Cameraholic ~ chronological
I’ve been a serious photographer since 1983 – currently owned cameras are in bold
Kodak Instamatic 110 – very simple cartridge camera for a nine-year old in 1969
Canon AE-1 35mm, bought from a nice old school camera shop in SLC when I worked at Alta, 1980
Olympus OM-1, my first wife Nina found it underneath a chairlift during a melt at Sugarloaf
1982 injured climbing in Oregon and spent the Summer’s recuperation period reading photography books
Wista DX Cherrywood 4x5 in 1983
Rolleicord 6x6 prewar, mildewed in Oregon
Olympus XA, oh what a cool design these were! $100 new hot thing, used mine for twenty years until it fell apart
Olympus OM-1n, excellent 1970s cameras
Mom’s Kodak DuoFlex 620, had a brick of Kodak VPS 620
Wista Rittreck 5x7 with green hammertone enamel with chrome, very Japanese
Nikon FM-2n, four-plus bodies, ran $250k worth of film through them. Hated their sharp, tin-like titanium shutter that screaches like nails on a chalkboard but they work well. I had a NPC Polaroid back, several horrible MD12 motor drives, and the good primes like the 24/2, 35/2, 55/2.8, 85/1.4, 105/2.5, 180/2.8 AIS.
Fuji 690 GW II 6x9, used professionally, fantastic image quality. When I photographed the CEO of Kodak I put tape over the Fuji logo.
Nikon S2, couldn't get it into, first rangefinders can be strange and it’s not the camera’s fault
Korona Banquet 7x17, ridiculous, wobbly, dried out
Wista SP 4x5, I did everything with this, used 75-90-135-180-210-300mm Rodenstocks, Polaroid Type 52,54,55, 59, lots of EPN and EPP
Zenit SLR
Canon Xap Shot digital (1989) pointless but cool, a “video” digital camera
Mamiya 6 6x6, went all in with this system including dedicating a third body to a fiber optic Polaroid back, had all lenses… but ultimately grew to hate it. Very clumsy, awkward. You can’t simply scale up a Leica, the Fujis were much better designs.
Nikon N60, clumsy early auto-focus
Hasselblad 501cm 6x6 kit with two bodies, best lenses, too precious for me
Olympus Stylus, really hard to beat for families, friends and art
Rolleiflex 2.8E2 Planar 6x6, wonderful, just right Rolleiflex
Sinar F 4x5 – front standard is junk, buy the F2 instead
Nikon F3hp (two bodies) with 24/2; 85/1.4; 180/2.8 AIS, MD4s and a NPC Polaroid Back on a FM body – all inside a Domke F2. Ultimate
Calumet C2 4x5, the “coat hanger” camera
Ricoh GR-1 , carried this for years, great compact 35mm but LEDs bleed
Santa Barbara Pinhole 4x5
Kodak DCS digital, early one with the 40mb shoulder carried SCSI hard drive
Polaroid SX-70
Graflex Super Graphic 4x5, the most modern and worst of the Graflex cameras
Fuji 690 GSW III 690 6x9, superb, should have kept it forever
Fuji MX-2700 digital, wonderful 2mp compact, I made billboards from its images!
YashicaMat G 6x6 good TLR
Olympus Stylus again
Leica SL and SL-2, these were great, had a 28-50-90 kit
Konica Hexar Silver, so quiet you wouldn’t know if you made the photo or not
Sony FP-3 digital, absolute garbage, soured me forever. Will never buy anything Sony!
Lubitel TLR 6x6 (2000) funky junky
Pinhole Resource 4x5 junky funky
Fuji 6800 digital also a great camera in its day, Fuji makes great cameras
Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5
Rollei 2.8F Planar 6x6 with Flenor CLA and bright screen
Sinar Norma 4x5
USSR Horizant 24x72mm panoramic, chewed up a roll every once in a while
Leica IIIc
Brooks Veriwide 100 6x10, two bodies, the compact version, horrible mechanically, stupid, what was I thinking?
Leica M2 beater
Rolleiflex 2.8F Xenotar 6x6 – no difference than a Planar
Olympus Stylus (notice a trend? I kept giving them away and buying used cheap ones)
Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5
Noblex 150UX 6x12 rotating lens panoramic, these are marvels. Now my phone does as well.
Arca-Swiss C 4x5, wrote the English language history of Arca-Swiss but didn’t get along with the Vogts.
Bilora Bella 6x6
Linhof Kardan Super Color ST 4x5, inexpensive but high quality
Linhof Technika IV 4x5
Leica III
Kodak DCS 520 digital, first usable DSLR for me
Konica Hexar Black
Nikon D70s digital (two bodies), Nikon really hit it out of the park with these, had the 20-24-35-50 AFD lenses, great kit
Sinar Handy 4x5, totally not worth the trouble
Arca-Swiss Discovery 4x5, great design and build but hated the company
Polaroid 110 modified to use 4x5 film by Dean Jones. He was a cool guy RIP. The back design was clumsy.
Noblex 150 Pro 6/150 F 6x12
Rollei 2.8E 120 Xenotar 6x6
Rollei 2.8E3 120 Xenotar 6x6
Leica M6 Classic
Konica Hexar Black
Leica II
Linhof Technika IV 4x5
Leica M6 Classic
DeGolden Busch 8x10, the absolutely worst ever! Horrid design and worse workmanship
Nikon D70, two more bodies
Nikon D2X digital, bought it on the spot even though I couldn’t afford it
Fatif 8x10, cool design
Arca-Swiss A 8x10, only six pounds but the plastic parts get brittle with age
Graflex RB Super D SLR 4x5, best choice for handheld portraits
Polaroid 110B modified to use 4x5 film by Dean Jones, I don’t give up easily
Graflex Super Graphic 4x5 with Aero Ektar, a dumb fad
Anba-Ikeda 5x7, wobbly AF
Nikon D80 digital, better than the D2x
Sinar F2 4x5
Crown Graphic with 135/3.5 Xenotar, silly faddish lens
Palm Treo 650 Smart Phone, the cameras are horrible
Agfa Isolette 6x6
Linhof Super-Technika V 4x5, I visited Martin in NC (RIP) and he rebuilt it for me
Leica M6 classic, never buy the M6 TTL (no meter parts); I prefer to have Youxin or Don remove the useless/distracting 75 and 135 frame lines
Panasonic LX-2 digital
Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5
Leica IIIc
Nikon D300 digital
Calumet C1 8x10 from Scott Hamilton. The bellows was so leaky I had to drape the dark cloth over or it would fog the film
Sinar Norma 8x10 with 14” Kodak Commercial Ektar on a Gitzo Giantluxe tripod, great outfit
Olympus 420 digital, simply awful, soured me on Olympus
Nikon D70s again!
Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 again!
Konica Hexar Black
Rolleicord Va 6x6, used for Obama’s first inauguration
Leica IIIc, two of them with Elmars
Leica IIIc 35mm with 50/3.5 Elmar
Rolleicord K2 6x6, pre war
Nikon D200 digital, very nice cameras with the last of the CCD sensors, crisp and snappy
Nikon F100, pay extra to get one with non-sticky back and beveled rewind fork, excellent camera otherwise
Holga pinhole panoramic 6x12
Leica M6 classic
Leica M2
Ricoh GR-D II digital
Canonet QL-17III
Panasonic G1 digital
HTC Incredible smartphone
Nikon N80 and D80, nice combo with small prime lenses
Arca-Swiss C 4x5
Sinar Norma 4x5
Leica IIIc
Original Toyo Field Metal Half-Plate adapted to 5x7, conversion was improperly done by a lying ratfink bastard so I sold it after making some nice pix anyway.
OIympus Stylii, three bodies that Summer, never paid more than $20 each
Panasonic G1
Polaroid 600
Nikon D300 digital
Kodak Medalist II 6x9 620 converted to 120 by Ken Ruth, ergonomically absurd, ahead of its time in many ways though, beautiful machining and lens
Nikon D80 and Nikon N80, go-to compact SLRs
Linhof Technika IV 4x5
Nikon D7000 digital, these were nice
Fuji Klasse, tiny viewfinder sabotages an otherwise good design
Panasonic G1, very impressive first mirrorless
Fuji GW690III 6x9, most practical medium format camera, excellent lens
Nikon N80 35mm
Graflex Super D 4x5
Linhof Technika V 4x5, sentimental favorite
Panasonic G1 digital
Rolleiflex 2.8E3 6x6, another favorite
Nikon D700 digital, these were great in their era
Noblex 612UX 6x12 panoramic (2014), wonderful
Panasonic GX1 digital with 20mm prime, excellent pocket sized cameras
Sinar Norma 4x5, I restored several of these, lovely design
Nikon F3hp
Kodak Panoram 1d 6x18 panoramic
Chamonix F1 4x5
Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5, stripped of all rangefinder hardware and covered in Gaffer tape, worth $100, rugged and simple. Used this the most of any 4x5.
Apple iPhone 5s
Nikon D300, pair with the common AF-D primes, no complaints although sensitive on the green-magenta processing
Olympus Sylus Epic! I gave a lot away
Kodak Autographic 127
Rollei 35mm
Fuji X100T digital, lovely design but disliked the image quality
Leica M6
Leica II black
Panasonic GX1
Nikon F100
Nikon D810 digital, three bodies with 28/1.4, 105/1.4, 300/4 PF wonderful kit, made many favorite photos with this outfit
Olympus Stylus II
Konica Hexar AF black
Fuji Mini-Instax
Nikon Coolpix A, if only Nikon updated these
Cheap clone of a GoPro III
Kodak Panoram 1d 6x18, these are so painful and challenging to use
Fuji X-100F digital, kept trying, still dislike Fuji-X IQ
Apple iPhone 7s
Leica M6 Classic
DJI Mavic Pro drone, lots of fun until it gets lost or destroyed
Aquatech surf housing for Nikon D800/810 (2017)(Lots of fun, best for clear tropical water not Upstate NY)
Leica II
Nikon Coolpix A
GoPro Hero 7 Black
Nikon F3hp
Nikon D850
Nikon Z7 with 35/1.8
Leica II
D850 (x2) w Zeiss Milvus 35/1.4. 50/1.4, 85/1.4 wonderful but so damn slow and heavy. Hard to fault otherwise, the D850 is the best DSLR ever and works well with something like the CV40/2 for EDC.
Apple iPhone 11 Pro which does everything I’d want a digital camera to do, better than any Canikony (Canon, Nikon or Sony)
Nikon Z50, these are excellent value cameras, recommended to family and people who can’t afford twice the price to see any noticeable improvement
Nikon Z7 w 50/1.8s
Leica IIIc, these are the best value in screw mount bodies
Leica IIIf, nobody willingly uses flash with these so pointless
Leica IIIg, of all the LTM bodies I like the early Leica II far and away the best, the IIIg is nice but not a good value at all
GoPro Hero 8 Max, these are much less expensive than underwater housings and their stabilization is getting better
Leica M2 black repaint, M2 has the best M finder but is the slowest to load
Nikon F2 black eye level DE-1 prism with 105/2.5, 50/1.2 AIS very pretty and awkward
Nikon F4s, DA-20 Sportssucher (sports finder) and 135/2 AIS, 20-35/2.8 AFD, 50/1.2 AIS perfect beast for portraits (tried five DP-20 finders, all had distracting LED leakage). The last one I had just up and died. I think we are at the usability limit for late 1980s consumer electronics. In theory these are the best all-around Nikon film bodies and they are amazing designs for their day (complex, expensive, rugged).
Rolleicord V, slower than the Rolleiflex otherwise excellent image and build quality, simpler. You have to pause to cock the shutter before exposure so you don’t waste as much film. With the Flexes you enjoy winding so much you blow through the rolls too quickly! My eyesight makes focusing difficult but like to check in with one every once in a while.
KMZ Horizont Горизонт just fooling around, never a serious relationship
Nikon Z7ii with 50/1.8S ~ All of the Nikon S lenses have been excellent to date. Have owned or rented the 70-200/2.8s, 24-70/2.8s, 20, 24, 35, 50, 85/1.8s and 50/1.2s. Frankly I think we’re on a plateau with these kinds of cameras for the foreseeable future due to supply chain issues and a lack of creativity from the manufacturers. My main complaints are that the ergonomics favor smaller hands, lack of backlit controls and they need an additional programmable button somewhere. Every time I have to edit a Canon or Fuji file I’m mortified at how harsh they are compared to Nikon, which are truly medium format quality with the latest lenses. This clarity and perfection is kind of weird to me to be honest, the results are better than what I could achieve with my large format film using a realistic cost-effective workflow (i.e. scans with an Epson flatbed rather than paying for custom Aztek drumscans at $100+/per). In terms of image quality the Z7/D850 sensor is better than anything scanned on an Epson product. Canikony need to open up their interfaces to good American UI developers, make every button programable and stop trying to do software because they are horrible at it.
Nikon D850, these are the best all-around digital cameras in 2022, a clean used one is under $2000 and there are millions of lenses for them.
Ricoh GR III meh too fragile and slow
Fuji GL690 with 100/3.5 beater Texas Leica, these are too old, get the later versions
Nikon F2AS with 85/1.4 AIS beautiful but too boring
Leica II Nickel with 50/3.5 Nickel Elmar ~ thought this was a “forever” camera but idolizing objects is a sin. I love the historic aspect but I don’t like having to care for “collectibles”.
Leica M6 with 50 Elmar, 35/2 Summicron ASPH excess frame lines removed, MP finder. These are the best all-around rangefinders for me but the funny thing is that back in the film era it seemed as though everything I shot with Leicas was magical, more inspired than my Nikon photos because of the open viewfinder (no mirror black out). But for the past several years my Leica film work has felt flat and limited so I stopped using them.
Canon 1n with 50/1.2L kind of waiting for that lens to fall apart, Canon is just as shitty as Nikon. Lovely bokeh, fast AF
Canon 1n with 40/2.8 pancake, I like the body and would like to try the 1v but not impressed by the lenses (although they’re probably superior to Nikons of the same era).
iPhone 13 Pro Max bought for its amazing camera
Nikon Z5 with 40/2 plastic thing ~ just too chintzy
Two Nikon D850 bodies with Nikon 35/1.4G, 85/1.8G and 300/4PF workhorse cameras. I’ve had most of the Nikon lenses 20mm to 300mm over the years.
Chamonix 810V 8x10 view camera with Fuji W 300/5.6 in Copal 3, I used this in Sicily and sold it to a Swiss fellow before I left.
Dalle AI
iPhone 14 Pro (the smaller one, more convenient)
Nikon F3P, very nice film body
Intrepid 8x10 v.3 my compliments to the designers for making an affordable view camera even if it’s really shitty!
Chamonix 8x10 WWA-V with 240/5.6 APO-Symmar ~ After my Sicily film was ruined my heart never got back into it so I sold the second one too.
Nikon N80 with 20/2.8 AFD cheap decent reliable 35mm film camera. I always get these wide angles and never use them, hate the distortion.
Minolta CLE with 40/2 Rokkor, always wanted to try one, the CLE in particular as it was a generation ahead of CL Leica collaboration. It is very nice, recommended but not for me.
Pair of Nikon D850s with 40/2 SLIIs Voigtlander; 85/1.4G, 135/2AIS; Zeiss Milvus 50/1.4 and 35/2, all these lenses are superb.
DJI Action 2 wearable ~ after several clunky GoPros I think this is the nicest action cam for the money, Spring 2023, gave to son-in-law
DJI Mini III Pro drone ~ up to date latest model, very impressive engineering and design, big fan of our Chinese overlords at DJI, gave to son
Nikon Z30 with 26/2.8 pancake lens. Easy to bring everywhere, not expensive, allows me to keep my regular glasses on because it is EVF-only. So far I love it.
Olympus Stylus 35/3.5 once again. The best cheap point-and-shoot film camera.
Linhof Super Color 4x5 monorail with 180mm Rodenstock APO Sironar-N and a five recent Toyo film holders, Harrison changing tent, Gitzo 410 tripod with Acratech leveling head. Great value, highest quality
Nikon Z8 with 50/1.2S
For years being able to buy and sell on eBay made it possible to try out dozens of cameras with minimal financial penalty (not more than 10%). However I no longer think eBay is safe, reliable or a good value so doing what I’ve done is now more difficult. On reflection the best places to buy interesting used cameras has been ethical online dealers with fair return polices like B&H Photo (NYC); Igor Photo (Pittsburgh); KEH (Atlanta) and MPEX (Columbus).
It’s been a lot of fun experimenting with all this wonderful equipment over the course of my career but most of my best images, the most profitable commercial work and treasured memories were made with moderately priced, pedestrian, consumer-level gear. I’ve made more good photos with the lowly 35mm Olympus Stylus P&S and Nikon FM-2n SLR; the Panasonic G1 mirrorless; decade-old D80, D300, D700 and D810 DSLRs; and home brewed $100 plywood 4x5 Crown Graphics than anything else. Photography does not have to be expensive but it should be difficult!