Welcome To The Camera Collector

Hi Everybody, I'm just getting started here so please let me know what's on your mind so I can get a handle on posting replies and content. As you may know I'm an expert on analog photography with vintage cameras, but 60% of what I shoot is digital using some of the latest gear, and I've written countless reviews and test reports on current cameras and lenses so (almost) anything goes. My goal is to make this informative and fun.

Cheers, Jason Schneider

 

[jmilkins]

Oooh this is going to be bad for GAS.......but Welcome, Jason! I'm interested in thoughts on targeted (e/g one make) or scatter gun approaches to collecting.

Before the film renaissance sent prices soaring again I purchased mid 90s film cameras that I just couldn't afford 30 years ago. Now, I should probably sell them before the crash....but it is not easy to do.

 

[Dralowid]

I gave up collecting still cameras when they became too expensive, well the ones I wanted did...however...
my collection of clockwork standard (or double) 8 movie cameras continues to grow.

Welcome Jason, are you familiar with the world of Blanchard et Jourjon, Heurtier or even Leveque or am I the only one?!

 

[raydm6]

Welcome Jason! What a coincidence!

I wasn't familiar with you but I was just reading your article last week: "My 3 Favorite Vintage Cameras: Why Shooting with Analog Classics Is So Much Fun!" coming across it doing research on a Rolleiflex Automat MX EVS.

I own a 'Cord Vb but always wanted a 'Flex and am currently toying with the idea.

I also have a little Exakta/Exa gas, and own a Varex VX, Exa 0, and have an Exa 1a on the way and was hoping to take the throttle off the GAS 😀

Welcome and look forward to you presence here at RFF!

 

[Brian Atherton]

Welcome, Jason!

So nice to be reacquainted with you (so to speak) after so long.

As a photographer in the UK just starting out I always eagerly awaited the next edition of Modern and Popular, even though they cost me an arm and a leg. I learned so much from the mags and your writing in those early days.

So… a belated and heartfelt BIG, BIG THANK YOU from me to you for those early days. I have never forgotten them.

You have a wealth of experience and knowledge. Anything you impart will be of interest, I’m sure. Just treat RFF like a magazine column but with instant feedback. 🙂

 

[Abbazz]

What a wonderful surprise, Jason, I'm so glad you are here! I had to give away my collection of Modern Photography, so I bought your books "Jason Schneider on camera collecting." I love your style and the fact that you talk about little known cameras.

Welcome to RFF!

Cheers!

Abbazz

 

[CMur12]

Welcome, Jason! I, too, remember you from your days at Modern Photography (especially) and Popular Photography, too.

My love of TLRs goes back to a Kodak Duaflex IV I had as a kid. I like the mechanical simplicity of these cameras (no moving mirror) and their vibrationless operation.

Though I have a couple of Rolleiflexes, my favorites are my Minolta Autocords and Mamiyas. I think the Mamiya TLR system is brilliant and it reflects a very original and pragmatic approach to TLR design, one which seems to take more from large format/view camera design than from that of other TLRs.

I'm really pleased to find you here and I look forward to your contributions.

- Murray

 

[leicapixie]

Welcome Jason!
i am a user of film cameras and film,
but most urgent needs are digital, small cameras or phone.
i have lots of film cameras mostly donated or very small monies involved.
Mostly SLR and lenses that have and are fun to use!
So boxes of "working" stuff from Nikon,Canon,Minolta and Pentax.
Most of "us" are indeed collectors esp. the somewhat frenitic fanatical
Solms-Wetzlar gruppe! (O Canada! i live here).
My M3 was purchased new in 1967...M2 in 71...M6TTL in 2000.
lets roll..

 

[Ambro51]

GOOD. Camera Collectors take the back seat to Pho-to-graph-ers soooooo often. But Goodness, how many “best six cameras of all times” can be written? Mr. Schneider, please go out of the Box here and delve deeply into the rare and esoteric.

 

[dmr]

You're no stranger to me at all! Welcome. I've always found your columns interesting.

I'm really a user, not a collector, but I do have somewhat of a collection. 🙂

 

[LCSmith]

Apologia Collectoris?

Apologia Collectoris?

Hi Everybody, I'm just getting started here so please let me know what's on your mind so I can get a handle on posting replies and content. My goal is to make this informative and fun.

Cheers, Jason Schneider

I think many "non-collectors" (i.e. hoi polloi) -- myself included -- would benefit from a simple primer in the virtue of collecting cameras, why it is not a "miserly" exercise, the aims of collections and collectors, etc. To those who do not collect things, collections seem like private personal museums.

Thanks, and welcome!

 

[Archiver]

Hello Jason! Welcome to RFF! Please feel free to post whatever thoughts about camera collecting and various cameras you may have.


My collection isn't terribly focused, it mainly revolves around cameras that either take my fancy, or have some utility. To wit, random film cameras from 70s SLR's and Leica rangefinders are things that take my fancy, and modern digital cameras are what I need for work.

 

[markjwyatt]

Welcome!

I try not to collect cameras/lenses, but buy interesting items to shoot. In the end it starts looking like a collection!

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

OLD age SUCKS!


I owe you an apology Jason.
The post about your article about trading up camera's triggered a memory. I actually read that article. Another life time ago I subscribed to Modern and Popular mags. Boy that was a long time ago.
Sorry I didn't place you when I replied earlier.
WELCOME!
Looking forward to reading more from you.

 

[Red Rock Bill]

Back in the day I would read your column first thing....I also have the 3 books you put out on collecting cameras.Good old fun days.St. Vincent DePaul thrift shops gave up many a camera for little money. Not to mention swap meets at the old drive in theaters....fun times back in the 60s up to the late 70s.....then stuff started going to Japan and the prices went up.Shutter Bug Ads was a low budget stapled together mag with many interesting articles..
I still have a few copies with prices that seem unreal now. Welcome aboard Jason.
kind regards,
Bill

 

[robert blu]

I'm more a camera user than a camera collector but it's always nice to have real experts on RFF. I'm sure I'll benefit from your writing. Welcome to RFF!

PS: and yes, if money and space are no problem there are cameras I would like to collect 🙂

 

[ranger9]

Welcome, Jason! I've had many years of enjoyment from your camera-collector columns and books (although so many pages have come loose from the bindings that I'm not sure they qualify as “books” anymore... more like loose-leaf folios!)

Here's something on which I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts: Given that today everyone (in some sense) is a photographer and everything (your phone, your doorbell, your thermostat) is a camera — what motivates you, personally, to make pictures?

 

[largedrink]

Welcome Jason! I am not familiar with your column on collecting, it would be great if those articles were available somehow for newbies like myself to read. One camera manufacturer I'd love to hear your thoughts on is RoBoT. I have a couple of the Royal 36 and also the Star, with lenses and some viewfinders. They are fascinating cameras and there's not a lot of information online about them.

 

[Schuter]

Mr. Schneider,

Welcome to the forum. It’s a pleasure to have you aboard. This forum appears to have a favorable ratio of knowledge to opinion, a rare quality today. Moreover, when disagreements arise, the discourse is usually more civil than that which one would find in other forums.

I participate relatively little, but I check new posts almost daily. Yours is a familiar name to me, and I value your experience and opinions. Our interests seem to align quite well. I started shooting professionally around 1990, and prior to that I devoured all the information I could find on equipment. After a decade I burned out and changed careers, left in the dust by the digital revolution. It took 15 years to learn to enjoy it again.

I generally shoot digital for color, and film for black and white. The digital world has removed the burden of perfection from film photography and embracing both with their respective strengths and limitations has been fun. I never intended to be a collector, as I derive more pleasure from using the cameras. That said, they seem to multiply when I’m not looking. My dear wife has stopped asking, “Why do you need another…” as she now understands that need has nothing to do with it.

I look forward to your insights and images in the following categories: Rollei TLRs, screw-mount Leicas, analog Nikons, and particularly the marriage of old glass and new cameras.

Best regards.

 

[farlymac]

Jason, good to have you join RFF. I remember reading your articles, and hoping some day to have my own collection of photography gear.

Well, that has happened twice, as I had to divest myself of my original collection due to circumstances beyond my control. I've amassed a second collection to replace the first, but find myself in the position of wanting to reduce it in order to regain some usable space in the apartment.

Some rare and/or odd cameras I've donated to the Camera Heritage Museum in Staunton, VA. One outfit that I miss though is the Lordomat that took me over a year to put together after a member here gave me one of the cameras (C-35). But they didn't have one, so it was a welcome addition to their displays.


Lordomat Grouping by P F McFarland, on Flickr

I look forward to your future posts.

PF

 

[Ambro51]

Mr. Schneider, here’s a collector camera ready for an article. ! The Contura Stereo Camera. Now, there’s a research challenge!

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