What Cameras Are the most and least FUN?

[nightfly]

Most Fun:
Leica M4-P, M9 or anything that stays out of your way and lets you do what you want.
Holga (no options just shoot)
Ricoh GR (film) aperture priority, SNAP mode, a little negative exposure compensation and a roll of Tri-X
Rolleicord V cool, light, not too futzy for a TLR good shots

Least Fun:
Fuji XE-2 (fought it the whole time)
Yashica T4 (loved it but pushing the button 4 times to make sure the flash is off each and every time was infuriating)
Contax T (barn door is stupid)
Rollei 35 (too many dials in too small a camera)
Any digital that thinks it knows what you want including my iPhone

 

[PhotoGog]

Original Canon F-1 (1971). It's like taking a Panzer tank out for a spin with this baby on your shoulder. Bad ass mechanics.

 

[Pablito]

Most fun would be any working FSU camera. It's great to have someone rush up to get a look at your "Leica".

Least fun is a non-working FSU camera.

PF

Never saw one that worked. For long, anyway.

 

[skucera]

I chimed in last August, and since then I've bought several cameras. Only one of them has been fun enough to shoot more than one roll of film through, an Olympus IS-1. It's a super zoom SLR with every trick in the book, and it takes really beautiful photos. Of course, the cameras I turn to most are still my Leica M3 and my iPhone, but this huge IS-1 calls its siren song to me sometimes.

Scott

 

[gnuyork]

Mine is the M6. I shoot a lot of digital, and when I take out the M6 it's a pleasure to look through the viewfinder and the sound and click of the shutter is also very nice.

That being said, I recently got a Rolleiflex, and I think that might be up there with fun factor. I haven't processed my first few film rolls from it yet though... so the verdict is out.

I also enjoy my Wista 4x5, but only when I get the motivation to carry everything i need for it in the field, which is not often. But when I do get it out and take photos with it, I wonder to myself why I don't do it more.

Of my digital cams, the Leica X1 is by far my favorite for walking around.

Least fun? I don't know, probably any DSLR - just not as inspiring, though I can't argue with the results I get from them. Also the Sigma DP2M is a serious pain in the butt, but oh so worth the trouble with the files I get from it. Probably my best digital camera ever as far as files.

 

[dtcls100]

Most fun: Olympus 35SP, OM series cameras, Nikon F6, Mamiya 6 (smooth, refined feel, quiet).

Medium fun: Nikon FM3a, Nikon FE2 (don't like clacky shutters)

Least fun: Canon A-1, AE-1 (recurring shutter squeal, poor shutter release, distracting red LED display in A-1 viewfinder), most digital.

 

[KenR]

Most fun - just about anything with film from 35mm to large format.

Least fun - Mamiya C330 - heavy and a bit fiddly but great results
- Bronica RF645 - bought new to replace the C330 - kept breaking on me
- old folders - I can never remember to cock the shutter, although I am fine with large format lenses.

 

[Richard G]

Wow. That SX-70 ad is fantastic.

I agree.

When I received a National Endowment in the Arts in the '70s I was not rolling in dough -- but.

The first thing I spent my grant on -- was rush over to Berkey Photo and buy an SX-70 and a pile of color polaroid.

No other camera has ever made such a satisfying sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOT7SwSgq2U


As a sad note:
The NEA expired this month. We are now the only country (I know of) in the developed world without a federal arts presence.

 

[Rob-F]

Leica Rangefinders.
Fuji X100 (very Leica-like, in my mind).
Nikon FE2, FM3a
Hasselblad XPAN
Hasselblad SWC
Hasselblad 500C/M with certain lenses.
Today I am missing my Rolleiflex. It must have been fun!

 

[Keith]

I have one camera that has a fun factor that I regard as immeasurable and that is my Crown Graphic, hand held. 🙂

Everything else just takes photos!

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

My most fun film camera is my Bessaflex TM. There is no shooting from the hip with this camera, I have to be completly involved with the process or else the results suck.

My most fun digital camera is my Sigma SD1 Merrill. Mainly because it has no frills. Also, I just like the way it feels in my hand and the way it sounds when the shutter is released. And, I love the results I get from this camera too.

My least fun film camera is the Contax G2. I truly like the G2; it looks cool and feels good in my hand, but it's just to easy to use. Point, shoot, move on... go through a role of film in no time.

Least fun digital was a Panasonic LX7. The body was to small for my hands and the results (images) were too soft.

 

[Keith]

My most fun film camera is my Bessaflex TM. There is no shooting from the hip with this camera, I have to be completly involved with the process or else the results suck.

My most fun digital camera is my Sigma SD1 Merrill. Mainly because it has no frills. Also, I just like the way it feels in my hand and the way it sounds when the shutter is released. And, I love the results I get from this camera too.

My least fun film camera is the Contax G2. I truly like the G2; it looks cool and feels good in my hand, but it's just to easy to use. Point, shoot, move on... go through a role of film in no time.

Least fun digital was a Panasonic LX7. The body was to small for my hands and the results (images) were too soft.

Interesting to read your comments about your SD1M ... aside from the quirkiness of the camera's software I rate it as the best DSLR I have ever held in my hands. And yes ... the shutter sound is totally unique in my opinion. And of course results from that amazing sensor speak for themselves. 🙂

 

[mdarnton]

My most fun camera is my 5x7 Ansco view, but it's not versatile; if I had to give everything else away and keep just one, it would be the most versatile, my Nikon FG and 50mm lens; the camera I use the most is a Leica M4 and 50mm lens, because I'm the most comfortable with it.

 

[creenus]

Right now it's a Leica M2 with a Type 3 50mm Summicron. So basic, so pleasurable. The viewfinder is nice and bright, and the frame lines seems - I dunno - somewhat primitive, like a toy but in a good way.

I enjoy guesstimating the exposure and checking it against a Gossen DigiSix - I'm pretty close most times, and that's fun to me. It's all about light, film, depth of field and so on. I shoot black and white film, and I carry it inside my briefcase to work.

Brings me back to my first Leica, a iiic with a collapsing 50 'Cron, and learning how to shoot back in the 1970s. I cannot help but think that it's the very limitations of rangefinders that allows one to focus on form, composition and the play of light and shadow.

Years ago I bought a Chinese Seagull TLR, and it fell to pieces rather quickly 😱 - that was not fun!

 

[FrozenInTime]

Least fun -
Hasselblad Flex-Body
Tried and sold on - I'm sure every body made has had at least five owners.
The loss of the auxiliary shutter necessitates a complex viewing, arming , taking and winding sequence and multiple uses of the dark slide per shot.

Most fun -
A compact modern digital like the GX80 m43 - fun to use but easily overwhelming in quantity and not as considered or as rewarding in the end as film or digital rangefinder.

Happiest with results from -
Hasselblad 500 series with film
Leica M film and digital.

 

[someonenameddavid]

The fun/no fun dichotomy for me is illustrated by much Rolleicord Va and Vb. Very similar cameras, except my Va is a beater and my Vb is pristine : I love the results but I'm too afraid to scratch the Vb

 

[SteveM]

This thread is fun to read!

Most fun:
Nikon F2 - heavier and chunkier than my FM3a, but somehow way more fun
Rollei 35SE - fun for exactly the reaon others don't like it - so small and all those fiddly dials, but stunning lens
Rolleiflex K4B - mechanically delightful, swiss watch camera
Bronica RF645 - medium format in a compact and wonderfully ergonomic package. My favourite MF camera by far.
Olympus E-1 - great in the hand, reliable, fabulous images but not up to today's resolution
Leica M4-P - solid performer, but not quite as much fun as the ones above

Least fun:
Canon A1 - pepper grinder film advance, electronic point and shoot, least reliable camera I've had
Old folders - not bad, but just less fun because it's easy to forget something (did I wind on?)
Olympus OM-2n - sacrilege to say this here, but just didn't bond. Shows how personal these things are

Steve

 

[ACullen]

Most fun, in no particular order

Contax 139 - beautifully made camera ( until it fell apart)
Leica M2 - I'm astounded how good this is to use
Rolleiflex 3.5F- brighter finder and easier focusing than my Yashica Mat 124
Agfa Isolette II so light and simple, astonishing Solinar lens.

Worst and least fun cameras

Nikon F70- a design disaster, still can't believe I stopped using my 139 to use this AF piece of junk
Nikon D70- seemed cool at the time but in retrospect another piece of junk
Zenith EM- this I thought ,was a heavy piece of junk when I was just 13 and starting. Now I realise that it was in fact very cool even if the view finder took dim to a whole new level.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Most fun are definitely my various lightweight truly pocketable 35's.

Among my larger cameras I would rank my Pentax KX and KM, and CV Bessa R cameras next.
I'm trying once again to have some fun with a Fuji X100 as well; it's my second attempt...

Chris

 

[goamules]

Most fun of all the myriad of 35mm cameras I've shot: Voigtlander Vitessa
Least fun, jury is still out.