Oldest camera?

Oldest camera?

  • Yes

    Votes: 548 80.7%

  • No

    Votes: 131 19.3%
  • Total voters
    679
I've recently purchased a beat up Kodak Autographic Vest Pocket.
I've sealed all the pinholes (hopefully), cleaned the lenses and shutter,
cleaned the viewfinder.

And last week 2 rolls of Efke R100 127 film arrived.
Now all that remains is waiting for an opportunity to test the camera.
 
Kodak Hawkette 2. It was my late fathers and I have two books full of photographs from it taken by him in India and Burma during WW 2. People,places and even some action shots. I have loaded it with 120 and have taken a few shots but am unsure as to which aperture it is using. It has three. These are set by puling or pushing a lever . The issue being that there is no indication on that lever as to which aperture is being chosen. A bit of trial and error should sort it out though.It was designed to use ASA 50.
 
I have a "Kodak 35 RF" from the mid 40's. I've also got an Argus C3, which may or may not be older. I don't use either very often; the brick has a broken rangefinder, and the 35 RF tends to eat film.

The oldest camera I regularly use is my IIIf BD from 1951, usually with a summitar from 1950. The oldest lens I've got is a serenar 85/2 from 1949.
 
Well, the oldest camera I own is a 1912 Conley 4x5 (Model XVIa). Although I haven't used it yet, I believe I will be using it soon. The shutter is semi-functional (not all speeds) and the bellows have a couple small spots that need sealing.

I found this last month while my wife and I were in an antique store. She saw I wanted it and bought it for me for a first wedding anniversary gift. 😀

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The oldest camera that I actually use is a 1955 Leica IIIf RD, with early 1946 50/f2 Summitar lens.

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Here are a couple recent pictures taken of our greyhound with that camera, loaded with Tri-X.

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The oldest camera that I use is a 1956 Rolleiflex 2.8E. It's had a CLA by Ross Yerkes in Los Angeles a couple of years ago and the camera looks and works as if it were new. I also installed a Maxwell screen installed by Ross. It's much brighter than the original.

The camera was purchased new by Herbert (Bert) Burrows, a former CIA agent and a good friend. He either bought it in Germany or Singapore, I forget which, and I can't ask him as he passed away a few years ago. His widow knew I admired the camera and also that I would not only care for it but also use it, so she offered to sell it to me. I only had $125 with me at the time. She said that was good enough.

The second oldest camera that I use frequently is a well-worn black 1969 Asahi Pentax Spotmatic that I purchased new from Jack Stroebel at St. Louis Camera in 1971.
 
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my oldest camera is the pentax k1000 i learned on at 12 years of age. I still have it at 42 years of age. It works, I havent used it in years. I should.
 
My oldest camera is a No. 3A Folding Brownie from about 1915. I haven't tried to modify it for 120 film, so I don't use it. I also have a No. 2 Box Brownie from the same era that I have used. The oldest cameras that get regular use are 1960's and 70's fixed lens rangefinders: Petri 7s, Yashica GSN, Olympus ECR.
 
Pesphoto: Use that darned Pentax K1000. Those cameras love to be used, even slapped about. Also, love the Moriyama quote. Are any of his pictures available?
 
My grandfather's old camera was recently found and given to me. It is a Kodak No. 2A, which likely dates from the late 20s. It has 4 shutter settings: T (press to open, press to close), B (open while pressed), "25" and "50." It takes 116 film, has a "ruby window" on the back, and features an iris (both the iris and shutter are in front of the glass element, which I assume is a single element) with settings of 1, 2, 3, and 4, corresponding to no system I know of, but which appear to be in roughly 1 stop ratios to one another. The rotating, plus-shaped waistlevel finder is fogged almost beyond visibility. The bellows lock into preset 8 ft or 100 ft focusing positions.

I've seen pictures of my father as a young man, taken 25 years into the camera's life, and that those pictures exist at all is, to me, a testament to my grandfather's skill as a photographer. With no meter (and I know he carried none), difficult orthochromatic films of the day, and arcane (to say the least) means of controlling exposure, I figure a person had to be serious about learning his stuff to use the thing. The difficulty of adapting it for use today has prevented me from doing so, so I keep it on display on a shelf as a tribute to my grandfather.
 
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