Vote for the 'coolest' currently available camera! (yes ... frivilous I know!)

[jdos2]

I voted for the D3. I've just returned from a cross country motorcycle trip and was going through Iowa a couple days ago when we stopped to take a break. I was taking a picture of the farmland around the rest area, when a person walked up behind me and said "is that a D3? Ooooh! That's the HOLY GRAIL!"

The GF hasn't yet stopped teasing me, and I don't expect it to stop any time soon.

Never got that kind of commentary with the M8. Silly or no...


🙂

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Sorry, mine are not in, thought the R-D1s was still available, in case not, I vote for the M7 (which is not in)

 

[FrankS]

None of the above. For coolness, you can't beat a screwmount Leica, IMO.

Of course, it all depends on your personal definition of cool. For me, it means which camera would I take most notice of if I saw someone carrying it.

A Rolleiflex is right up there too.

 

[kshapero]

Where is the MP which is the coolest currently availible camera? 😉

Erik, I will always wonder... I love my ZI kit with 25-35-50-90 lenses. But I guess I will always wonder, is the MP that much better?

Erik, of course, I am fantasizing since I am still waiting on the 25.

 

[FrankS]

Photographic proof!

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Photographic proof!

Do not think these are still newly available, only as second hand -
at least thats what I understood from this posting

 

[FrankS]

Oops, my bad.

 

[gb hill]

Bessa L is the coolest! Haven't you all seen the ad in which the young girl is in a long trench coat wearing that Bessa camera sporting that cool finder holding a alligator in one hand. To me thats the coolest! But Retro is where it's at baby! I'm into retro.😉

 

[gb hill]

Photographic proof!

Ya see!....... Retro is the coolest.

 

[xayraa33]

I have to agree with Frank the LTM Leicas look pretty cool.
but the Nikon SP wrote the book on cool looking.
It has been that way for over 50 years now.

the Nikon SP reminds me of that unobtainable girlfriend during the high school years 😱

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Yes, it is a tad frivolous. From my viewpoint I'd prefer the M7. Antiquated but still available and someday maybe I will own one.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Since this idea of a B&W sensor is just guess-work by Mike Johnson, I don't think we can say at this point whether any sort of control would be lost. My imagined version of the camera simply records all values of luminance in RAW and then if you want to modify with B&W color filtration, you could do that at your pleasure during post processing.

To me, the BIG cool idea here is that all those millions of pixels could now be freed up to do just one job, instead of having to do 4 (luminance, R, G, B). It seems that this would allow existing technology to give us 4 times as much information, so long as you're happy with R&W.

 

[briandaly]

Come on Keith, for coolness you have to include at least one view camera in your list of options.

 

[Matthew Allen]

Since this idea of a B&W sensor is just guess-work by Mike Johnson, I don't think we can say at this point whether any sort of control would be lost. My imagined version of the camera simply records all values of luminance in RAW and then if you want to modify with B&W color filtration, you could do that at your pleasure during post processing.

How can you apply colour filters to a true grayscale image in post processing? A 'luminance-only' sensor records images that hold no colour information at all, so applying colour filters has no effect. You can still play with a tone curve and dodge and burn to achieve a particular effect, but if you want a red or yellow filter or whatever then you'll have to put one on your lens.

Matthew

 

[narsuitus]

I don’t understand why the selection was limited to the six cameras which are an odd mixture of rangefinder, SLR, digital, film, and compact cameras. Also, why were medium format and large format cameras omitted?

None of the six cameras listed matched my idea of “cool.” The digital Hasselblad, on the other hand, would have easily met my match.

 

[Eric T]

I know this is a rangefinder forum and I shouldn't have done it. But I had to vote for the Nikon D3. The super-sharp, low noise photos at high iso are simply amazing. This could transform how photography is done under low light conditions.

 

[dreamsandart]

With the list given this is a pretty hard choice compared to all the very cool classic cameras from the 50s/60 and before.

Last year I saw a guy shooting with a couple Bessa and I thought that was neat, he was really into it and using his cameras and that was at least half the cool factor. The Zeiss Ikon is OK, but the rest are just so-so no blood pumping including the 'wish it was a real Leica - M8'.

The limited editions like the would be the winner Nikon SP I guess shouldn't count, and the Leica MP would be the modern production winner (but still a notch below the older Leicas for real cool).

I would have to go with another not listed camera - the ALPA 12. Its VERY COOL and a step back, to the future, with its new lenses, all manual film but digital adaptable use, and superb built quality.

 

[maddoc]

black-chrome Leica M7 🙂

 

[Athos6]

I'm to poor for all of the super fast nikkors, I suck at flash photography, and I always seem to be in the dark, so I chose the D3. Now if I could only afford it 🙂

 

[pvdhaar]

I'm to poor for all of the super fast nikkors, I suck at flash photography, and I always seem to be in the dark, so I chose the D3. Now if I could only afford it

There's no guarantee that if you could afford it, you'd also like it..

Just a couple of days ago, I handled a D300 & 24-70/2.8. A very impressive piece of kit, and my first thought was 'wow, that's cool'..

But then I was struck with a flash of insight; I'll never carry that around for a day, it's as heavy as a boat anchor.. It may be 'cool', but it's no 'fun'.. the D3 will be even worse..