What Cameras Are the most and least FUN?

[Coopersounds]

I find my Yashica C TLR fun to use, and my Ricoh 500gx.
Minolta xd7 was fun.

Least fun have been my Sony Nex7 and various canon DSLR's.

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

My most and least fun camera "round 2"

After my initial post I've done some more thinking and I have 2 more cameras to list up.

A lot of fun - Voigtlander Bessa "T". Well made, feels great in the hand; especially if a grip or triger winder is attached. It puts a smile on my face everytime I use it.

Not so much fun - Fujifilm Klasse (both "W" and "S"). It looks cool, well made, heck, it's down right sophisticated! But, the focusing requires a bit of a leap of faith. One just has to trust that the autofocus did what you wanted it to do.

 

[tunalegs]

Most fun? I think something in the Exa system, at least for a roll or two. Kind of refreshing change of pace. Novel to use, back to basics, but with good viewfinders and good lenses.

Least fun? Maybe also an Exa, after five or so rolls. Mirror black out, limited shutter, fiddly controls...

To be honest I wouldn't know where to start for least fun, there are so many cameras that are simply not fun, and so many more that are actually a pain to use. Bad viewfinders are particularly annoying, one reason I have no love for screw mount Leicas and almost anything else of their era.

 

[roscoetuff]

Most fun: Anything F-I-L-M is magic. Some cameras are easier than others, and some get in your way. Some we can adapt to, others not so easily. I love my Leica M4-2 and M6-TTL film cameras! 'cause they're help and can capture a lot of what I want, and I like all the (annoying to some) manual stuff. There's plenty they can't do (macro shots of flowers and stuff), too, and that annoys me when they're all I've got, and that's the best thing to shoot. Contax S2 comes in handy for that... but it's just a lightbox for some Zeiss CY lenses bought originally for digital that lets me shoot without a lens adapter that puts more glass between the lens and the film plane.

Less fun: Truth be told, it's not that digital is less fun so much as the fun wasn't sustained. With the lerch from one upgrade to another... how can emptying your wallet be fun? So it's the short-lived fun that gets old as it turns you and more specifically... your camera into respectively junk and a junky... though in reverse order. As an example, my Sony A7R2 is now a DSLR scanner as it's everyday job, and it bugs me when it's my best option to capture certain images otherwise. "Really?" "Yeah... no kiddin'." Just the other day, the camera mumbled something as I picked it up, "Hey... where'd the love go?" Dunno. Maybe it died on an overly smooth printed image somewhere.

 

[summar]

Most fun? Perhaps my 86-year-old Graflex SLR, going back to the very basics. Two shutter speed adjustments, no instant-return mirror, completely manual (not even pre-set) lens, sheet film. But great results with the right subject and if you remember to do everything, in the right order of course.

 

[Ronald M]

No fun=mirrorless. Tried an old Sony years ago, Leica SL a few months, better but no cigar.
Little fun=consumer grade cameras, any kind.
most fun = almost everything else, Zone 6 4x5, Leica RF digital and film, Nikon F2 and all their digitals slr.

 

[Contarama]

F2
Df
Basically any camera that works is fun at least for a minute.

Any camera that does not work is not fun at all. Crop camera is not much fun either.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

My most fun list:
Nikon CoolPix 995
Canon PowerShot SD1000
Sony A7ii
Sony Nex-7

I had the 995 so long my wife asked when I was going to upgrade it.
I have 4 SD1000's and don't leave home without one. They work great for recording accident info when out on the road.
The A7ii takes all the different manual lenses I have and gives great results when I pay attention to the details of taking a picture.
The Nex-7 convinced me to get the A7ii.
If I could afford to shoot film I'm pretty sure the M3 would make the list eventually too.

 

[steveyork]

For 35mm,

Leicaflex SL -- magical mix of micro prisms create almost a 3-d effect. Heavy but great lenses. High mag. viewfinder with good eye relief.

Leica M3 -- Viewfinder big and contrasty. Great, overpriced lenses, but plenty of third party stuff in native M mount or via adapters.

Nikon S2 -- 1:1 contrasty viewfinder, small, compact, light dimensions. Plus inherent reliability, once serviced.

Zeiss Ikon Contax II -- for history, and always surprised by the quality of pre-war Sonnars. Plus the long base, massive and contrasty rangefinder patch is unique. And who doesn't love the bokeh of Zeiss Sonnars?

Honorable mention: Canon FTB, Canon L1

Dislikes: All cameras are capable to taking great pictures, but I've had lots of cameras come and go through the house in the past decades. The Contarex Bullseye was a beast when I acquired it, remained a beast as I put film through it, and a beast when I sold it. Recently sold a Nikon S3 because the rangefinder patch was too vague for my taste. Never been a big fan of Nikon F series SLRs either (F, F3), because their viewfinder magnification is less then a Leicaflex. Never bonded with the 0.72 Leicas and I tried for many years (M4, M5, M6, M7, MP); plus way over priced for my pedestrian photos. Topcon R was too quirky, though good lenses, but I liked the original Canonflex SLR until I found out the lenses were slightly radioactive. Didn't like the aperture priority of the R7 (or F3), plus viewfinder wasn't as good as the Leicaflex. Contax D was a very cool SLR camera, with that whirling disc, but scratch my eyeglasses and somewhat archaic. The FM series of the Nikons had too squinty of a viewfinder, as did the post war Contax rangefinders. Leica R6 was ok, but nothing special. Leicaflex SL2, inherent unreliability at higher shutter speeds resulting in blanks. Others too.

 

[sepiareverb]

Saw this come up and thought "The Canham 810 of course". Turns out that's what I said a year ago.

 

[Nokton48]

My old Plaubel Makina and Makiflexes. I struggle with these, that's what I like; the challenge of it all.

And they deliver big time.

 

[LCSmith]

Monorail cameras aren't much fun. Not a bit of fun on hot, sweltering days. Nope. Not designed for fun at all. Not one bit.

In fact, I have found that to be true of every large format camera I have used. There's nothing fun about it. You might think they would be fun. In the beginning you think they seem fun. Then comes the bit with the loading of the holders and the unloading of the holders, not to mention the composing upside-down tricky bit. Then there's the sloshing your hands around in chemicals bit, shuffling those precious bits of plastic through their precious little chemical bath. Careful not to scratch! Careful not to overdevelop! Nope, not a bit of fun.

As for the fun cameras, well, for me that is the Leica M3/2/4 and a cloudy fall morning in old Manhatto, sauntering around the city scene freshly caffeinated and full of photographic fervor. Snap, step, snap, step, snappy snappity snap. Ha! I've snapped it all! And at the end of the day the tension of drying films, and the temptation of the hairdryer -- must resist! Must remember the tragedy of Capa's frames and the folly of Icarus! But damn, it does look like I got that one just right; at least it does in the pale moonlight.