Favourite (Iconic?) Film Cameras?

Same here too. Reminds me of my first lessons in photography back in 2008
FAOS

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This looks great

I have an old Zenit in the draw, and it’s only marginally lighter than that one — it’s like hanging a breeze block around your neck! I accidentally dropped it on a friend’s patio a few years back — the camera was fine, but it broke one of the concrete paving slabs in half! If I take it out and about without the strap, I always wear steel toe-capped boots — just in case! :wink:

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@martbetz How about this gem, then? Zenit Photosniper - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

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Yeah, I’ve seen those. I think Matthew Stern did a video on them some time back.

Haha. Try taking that through airport security

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Here it is:

Especially if you’re wearing one of these t-shirts:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1041892633/i-shoot-people-tshirt-photographer

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The odd thing is that I once saw one of those,
fully equipped, at a local flea market. Asking price
was about USD 300, which I thought was way too
much to spend on a thing that I really did not “need”.

My first 35mm camera was a Zenith 3M, though.
It came with a 50mm Helios lens, and a 135mm Jupiter lens.

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Both great lenses. Sady, my Zenit no longer works (it’s used as a prop these days), but you can find loads of them for sale, often in good working order and very cheap prices (hence why I haven’t — as of yet — invested the time in repairing it).

Zenits are really tough cameras — they’re built like tanks. I’d take the Zenit places I wouldn’t dare take any other camera, and wouldn’t have to worry about it getting broken or damaged.

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When can we go back to space themed(or at least named) camera gear? :smiley:

In 35mm land it’s impossible to go past the Nikon F series, particularly the first three: F, F2 and F3. Absolutely timeless, and won’t smash your bank account like Leica gear… of which the M3 is undoubtedly iconic. Part of what makes the Nikon F cameras so great is the fact that mount has been around since 1959 and is still in use. I lens collection is predominantly F mount and I use them on my F2, my D700, and my Fuji X-T3 - and have even hired them out to a friend for use on an Arri Alexa.

Honourable mentions to my Dad’s Pentax Spotmatic F, a bulletproof m42 mount camera, and the Hasselblad Xpan which shoots nearly double-wide panoramic photos. Any of the mainline SLRs from Canon, Olympus and Minolta are well worth shooting too though. The Nikon FM2 is a great, fully mechanical pro-sumer camera they put out in 1982 as well.

In medium format I think its hard to argue against the Hasselblad 500C as the most iconic camera out there. The square format has been a mainstay in professional studios for decades and it also went to the moon. On the more affordable side the Pentax 67 is a cult classic, as is the Fuji GW690iii, the Texas Leica.

As for iconic films to run through these cameras, hard to go past Tri-X and HP5+ for black and white, and Kodak Portra or Ektar for colour.

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