What camera are you?

Great thread. In my year of birth Leica reintroduced the IIIa, Contax had its first SLR, the Contax S, and Canon-then the Precision Optical Co.- brought out the Canon SII. On a more pedestrian level there were the Kodak Retina II and the Brownie Six-20. Bless me, this is ancient history, archeology rather! 😱
 
hugivza said:
I'm totally stuffed as a child of 1942. I think that oldest camera I have is either a Zeiss Ikonta with a Zeiss Opton Tessar, which is probably immediately post WWII, or an Zeiss Ikoflex I circa 1948. I was unable to take photos at birth, being less precocious than some, but probably could have at the age of 6 if I had a camera. It certainly would not have been one which would have graced these forums!!
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There is the Hasselblad Rossex. And you were born in the year that the greatest film ever, Casablanca, was released!
The picture comes from THIS site
 
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1981 . . . Canon AE-1 Program came along that year. Funny, or maybe just totally logical, that the AE-1 was the ubiquitous camera of my childhood. It was my mother's camera, and was present pretty much constantly until only maybe 5 years ago. Then she gave it to me, and I put it somewhere "safe". Never put anything anywhere safe.
 
The Kine Exakta would be me. I own a later model - the Exakta VXlla from about 1956. The same year I was born came the Contax ll and that same year plans were formulated to introduce a new kind of Contax camera - the Contax S, a reflex camera. Wonderful year for cameras .
 
October 1950

In October 1950, David Duncan during a visit to New York goes public with the news of how Nikkor lenses were superior to German lenses. <snip> Nippon Kogaku and Nikkor become then famous outside Japan. This boosted the Japanese camera industry.
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Oh yeah and I was born too, and THAT boosted the German AND Japanese camera industries for decades to come!
 
Other than Canon becoming Canon Inc, and some televised event of a landing (allegedly shot in a studio) a few miles away on some rock... 1969 doesn't seem to offer much.
 
Well, this is a big decision. 1939 was an intresting year.

I could be an Argus C3. My Grandfather had one of those and took hundreds of slides. No light meter, just used the chart that came with the film. I have a C3 in my collection - good solid simple camera.

I could also be a Pilot Super SLR. Neat MF camera. Very simple and rugged. I don't have one of these.

Most exotic would be the Riken Gokoku No. 1. A MF camera that looks a lot like a Leica. I'd love to have one of these in my collection!

Guess I'll go with the C3. It's me - simple, rugged, long lasting!
 

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Ok, 1966 was actually a pretty interesting year. According to various websites the following cameras were introduced:
The Olympus PEN EE-EL, EES-EL, FT, FV Quickmatic 3.5 and 2.8 as well as the 35LE
The Rollei 35
The Yashica Electro 35
The Nikon F
... and there are more, but mostly slrs/medium format.


But ultimately I think I'm a lens because in 1966 Leica introduced (from the Leica website):
The LEICA NOCTILUX 1:1.2/50 mm is the first 35mm camera [I assume they mean lens] with an aspherical element.

Cheers,
Alex
 
Olympus Wide (1955)
In 1955 Olympus introduced the Olympus Wide. Designed specifically for wide-angle photography, the Olympus Wide was an Olympus 35V camera fitted with a wide-angle lens. To facilitate framing, the camera featured a natural-light bright-frame finder. The Olympus Wide became hugely popular because it provided an easy way to take superb, wide-angle photographs that had previously only been possible using expensive cameras with exchangeable lenses. The Olympus Wide helped to pioneer the subsequent wide-angle camera boom.

nemjo

ps.: - Kodak began selling color films without the cost of processing included, as the result of a consent decree signed in 1954. The long-term result was the creation of a new market for Kodak, providing products and services to independent photofinishers.
 

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1975 - I guess I'm a Canon F1 (and here I am trying to get rid of my F1N's, I guess I'll be locked into the FD mount now forever. 😉 )

Interestingly, the first CCD based flatbed scanner was released the same year. As was a CCD based astro camera.

The OM2, and AE1 were also released that year - but I'm not a huge auto exposure fan, so I couldn't roll with those.

Leica *stopped* production of both the M4 and M5 in 75.. can I choose one of them?
 
If I were a camera bag in the year I was born, I'd be carrying a Leica IIIf, Nikon S, and Hasselblad 1000f. I could do a lot worse.

I am actually looking for a Leica IIIf made on the same day in 1953 that I was born. That would be something....
 
Unfortunately, in 1971, not a whole lot of exciting Olympus was made 🙁

If I have to choose from the slim pickings, I am the 35 DC

Pro: Good lens
Cons: No (manual) control

heh, I don't wear glasses and I am a scatter-brain, sounds like me alright 😀
 

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My choices are mostly SLR:
  • Nikon F3
  • Nikon F3HP
  • Pentax LX
  • Pentax ME-F (world's first TTL Autofocus SLR!)
  • Bronica SQ
  • Mamiya ZE / ZE-Quartz
  • Konica FC-1
  • Minolta CLE
  • Rollei SL 2000F
  • Minolta XD-11 (model d)
  • After 15 pages of results on Google, I got tired of looking...
I don't really know anything about that list of cameras there, so I guess if I had to pick one that was "me", it'd be the Bronica. Why? The wife is always saying I'm square... 🙁
 
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