What Cameras Are the most and least FUN?

As much as I enjoy Digital Harinezumi, Lomo LC-A, LC-A 120 and Holga, I actually accomplish more with Ricoh GR, Panasonic DMC-GM5 w/kit lens and Sony A7.

Still undecided about Lomo LC-Wide.

Really like the Lomo's clicky focus control - no need to look, just count the number of clicks.

Disappointed so far: Olympus 15mm body cap / toy lens: Brilliant idea, but ugly in bright / harsh lighting conditions. But totally worth the premium versus a standard body cap, which offers no entertainment value at all.
 
most fun in the moment: M9 + flash for this "in your face" party pics, i also used a konica A4 (big mini) which sadly died recently
least fun: Praktica BC1
 
Most fun in no order
M7,M8,Nikon FE2,Nikon F100
Least Fun I Phone
Most reliable All have been reliable
Most fun right now is a Nikon FE2 I have just purchased. First good camera I owned was a Nikon FE.
 
Most Fun: Leica M and Barnack in general

Don't think too much, carry one or two all time, and shoot anything.

Also Mamiya 7 was really really fun. Shoot like M, even quieter shutter and large prints with it was oh so delicious. I wish I still had it.


Least Fun: Hasselblad 500 series

Love the picture quality, but just heavy to carry, slow to shoot, and shutter release is very noisy. I tried a few times in the last 10 - 15 years or so, but the platform never really spoke to me.
 
Most fun cameras (in no particular order):

  • Mamiya C220f (TLRs are big fun)
  • Pentax 67 (made my best ever image with it, and it's big!)
  • Pentax LX (sooo nice, sooo smooth)
  • Leica MD-2 with Snapshot Skopar 4/25 (focussing? Nah...)
  • Leica M6 (feels great in any way)

Least fun:

  • FED-2 (worst viewfinder I know, bad handling; ok, it's old...)
  • smartphone cameras (awkward handling, no viewfinder, poor IQ unless used in very good light)

I find it interesting that I put none of my DSLRs (K3, D7000) in either group...
 
Hi,

Well, I don't know about fun but the most enjoyable are those like the Pentax K1000 and Leica Digilux 2 where you just think for a second before you take the photo and everything is to hand and where you'd expect it.

There's one or two automatic ones I'd include in this like the Olympus 35 SP, some APS ones and the ZLR's Olympus created that went on to inspire bridge cameras. And those clever little P&S's we try not to mention but carry everyday.

The least fun are those with screens only at the back that you wave about in front of you and squint to see the framing, and others where the system is controlled by a weird menu system that likes springing surprises.

But most of them are in the middle; some are fun in that people come up and start chatting but that's not fun in the photographic mode...

Regards, David
 
Fun and frustrating in equal measure, the Leica O-Serie replica.

Only used a borrowed one for a couple of rolls, which were half okay, half duds.

Most fun ever, any field camera with movements.
 
Fun? A Leica M? I don't get that. I see my M2 as a wonderful machine, but when I look at the face of it, with those windows, I see a fierce intelligence, an indomitable will, a ruthless persistence and the subtle hand of an assassin. I don't see fun at all. But then my M2 doesn't have a self-timer. The brutalist M5 is only fun as the other M owners make fun of it. I don't see my M5 as fun, except for the effect it has on the unenlightened members of RFF.

Any Polaroid has to top the list of fun cameras. Any SLR is a bit more fun, looking through the viewfinder. A TLR is fun for the same reason, particularly seeing around corners. The attachments like the Rolleinars add to the fun.

My X100 is fun, mimicking an old rangefinder in form but blitzing ahead of some clunky DSLRs at the same time. Maybe any digital camera is fun, for the same reason as the Polaroid. Lomos must be fun.

View cameras are fun, especially if there is cloth to hood the photographer.

The Hexar AF is fun. The obscure combination of button presses to confound the DX reader, to fix focus at infinity, to offer manual focus, and to turn on stealth mode.

I think we need a lesson in fun here.
 
lynnb said:
The most fun cameras I've used are instant film cameras, of whatever type. I think if I had an SX-70 it would be that, for its close focus capability compared to my Polaroid 600 One Step (and for its better lens). The Polaroid 250 I borrowed was pretty cool too. Really liked FP-3000B. Dammit Fuji! But the Impossible new bw 600 film is not too bad.
Click to expand...

The other cameras I think are the most fun are:
- Barnacks, because they feel great in the hand, the lenses are great and they get friendly interest whenever people notice them (which is not often, and that is part of the fun).
- MF folders. So much bang for the buck - I love the Perkeo II for its petite size and the Bessa II for its superb large negs.
- OM1/OM4 for their size, egonomics and wonderful viewfinders. And lenses.
- XA. Shirt pocket, aperture priority, so easy.
- 6D with EF 40mm f2.8 STM pancake. Amazingly compact and capable full frame package, great in low light.

Least fun
- Yashica Electro 35 GSN. Large, hard to focus, but a great lens. Never bonded.
- Topcon RE Super. Large solid brick, well built but not pretty.
- any electronics-laden film camera
- any APS-C DSLR with small viewfinder
 
Another vote for the M6. It makes me smile just to look at it and even more so to use it. I've been using it for so long that it is intuitive.
And I actually like using film. Everything from the smell of a fresh opened roll to the excitement of seeing your developed film.
I also like working at a slower, more mindful pace.

I should also add my son's Yashicamat 124. TLRs are so much fun to use, if I could just get the "left is right, right is left" thing down.

I just got a Mamiya Six Auto-Mat that I think I'm really going to like, but I haven't put film through it yet so it can't officially make this list.


Least fun - anything with an electronic viewfinder, like the ones you try out when you are in Best Buy or similar stores. It's like eating spagetti-o's cold, from the can. It'll get the job done, but there is very little pleasure in doing it.
 
BillBingham2 said:
The most fun is the SX-70.

B2 (;->
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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.
 
$2.5 each time I press the shutter? Doesn't sound like much fun to me. No thank you, SX-70. :eek:

I'm having a lot of fun lately with Fuji Instax (50 Cents/shot) and cheap point & shoot film cameras. No composition, you just vaguely point them in the direction of the action and take a few shots. Very liberating!

Least fun: any digital camera!
 
My Favorite Cameras (FUN and STYLE):

1) Deardorff 5x7 and old Brass Petzval lenses- It's beat up, and beautiful

2) Leica M4 Black Paint w/35mm Summicron Ver.II- Again, it's beat up, and beautiful

3)Leica MP Black Paint w/21mm Super-Elmar ASPH - just plain good and works flawlessly

4)Rolleiflex 2.8 F - Simple and clean and so compact compared to a Hasselblad (in my opinion).
 
Fun:
Bessa-R, the viewfinder is the best bang for the buck in the interchangeable lens RF kingdom.

Yashica Electro 35, I just love this series. Currently shooting a 35 MC.

Canon V,VI series, the best peep-hole type viewfinder in the interchangeable lens RF kingdom, with fun 3 select-able view modes.

Zorki-1 and Kiev-4a, affordable, reliable, and durable models.

Not so fun:
Any TLR
 
1. Leica M3 and M2 - simplicity and quality and lens are the best and tiny.
2. Olympus OM1n - ergonomicaly as good as Leica, fits in my hand comfortably, small lenses.
3. Rolleiflex 75/3.5 - small, ultra high quality, simple.
4. Leica SL - The viewfinder, Olympus is as good too in this regard. Solidity.

Least fun... Mmm... Any digital -- it's just not REAL.
 
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