risotto or Linguini with Clam Sauce, I would sit with my fiance in front of the TV and watch a old black and white movie such as The Third Man or La Dolce Vida while enjoying a glass of brandy. I would take the M2 and photograph the scenes as they appeared on the screen. Nothing gave me greater pleasure or relaxation. One time during this ritual, she just looked at me and shaking her head said to me "you are just too easy". Six months later she was gone. I had to get rid of that camera, for every time I looked at it, I realized that she was way too intelligent,too creative and too beautiful for me to keep. Both the girl and the camera were beyond my price range.

[Brian O'Connor]

Plaubel Makina 67 folder.

I had to sell it or not pay rent. I loved the lens, and folding action, and the format.
It's the only Medium format camera that I actually used to carry every day like a 35mm.

The lens was an 80mm Nikon, and was great with Velvia(like most nikons).

sigh....

[James Symington]

I have had a load of cameras of different formats from different eras - both digital and film - but the one I miss the most was the Nikon F6 (I had two in fact). No other camera has felt so good in the hand and was such a joy to use.

[Francisco Cubas]

My Rolleiflex 2.8. Burglars stolen years ago. I really loved it, now they're crazy expensive.

[Michael Hagburg]

My meterless Nikon F. That I traded my Pentax MX for. That I bounced my chin off while tripping down a hill - the chin needed stitches, the camera still worked. That I used during 7 years in Army journalism in Kentucky, aboard a hospital ship, and in Tokyo. That I took my first pictures of my wife and my son with.

[Tex Andrews]

Well....one to have on the shelf as a fond reminder, but not to use anymore, would be my Rollei 35LED. Bought in 1978 at a camera store in Nashville, TN, with money I was making working for a big earth-moving construction company. Took it out on the site with me as I worked, was my quick sketchbook. Loved the camera, and used it plenty until it was stolen out of our car in Wash, DC.

The one to still have and use would be my FujiGSW690II, which I had to trade in when I got my 645Z. That one still hurts. And until about 2014 when I got that Z, that Fuji was the only camera that held its value even adjusted for inflation throughout the '90's and aughts (I got it used around 1989/90).

[Dave Levingston]

I've kept most of the cameras I acquired over the years. The film cameras are in a showcase in my workroom. But there is one that comes to mind. I had a Canon Vt Deluxe with a 50mm f/1.2 lens. It had the rapid winder that folded out of the bottom of the camera. But it had separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows, like the old Leicas, and was really slow to use. Not good for a photojournalist. The lens was fast but very soft. I sold it to my photography professor (Chuck Scott of Chicago newspaper renown) to pay my tuition at Ohio University one quarter. It would be a nice addition to that showcase, but I'm sure it went on to a happy home.

[Jeff1000]

No, I hated them all; they were all beasts. 😀

But seriously, probably a pair of Leica M6s. One silver, one black.

[David L.]

Pentax 645 with a set of prime lenses. Still miss it after more than 20 years.

[MikeR]

Tough one for me to answer. But, speaking for my wife, she would nominate her Nikon F2, which she still has and would never part with. It's securely stored away, and a Panasonic G85 is her current picture making machine.

[Fred Haynes]

That would have to be the Nikon S2 that I bought in my early twenties. I loved that camera, it’s looks and it’s build we’re outstanding as far as I was concerned! I sold to a dentist to pay for my OM-1 after my son was born. I still have the OM, but I often think fondly of that rangefinder Nikon. Sometimes I could kick myself for having sold it, though I love the OM-1, and still have it.
Fred

[Rick Graves]

Of all of the cameras (film and digital) that I have owned that are now gone, there are none that I miss and want back. The cameras that I currently use, which all digital, feel much nicer to hold and use than those older cameras.

[Pierre Charbonneau]

I miss a Leica M5. Not the best M in my book. But I liked it a lot. I have traded it for a M6.
What I do really miss are few lenses. A Summicron 35 V3 among others comes to mind. And a Summilux 35 pre-ASPH as well.

Oh the lure of newness!

[Hugh]

I've owned an M2 Leica, and most of the Canon SLR bodies. All nice. None I really miss. I sometimes wish I still had my Pentax 67 kit back, but I know I'd never use it.

Funny thing though - I now have a pair of Canon RP bodies with RF35/1.8 and EF85/1.8 lenses for walkabout use, and a set of EF L primes for serious stuff.

I'd really really miss those two little cameras. No interest in "better" cameras. They just feel right, like the M2 Leica did.

[Jeff in Colorado]

I must be a cold-hearted SOB: Considering how the stock market has performed since the mid-1990s when I sold my Leica M and R outfits, Mamiya 6, Hasselblad and Fuji medium format systems, I'd now be feeling deep remorse if I hadn't sold them.

More recently, I bought a number of film cameras from the dregs of KEH and eBay, learning camera repair along the way. Canon F-1 and Olympus Pen FT are a couple of the better ones. My investment in them was more time than money.

[David Lee]

I never sold a camera. I still have all the cameras I ever bought plus a few that were given to me. Two exceptions, my very first camera, a gift from my Dad, a Brownie Fiesta, 127 film, and an Agfa, a gift from my Mom, 126 film. What I miss is using all the ones I have, specially my Leicas and my Pentax LX for macro work. the very first camera I bought with money from my first pilot job, was a Pentax ME Super. I still have all the boxes, manuals, guarantee card and even the original sales receipt. I probably need therapy.

[Shannon Scott]

Is it possible to pre-regret selling a camera? I have a Hasselblad XPan (rebadged Fuji TX1) in the closet. I love that camera, though I hardly every use it. It take it out sometimes just to feel it. I bought an XPro-2, which does have some of the same DNA, in an attempt to find a comparable digital camera, but it's just not the same. I could buy a whole stack of modern Fuji gear for the selling price of that XPan, though.

[David Maxwell]

A Kodak disposable camera. It wasn't one, there were a bunch. I didn't sell them, I took them to the store to have the film developed. I have owned nice film and digital SLRs since then and while the pictures are undoubtedly of better quality there is much less joy involved. I used to just snap pictures of things that made me happy. Perhaps my phone comes closest to this now.

[Matt]

Yashica Minister-700
When I got into film photography 10 years ago I picked up one of these in prestine jewel-like condition. It was a work of art and the lens had the mythical "3D pop" to my eyes. The leaf shutter was so smooth and quiet I was never sure it had actually fired (and yet it always did).

I sold it because the contrast patch was a little dull and it was my third film body, and with one body loaded with colour film, and another with black and white, why would I ever possibly want or need a third camera?

I eventually replaced it with a Yashica Lynx 5000, which I had CLA'd, has a much brighter contrast patch, and yet lacks the magic and mystery of the Minister-700.

[Jason]

I miss my Nikon D300. Fast AF, decent images up to ISO1600 and ergonomically wonderful. However, it sat dormant during the winter months due to it being my racing photography camera, and I thought it was too heavy for day-to-day "walkarounds". I should've kept it and I got offered a decent price when having some extra cash was better than keeping the camera. At least it went to a good home.

Sony F717. The swivel body was sooooo convenient. If Sony had made the RX10 in the -707, 717, 828 form factor, I'd have one and probably not be shooting with much else.

For film, I did like my Nikon FE, but I developed so little film then and have no desire to do it now.

[Ken Ford]

I still have most of my former work Nikons, so what I miss was what I shot before I had to switch to take advantage of pool lenses - Pentax. I've replaced my pair of motorized MXes with a well worn example, but I really miss my first 35mm - a SP500.

[Stephen Scharf]

From Mike: Considering all the cameras that have ever passed through your hands, all the ones that have been and gone, is there any single one you would like to have back the most?

Nope. I have what I want and what meets my needs, my Fuji X-H1 and X100F. I'm not the kinda guy that sits around pining for what has gone or what might have been; I'm the kinda guy that gets the tools he needs and gets on with the job. A camera is a tool, not a romantic attachment.

[Bill Tyler]

No one camera stands out for me, though many were near perfect for their time and the usage I made of them. The thing that struck me as I was reading through the comments was how much I miss film. But it's a paradox. I will never go back to film. Digital does what I want, better and cheaper, at least per-shot. But there's something in a well-designed film camera that appeals to me, much as a fine mechanical watch that keeps worse time than my electronic watch, though I'm absolutely not going to pay the big bucks for the mechanical marvel. I think it's the combination of tangible media and "works" with the magic of images appearing on a piece of film, long after you've sent some photons streaming at the emulsion. Oh yeah - the stand-out cameras: Nikon F2, Nikon FM2, Nikon F100, Crown Graphic 4x5, Mamiya 645, and my current favorite, Olympus OM-D E-M1 mk2, and curse you, Olympus, for selling out.

[robert e]

Once upon a time, I decided I had to experience using a classic Leica for a while. I first tried a CL, then an M3, and finally settled on an M2 (all bought used in good "beater" shape). Enjoyed the M2 for years, but now I feel like I didn't give either of the other two a fair shake.

[Christopher A. Lause]

My Leica M7 and R8 with a handful of Leica lenses which I sold to go digital. No other cameras or lenses have ever been as enjoyable for me to use or just to hold and look at. Well after going thru quite a few digital systems over the last 25 years I’ve come back to Leica - a used R8 and 3 R lenses, an SL2, 3 L mount lenses plus an R to L adapter, and a soon to arrive Q2 to give me that street photography camera I lost when I gave up the M7. I’m significantly poorer as a result, but happy and satisfied once again.

[Marcelo Guarini]

The one with which I started, Leica M4, but I still have it, working. One that I really missed was the Olympus OM-1, so much, that I bought a used one. I still miss my Olympus OM-2n quite a bit

[Max]

I have most of the cameras I bought or used (Pentax LX, Mx, etc, Mamiya 6, Horizont, Bronicas...)

The one I miss is the only I don't have: my first camera, a black plastic box that shot 127 film made in Hong Kong my father gifted me when I was eight.

Well, I don't miss the camera as much I do the effect it had on me.

I also miss the emotion I felt buying my first real camera, a black Yashica Tl-Electro X. I was 16, had saved for years but as soon as I got the money, the price went up. Finally my father learned it and offered to "loan" me the difference. I remember sitting in my room for hours watching the machine in awe. No other purchase has made me so happy in the following 44 years!

[Ian Christie]

I miss them - but they went to a good home when I switched to digital (an Epson RD1s with Leica 28mm lens - as close to film as digital could be in 2007). I gave them away to a budding young photographer, son of dear friends of mine, who wanted to master film.
And they were: Mamiya 6MF and Minolta CLE. What a pairing.

[Gary Alessi]

Kodak Masterview 8x10.......had someone who had a machine shop cut out some of the extra weight in the bed....so it was a lb or 2 lighter than regulation......I think I would only use it for tabletop stuff now...as it is too big to haul around these days( it has been 25 years since i sold it)

[Aravind]

Rollei 35S, on which I learnt photography. Wish there was a digital version of that, with all the control layout unchanged!