What is your longest and most used camera? Film and digital

[Archiver]

Of all your cameras, which have you used for the longest, and the most?

If film, how many rolls have you put through it? How often do you use it?

If digital, about how many images has it taken? How often do you use it?

I'm curious about this because the concepts of longevity and reliability are things I mull over with gear.

My longest running and most used film camera is my Contax T3. It came in 2006 and I've put less than 20 rolls through it. I don't shoot it that often; in the first three years, I shot about three rolls a year. I thought I'd used it a lot, but not really.

Digital is a different story. I use my digital cameras like nuts. My longest running digital camera is the Leica M9. I bought it in 2010, making it nine and a half years old. It's shot at least 44,000 images. In the first few years, I shot thousands of images with it; on a three week trip to Japan in the first year, it was churning out at least 300 pictures a day.

I've had my Sony RX0 1" sensor camera for over a year, and it's taken about 9300 images so far. And hasn't skipped a beat.

 

[Dogman]

I still own the first Nikon I ever bought new. It's a black F2 with a plain prism. I bought it in 1974, used it throughout my newspaper career into 1991 and then used it as my vacation/snapshot camera until 1998/99 when I switched to AF Canons. I haven't used it since then. How many rolls? No idea.

My oldest digital is not very old. It's a Canon Rebel T2i(?). I bought it as a back up for a 50D but I never used it very much. It has been carried a lot, however, backing up the 50D and later a 7D. It's in nearly new condition with 18-55 kit lens. The digital I've used the most is my first Fuji X-Pro1 bought in 2016. Again, not an old camera. When I started using the X-Pro2, the XP1 hasn't seen much use. Again, no idea how many shots have been taken by these cameras.

 

[Archiver]

I still own the first Nikon I ever bought new. It's a black F2 with a plain prism. I bought it in 1974, used it throughout my newspaper career into 1991 and then used it as my vacation/snapshot camera until 1998/99 when I switched to AF Canons. I haven't used it since then. How many rolls? No idea.

Wow, that's impressive. 1974-1991 and used for newspaper work. Would you have shot a roll a week when working? More, less? Did the Nikon F2 need any major repairs from heavy use?

 

[sepiareverb]

At this point, an M7 I’ve had since 2005 or so. It has had less than twenty rolls through it in the past year. Less than most years. Can’t begin to guess how many rolls it has had since I got it. Maybe an average of 30 a year? I use the M10 and X1D far more these days.

 

[css9450]

I've had my FM2 since 1985 and my F2 since 1995 but have only used them sporadically in the last decade (particularly the F2 which has only seen a half-dozen or so rolls total). But my N90s dates from 1996 and has had numerous hundreds or thousands of rolls run through it, including recently.

For digital, my D80 will be twelve years old in a few months and I still use it regularly. I have a P&S that's older but I haven't used it lately.

 

[davidnewtonguitars]

When I rejoined the film resurgence in 2015 I bought a Zorki I, it is still clacking, but I don't run as many rolls thru it as I used to.

 

[rbsinto]

Motorized Nikon F2 purchased used in 1985, and quickly converted to an F2AS by swapping the finder for a DP-12. After all these years it is still one of my two favorite SLRs (the other being my motorized F with meterless prism).
How many rolls? No idea.
Robert

 

[farlymac]

My longest owned camera is a Yashica Electro 35 GTN, but it no longer works. The next longest owned one is a Nikon N90s, but I don't use it since I got an F100. I got the N90s back in '94 when they were newly out, and it was my main camera till I got an F2 about ten years ago. I own enough cameras now that most don't get any work now days (the cull is coming soon), as I go back and forth between a few favorites.



Wish I had some of the cameras that I had to let go of back in 2005, and some that I traded in or sold to friends back in the '70s and '80s, like my first Nikkormat. But most of what I do have are usable. I've got a little Paxette that I used one day when the temps were 20°F/-7°C because I could keep my gloves on to operate it. It worked like a charm, never skipping a beat. A lot of non-battery dependent cameras are like that.


PF

 

[B-9]

I’ve had a Contax SL300R T* for about 10-11 years.

Needs a new battery and I lost the charger. So not many shots with it lately.

Mine is silver... wanted the black.

 

[Ambro51]

Welllll.....way back in 1975 I bought my first Leica, a IIIc postwar from a hole in the wall camera shop in Philadelphia. That camera was my One camera for decades. The Vulcanite cracked off in large pieces, a few hard falls gave it bad dents. Pretty much retired I had it hooked to a PLOOT for close up macro. THEN I discovered the UR Leica Replica and that it was possible to have it professionally modified to be a fully useable camera. A lot of internal parts from a “donor” camera. Sooo, over to Korea goes my ‘ol IIIc, And well, a good deal of it lives on in working UR #80. That sweet little camera, with its 42mm Leitz Summar, is pure silk smooth, whisper quiet and is awesomely precise. Images are Fantastic!

 

[Dogman]

Wow, that's impressive. 1974-1991 and used for newspaper work. Would you have shot a roll a week when working? More, less? Did the Nikon F2 need any major repairs from heavy use?

The F2 was used with a pair of F's for the first few years and later with a pair of F2's and an FM and then I added an F3 (which I hated) and another F2. So I didn't use just the one camera over those years. Usually I carried two cameras, sometimes a third. Something was always breaking. A couple got stolen. One of the F2's was destroyed during a high school football game (!). Yep, a high school kid slammed into the big tough photographer and smashed the camera. That original F2 body was dropped one time and my insurance company totaled it and paid me for it. I bought it back from them because I thought it could be repaired if someone really wanted to give it a try. Some months later I sent it to NPS and they got it working perfectly again. Ugly but working.

As to how many rolls a week. Hard to say. Some weeks were routine "grip and grins", mug shots, interview pix and civic club/governmental body meetings. Some weeks would be massive with assignments, features, sports and news. I've shot as many as 26 rolls in one day, as many as 40+ rolls during a long week of a single news/feature assignment that covered three states and very little sleeping.

This was a medium sized daily, not a big city paper. There were only 7-8 photographers full time. It was pretty normal for newspapers of the time--you didn't get paid much but you had to work hard most of the time.

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Of my return to film cameras my Rolleiflex 3.5F has had the most consistent use followed by my Leica M3. Of my lenses, I have owned my Zuiko 50mm f1.8 and my Zuiko 28mm f2.8 for 36 years, and they are as good today as they were when new. The filters that protected the glass though not...

No idea how many rolls I've put through each camera. Both the above have been consistently reliable, the least, sadly my Nikon FE which just keeps having issues in auto mode. End time for that I think.

 

[Bingley]

I’m the original owner of an Olympus XA, bought new at the old 47th Street Photo in NYC in the early 1980s. For most of the 1990s it was my only film camera, after a Nikon F I got in the late 1960s was stolen. The little XA has had several hundred rolls of film through it, and is still going strong. I dropped it a couple of years ago and sent it off to John Hermanson for repair. It works like new now. I still use it a lot particularly as a backup camera on trips.

After the XA, my most used cameras would be a tie between a Leica IIIc and an M2. I haven’t had either camera nearly as long as the XA, but they’re now my principal cameras. I’ve probably shot a couple hundred rolls of film through each. I got the M2 in 2008 and the IIIc a year or so later.

I still have an Olympus EPL1, my first digital camera, but I haven’t used it since 2013. The Olympus Pen F is a much more capable digicam and that’s what I’ve used a lot since in 2017.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

2009 Canon 500D - over 100K exposures. In use since then. No maintenance cost.
M4-2. I don't count in rolls, sorry, rolls are for random shooters 🙂, I purchase in bulks and use about four bulks per year. Nice camera as everyday, everywhere, but expensive on maintenance.

 

[Pál_K]

Pentax SP500 - bought new in 1971 with a 55/2 Super Takumar and used as my only camera and lens for 15 years. I still use it regularly despite having many more cameras. Too many rolls through it to guess.

Digital is the opposite: a new Fuji X-Pro1 (2012) has only a few hundred images, a new-to-me D700 that I bought with maybe 40k images, I've since added only a few hundred more in the last few years.

 

[fadedpastels]

I have a Hasselblad 500C/M I got in 2008. Only reason I keep it around is because I've had it for so "long" I really don't enjoy the handling, but figured I'd regret selling it. Recently my most used is a Rolleiflex 3.5F I got earlier this year. I get along better with this one and is what I most reach for on the fly. How many rolls? not as much as they deserve, perhaps a roll or two a month if I'm lucky.

 

[charjohncarter]

I bought my IIIf in 1964 and used it last month. What a great camera.

 

[Jamie123]

Longest and most used film camera is my Mamiya RZ67II that I got maybe 4 years ago and it probably goes through 200-300 rolls of film a year on average. That being said, I was using a Hasselblad for years before and after I sold it I ended up getting another one which I still use. So I've been using a Hasselblad since 2005 but technically it's not the same camera.

I also have a digital Canon 5Dii that I've had for 10 years now and I probably shot most frames on that one just because it's digital but I almost never use it unless I have an assignment where film doesn't make sense.

 

[james.liam]

Would be an FM2-T bought new in 1995. It seems built to tighter specs than the standard FM2. Less play, more solid feel. Maybe it’s my imagination but like to think it’s better.

 

[johannielscom]

Longest: Chinon Memotron CE-II. Bought around 2002 and still have it.
Most used: probably the Horseman Convertible 842. Bought around 2010, sold it and had three chances of buying it back and the 3rd time I did. No use in telling you how many film rolls it took, since it has removable backs and I've owned a few over time...