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

The camera I own the longest (oh, the irony!) is the Epson Photo PC500, a 640x480 digital camera I bought in 1998. That's 14 years. It probably still works, but there really is no point.

The nr. 2 on my list is the Olympus Mju-II I bought in 2001. Has been kicked to the end of the world and back, still being used, still going strong.
 
I still occasionally use my Mom's Brownie Reflex Synchro that she bought new in the 1940's and passed down to me after her death four years ago. Had to give it a CLA first, but it still works great, when I can get 127 film.

Best,
-Tim
 
The camera I've personally owned the longest is either a Kodak Pocket Instamatic 20 110 camera or a Konex MX-V 35mm Plasticam (50mm F/8 with "sun, partial sun, cloudy, or indoor aperture settings, and a hotshoe!). Both were given to me when I was a young boy, around the time I was 5 or 6, to take on school field trips. I still have both and despite the utterly disastrous build quality of the Konex, both work just fine.

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The first camera I personally bought for myself that I still have is an Intel webcam/still cam, taking I believe 800x600 or 640x480 digital photographs. Resolution sucks, but it actually does a decent job of taking a properly exposed photo. No digital camera I have does ambient light photography in near total darkness quite like it.

The camera I've known the longest is the Pentax ME Super I currently own. It was purchased new in 1982, just before I was born, to take my childhood photographs. Dad used it for years with the belief the exposure computer was broken, having been told so by two photo repair shops, only to find out twiddling the E-comp knob cleaned some contacts and fixed it. It's had a full CLA since. I don't think I'll ever part with it.
 
Olympus E-300 bought in 2003 (or was that 2004).
Yes it's digital, and yes, I came into photography not too long ago :)
 
I still have my first SLR (A Pentax MG), which I got back in 1990 or thereabouts. The oldest camera I still use on a regular basis is an F3, bought from a local newspaper's camera pool in 1993.

Ask again in a couple of decades' time; somehow I've always been better at buying than at selling stuff - the only camera I can ever remember selling was a cheapo Fujifilm P&S - DS15, I think it was called. Fun part is, for what I got for it ($50 or so, 1993) I got a 50mm f/1.4 AI-s to go with the F3 (Which itself cost $125 or so, which was a lot of money (to me) back then, being fifteen years old an'all.)
 
Spavinaw said:
You kids don't stand a chance. I got my first camera, a Kodak Brownie Flash Six-20 with flash, sometime early in high school. Got my Kodak Tourist II with 800 shutter as a junior or senior. Graduated in 1954 and still have both cameras. So the Brownie would be 60 years old and the Tourist almost 60.
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Well, I bought a Minolta 16 about 1962. I still have it but haven't used it in probably 30 years since getting into "large" format 35mm. :p

My oldest two would be the Welta Welti and 9x12 I took possession of after my father died. I can remember him working on the 9x12 camera and viewfinder to place on the back and use 828 film, several years before. IRCC I began using it in 1959, during the summer before going to my first year of junior college. I used it mainly at our local museum.

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The Welti, I don't recal when I began using it, but probably about the same time, or likely a little before. So a little over 50 years. The camera on the left is a Welti. A very nice camera, but sadly not my father's camera. So actually, it doesn't count. Only the 9x12 and the Minolta 16. But using the Welti still give fond memories, and feels the same.

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At first as I began to read this thread, I figured I would probably have it over others. Then Spavinaw and some others came in with more years. Congratulations you guys!!

My orginal Welti was destroyed in a fire. I had used it up until buying a Yashica TL Super in Vietnam about 1971. The 9x12 was unbeknownst to me, safely at my brother's house for I don't know how many years. I thought it was lost or destroyed until my daughter went to visit him and returned with it. I need to use it.
 
I think my longest-owned gear is a Beseler 23C enlarger, dating to Sept 1966. It came direct from the manufacturer at promotional price due to my employment at a camera shop in Rapid City SD. Still have it, after many many hours of happy use!
 
I've had a Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS for about 5 years now. Actually, I sold it a couple of years ago, instantly realized how stupid I was, then purchased another at the first opportunity (within 2 weeks).
 
I have my Nikon F that I bought 43 years ago in 1968. It still works but slow speeds are a little slow. I should send it to Steven at cameraquest for a clean and tune-up. Jim
 
What is the longest you have held onto a piece of photographic equipment?

What is the longest you have held onto a piece of photographic equipment?

Kodak Brownie 127 = 51 years
Olympus OM1 = 38 years
 
My Kodak Hawkeye 620 box camera my Grandfather gave me for my eighth birthday - May 8, 1947, so it's almost 65 years. I haven't used it for a while, but it's almost like new, and I can cut down a 120 film spool for it.
 
My father purchased a 9x12 Voigtländer Bergheil used in 1937 and taught me photography on it circa 1948. He gave me the camera in the 1960s and I had SK Grimes clean the shutter just before Grimes died; still take photographs with it via a roll film adapter.
 
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