Longest you owned AND used a camera?

[robklurfield]

One might be struck from perusing the classifieds or reading some of the threads on RFF that we are among the most fickle, fair-weather friends an implement might ever have and that we have the attention spans of small insects (or perhaps even my dogs, one of whom can hardly remember why he entered a room, though his tail never stops wagging), as we buy, sell and trade our way endlessly and obsessively to newer and sometimes even older equipment. So...

My question here is: What's the longest that you've ever owned AND regularly used a camera? If it sat unused in closet for year after year, don't count it here. If you gave it a good workout at least periodically, I'm curious what was the longest you stayed loyal?

I regularly used my M4 for 27 years until I traded it towards an M8. (I have still have my mom's Kodak Bay Brownie, but it hasn't been used in at least 50 years.) I miss the M4 and were money not an issue, I'd still have it (he says while trying to kick himself).

What's your record for longevity in use??? Tell your story. No shelf queens please (unless you brought them back to life and employed them for shooting, of course).

 

[umcelinho]

well, not an impressive figure, but i've bought a vivitar ultra wide & slim in the second semester of 2008 and use it every once in a while, been having it in my work bag lately. in september 2009 i got an epson r-d1 and use it regularly. in october last year i got my m4 which i intend on keeping until it leaves me, it's my most loved camera nowadays.

 

[Livesteamer]

I got a Nikkormat FTN in 1973 and my first Nikon F in 1975. I still have both but since buying an M3 in 1990 and an M6 in 1992 they have not been used much. Joe

 

[bobby_novatron]

My longest-used camera has been a silver-body Nikon FG that I bought with my father in a department store in 1983.

The FG does not have any of the cachet of other Nikon models, but I love that little camera. It's not much bigger than a Leica M, and has lots of features -- including a well-designed 100% metal alloy body, not like those plasticky later 1980's Nikons.

Best of all, it has worked flawlessly for 28 years! :angel:

 

[bobkonos]

One of my Leica M6 Wetzlar cameras came to me in July 1989 (a trade with a pal whose dad owns a camera store). I have used it regularly, i.e., almost monthly, since then. I had an M4 and Minolta CL at the time, but the M4 got babied and the Minolta felt too small in my hands-did not have the feel I liked with the M4. When the M6 came out, with its feel AND a built-in meter, I knew it was for me. I took it with me to Italy in May and it was a gem, once again (used it with a canon 50mm f1.8 lens). This camera has travelled with me to Belgium, Holland, Japan, Italy, Australia, Vancouver BC, and on many travels here. I trust it implicitly and it is the only camera I own that sometimes makes me wonder why I own all the others.

I also have a Nikon FM2 that I got in 1988, again a trade with a dear friend, and it has also seen regular use, primarily with the Nikon 55mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor. Again, I trust it.

 

[colyn]

I still use my Leica IIIa that my Granddad gave me when I was 6. Still going after 52 years of use from me. I use it at least twice a month..

One of my M3's came to me in the late 60's and still gets regular use..

 

[robklurfield]

ah, but you are young. I have tee shirts older than you. you have plenty of time to break in that camera. enjoy it. time flies.

well, not an impressive figure, but i've bought a vivitar ultra wide & slim in the second semester of 2008 and use it every once in a while, been having it in my work bag lately. in september 2009 i got an epson r-d1 and use it regularly. in october last year i got my m4 which i intend on keeping until it leaves me, it's my most loved camera nowadays.

 

[Austerby]

I bought a Nikon FE with a 50mm f1.8 AI lens in 1981 that I still have and use regularly - it's been all round the world with me, never having had a CLA in it's lifetime, never going wrong.

I was 15 when I bought it, which to my now 45 year old self, seems an incredibly cool thing to do though I wasn't aware of it at the time.

I used an inheritance from my late grandmother to buy it. My older brother also bought a camera, an OM-2, with his share, though he sold it after only a few years. I know he regrets it. I'll never sell the FE.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I've had my oldest Olympus OM-4T (I have three of them now) since the beginning of 1994, and I still use it. I was a senior in high school when I got it. I also still have my Mamiya 645 Super and Nikon F4s bought at the same time, but I rarely use them anymore.

 

[nikon_sam]

The one I use the most and hasn't been on a shelf for more than a month at a time would be the Nikon F4e...I bought it in 2002...
My oldest that I've had was bought in 1976 but that one is put away...yesterday I bought another one to put into use with some lenses that I have...the first one's meter is iffy when it wants to work and it also jumps a bit too...

 

[gb hill]

My Canonet QL17GIII that I bought during the summer of 06. All my cameras are users but this one gets the most use.

 

[leica M2 fan]

I bought an Exakta VXIIa in 1956 and had it as my only camera for 14 years used almost daily.I also have an M2 that I got used in 1970 and still have it and use it regularly. I recently had it CLA'd by Youxin and I'll never sell it or let it go.

 

[Rob-F]

I bought my M2 circa 1960 or 61. I just shot a roll of Tri-X with it, on vacation. I treated it to its first CLA around 1998. Nothing was wrong, I just felt I ought to. After all, it's been a companion for many years. And I still have the 35mm Summaron, 50mm collapsible Summicron, and 90mm chrome Elmarit I acquired for it over several years. I added a 35mm Summicron Version 1 around 1968 or so; and a 50mm DRS and 50mm f/1.5 Summarit much more recently. At times I may shoot some of my more recent lenses with it, like the ASPH models; but usually I like to reserve the older chrome lenses for the M2. There is till something special about my M2.

 

[sleepyhead]

Olympus XA. I was working in a big camera store in NYC run by religious Jews in the early-mid 80s when they came out and got one.
Used it until 2006, but not as my only camera in later years.

 

[marcr1230]

I've had my OM-4T since I got it new in 1987, my OM-3 since 1988

They both still look pretty new

 

[bobby_novatron]

Great to read about people's stories and their attachment to these cameras! This is a good thread. Like 'Chicken Soup for the Photographer's Soul'. 🙂

The very first camera I ever used was my mother's Minolta 1970's rangefinder. I don't remember which model, but I remember it had auto-metering and simple scale focus. As a kid, I could never remember to set the scale focus properly. Many of my well-intentioned shots were always blurry, and that camera bugged the heck out of me. It disappeared sometime in the 1980's and I never missed it.

That Minolta had one saving grace: it was the camera that definitively inspired me to have a life-long love of photography. In the summer of 1978, I was a young lad visiting relatives in British Columbia. I took a photo of a gentle, verdant waterfall in a rainforest. When my mother got the film developed, that little picture of the waterfall just blew me away. I couldn't believe that I took that beautiful photo!

From then on, it was Nikon-Canon-Panasonic-Leica ... It's been a downhill GAS-attack ever since. 🙄

 

[Tom A]

Leica M2, black paint, bought in 1965 - it has been with me for all that time, 3 overhauls, usually because of bashed up top-plate (dropped, smashed in a car-door - twice). Still works fine and it has the Summicron 35f2 v1 on it most of the time - though lately it has been the Nokton 35f1.4 SC. I have no idea how much of it still original, most "working parts have been exchanged at some time (finder, shutter drums etc). There are also a couple of Nikon F's from the early 70's that are still used - and looks their age!
Because I worked as a photographer - equipment had less of a sentimental value. Any problem - stuff was dumped and/or replaced.
Somewhere in a box is a Agfa 120 film camera that I got in late 50's - three shutter speeds. Worked well with Verichrome Pan - but that one I haven't used for decades (No more Verichrome Pan!).

 

[Bingley]

I bought an Oly XA new from 47th Street Photo in NYC in 1983, and I'm still using it. It's been a lot of places and has had a lot of rolls film run through it. For most of the '90s it was my only camera.

 

[gavinlg]

Canon 5d - since about 2007ish...
I'm a youngin though.

 

[pvdhaar]

Zenit-E from 1977 to 1997.. And it wasn't a shelf queen, for 20 years, that was my one and only camera.

Good thing about it: reliability. 20 years of constant use without a hitch.

Bad thing: the shutter/mirror sound was so loud it would make the tripod get up and walk off.

Weird things: the smell of the body covering..