Cameras that you don't use but can't bring yourself to sell

mothertrucker

mothertrucker

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I'm sure we all have one or two of these sitting around in a box somewhere - what cameras do you not use, but can't bring yourself to sell because you love something about them?

For me it's got to be this Agfa Optima 1035. I just love the design, the viewfinder, but it is never the camera I grab to take out. In fact, the controls feel very cheap and plasticky to me.

But I just love the way it looks - too bad it's been sitting in my for sale box for 2 years, constantly dodging my purges.

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Well, the one that comes to mind first is the Leica M2 button rewind that I bought used in 1966... we have had a long run together but I don't use film any more. It was my first and only Leica for many years.
 
• Mamiya 645
• Moskva-4 (rebuilt and "blueprinted" to match Zeiss quality)
• Polaroid 180 (now utterly pointless - thanks Fuji-no-film!)

In other words, all my film cameras. Nice ornaments, though... and they hold memories, so I'll be keeping these.

I keep intending to use them, and have film in the fridge, even some colour Fuji peel apart: all now expired as I haven't shot film for 7 years.

Realistically, I'll never use a film again. Digital is cheaper, faster, easier and gives superior image quality. I can't think of one advantage that film has over digital for me.

For me, photography is only about the image itself, so the camera is just a tool, a means to an an end. Yes, I like film cameras as tactile, aesthetic objects, that they're built with metal and leather and operate mechanically through gears and clockwork. But all that is meaningless if you consider that a photograph is defined by its content, not by how it was made.
 
I usually take turns with my cameras so that I use them all. Of course there are some cameras that are used less than others - my old trusted EOS5 and Nikon F90x mainly.. I also have a Leica IIc with a shutter curtain hole, the home made repair didn't work, so it remains unused since 2016 waiting for repair.
The one that I seem to be skipping it's turn on purpose is the Minolta 7xi - I got it for the lens and God it is such an annoying camera with a mind of its own but I need it to shoot the 50f/1.7 Minolta that I like a lot. Put it a few times to sell it online and always cancelled the auction.


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am having three Nikon F801 (N8008) bodies that accumulated gradually, paid maybe 30 euros for each. never used them for anything, so been holding if some future project might materialize. also, they were top of the line models in late 80's when I was old enough to recognize them in store shelves, but too young&broke to even hold them in my hands :p
 
I give away my unused cameras; trouble is, most of what I have left are project cameras and too bulky to be worth posting, so they'll have to sit on the shelf until I can get back to the office in London.

(If you're near Orpington and want a fixer-upper, though, give me a shout)
 
jarski said:
am having three Nikon F801 (N8008) bodies that accumulated gradually, paid maybe 30 euros for each. never used them for anything...
Click to expand...

Well don't try to! I bought a couple off $Bay a few years ago and neither of them worked properly (unlike my far older FM2).
 
I have no great attachment to a camera. I can't be bothered to sell my Nikon F90 as it's close to worthless but is useful if need to use an AF lens (although I don't).

Apart from that I have a Nikon FE with issues that I can't really be bothered to try selling either.

It is highly unlikely I'll sell any of my film M Leicas as I love them so much and shoot them regularly.
 
Well mine is a Alpa 10-D it was always a weird camera, but I only have three lenses for it that I bought the adp to use them on my Sony so at least I still use the 50mm 1.9 Kern Macro Switar, a 40mm f 2.8 makro Kilar, and a 24mm f3.5 Angenieux.
 
There are a couple of boxes of unused cameras in the closet. Most are old film and digital cameras that aren't worth the effort to try and sell. The only cameras I own that I have any sentimental attachment with are two Nikon F2's. One is the first new F2 I ever bought (in 1974) and the other is the last F2 I bought (in 1989, I think). The sentiment comes from them being a camera that I started my career as a news photographer and a camera I used to finish it. They represent some good times along with a lot of misery and grief, watching the newspaper I had worked for die a slow death at the hands of a corporate attitude.
 
We might have couple of old digital cameras at home. I'm not sure if I could sell them for five cents.
All other cameras which were not in use but working I sold or give away.
I have non working film cameras. Planning to sell or gave as decor and to fix some of them and sell.
 
I have more cameras than I can remember what I have. Obviously, I can't possibly be using them all. :)

However, the cameras that I have, don't use hardly, but can't bring myself to put on the market (even though they still have some value) are my Olympus E-1 and E-M1. The E-1 remains my last ever and favorite DSLR; the E-M1 is just so good a camera I am loathe to sell it in case I ever need it because it can do more than nearly any other camera I have, and it works beautifully with the E-1 lenses as well as the newer Micro-FourThirds mount lenses as well. They're both hard to give up, even if they get next to no use.

G
 
Rollei 35S (I should use this more, but I just don't...)-owned for about 8 years

Mamiya RZ67 (so big, but produces such beautiful images)-owned for about 10 years

Leica CL (I love this camera, so I won't ever sell it, but it was an entry point for me into Leica, and so it's been less used as i've expanded my equipment)

Contax T2 (Still getting used to this camera but it is lovely. I just struggle with point and shoot simplicity)
 
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