what is the longest you have held onto a piece of photography equipment?

[kshapero]

Got this idea from Nanthor.
Anyway I found a way to stop GAS. Trick out your rig with so many extras, cameraleather, customized wheels, etc. so it will too expensive to sell. Huh? Cool, right?😱

 

[jsrockit]

About 4-5 years... a Leica M6 in the 90s.

 

[kshapero]

Nikkormat FTN since 74. M6 since 2007. Too embarrassed to say about the others.

 

[Matus]

Well, I am not old enough to impress with decades here, but I have the Tachihara 4x5 since 2005 (I got my first own camera in 2003 - digital P&S and sold it 2 years later). Actually I have my old DSLR a little bit longer - but it has TON of dead pixels and bad AF, so I am actually just looking for the way how to get rid of it 😱

But I promise that if I ever buy a Rolleiflex again, I will not sell it anymore.

 

[21-135 Apo All Good]

I have a Gossen Luna Pro that I bought when I was just 12 years old, for $90.00 and now I'm 52, so that's 40 years!

I have a wooden dowel covered in electrical tape being used as a camera hand grip since Dad installed a 1/4-20 screw into it over 45 years ago!

Give me more time--I'll think of more stuff that's been around since before the Apollo Space program!

 

[Photon42]

Probably my FM2 non-n, I bought new in Winter 1982/83 with all my money I had at that time, so I needed to borrow a lens to make it a useful investment 😱 I have it retired now, as the unimaginable has happened: it finally broke down with mirror not returning anymore.

Ivo

 

[ray*j*gun]

My Nikkormat (one of three) was with me in Vietnam.....late 60's.

 

[Nikon Bob]

The first film camera I bought. Yashica 230 AF, had it 23 years. Have most of the others too.

Bob

 

[LeicaM3]

Got a Leica M3 when I was 8 from a relative who worked for 40+ years at Leica.

Developed my first roll of apx100 in rodinal then and still use the same combo, although my stock of agfa is running low.

So, it's over 30 years now and will be many more (I hope).

 

[VictorM.]

I have a finder and hood from an Acall 35/3.5 that I bought with the lens ($17.50, lens, finder, hood in a baby blue case!) in 1967. I also have a Leica IIIf bought in 1969.

 

[gavinlg]

5-6 years - Canon 5d.

 

[jdriffill]

An Agfa Super Silette that I bought second hand for £10 in 1966. Still have it.

It was the only camera I had until 1999 when it broke down while travelling in Japan. The focusing ring came loose. That really opened the floodgates!

I had the Super Silette repaired and the lens cleaned, and it still works OK, but the shutter is sticky at low speeds. You can still pick them up for £10! This one has a 45mm f3.5 Apotar lens with a Prontor SVS shutter, so its not the top-of the-line model. Recently I bought a Super Silette with the 50mm f2 Solagon lens with a Synchro Compur shutter.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Shouldn't have sold my Perkeo I - had it since a teenager - about 55 years ago.
Still have and use a Weston EuroMaster exposure meter I bought in England about 1959 and a Nikkormat FTn I bought in New Zealand about 1968.

 

[Bob Michaels]

About 40 years on a Leitz Tiltall tripod. It is still my primary tripod.

 

[River Dog]

37 years. Still got the Canon FTBn from my 18th birthday. It's in Spain at the moment. I must get it home and try it out one of these days.

 

[celluloidprop]

I got my Bronica SQ-A from KEH about two years after my first 35mm SLR - so I think 10 years now? Maybe 11.

 

[Chris101]

OM-1n and 50mm f/3.5 since Fall 1985, bought new.

Burke and James "Grover" 5x7 since 1978, but it's much older than that.

 

[dct]

ferrania ibis 6/6

ferrania ibis 6/6

I got my ferrania ibis 6/6 (6x6 P&S with collapsible fixed lens) around 1965 as a gift from a pro photographer, a friend of my dad.
The latest roll of 120 Delta 100 is just now on the way to the photo lab.

 

[Andrea Taurisano]

A Hasselblad 6x6 and a XPan, both about 5 years. My current M9-P is going to shatter that record though.

 

[Tom A]

A M2 in black paint (some even remaining on it)bought new in 1964/65. Rebuilt a couple of times.
Two Leica M4P's - both bought new in 1981. Looks a bit worse for wear.
Elmarit 28f2.8 vIII - bought new in 1981.
An old Agfa Silette (i think thats the designation), gift in 1960 - my first foray into 120 film at that time.
A decrepit Nikon F, given to me by the original owner in the late 60's , black paint, eye level prism At one time I covered up the brassing with some heavy duty black paint and a bad brush. Still works OK.
Using stuff commercially usually meant that you traded things in for upgraded models/lenses. Hence the low count of long term ownership. These days I pick up stuff and keep what I want - dispose of the rest.
I think my Summaron 35f2.8 is about 25 years old in my ownership and my black 65f3.5 V-Elmar with the Visofles III was bought in Toronto in 1981.