What would you consider a rugged camera ?

[Phil_F_NM]

My vote is for the Nikon F2 followed by the Leica M4, M2 and Nikon F4.

When I was at photo school for the Navy, my Sergeant First Class instructor told us a story about when he was in combat camera. His unit was dropped into Afghanistan and when their C-130 made the return run to drop equipment, the crew basically threw pelican cases out the back of the aircraft at 250kts. The only camera to survive was a Nikon F2 which was buried in a few inches of soil. Everything else was shot. F4s, F5s, D1s. SFC said "that's the only thing I'd ever seen that killed an F4."

As for the Leica, I carried an M2 and M4 into Fallujah, Iraq for the second seige in November, 2004. Both cameras and my three lenses went through pure hell there but both fared quite well. A mortar attack and my fall during it caused the winder shaft in the M4 to become stripped which I fixed along with the help of one of our machinists (go Seabees!). It worked fine until I immersed myself and the camera in the Bay of Cadiz in southern Spain during a bit of R&R on the way back to the states from Iraq. That really did it in.

2 CLAs and a bunch of new shutter parts later, the M4 is still clicking away, with more personality and life than any other camera I've ever used. That one is never going away.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Somewhat related is the size and form factor of the gear making a difference as well.

" The pilots believe them to be insurgents, and mistake Mr. Noor-Eldeen’s camera for a weapon."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleeast/06baghdad.html

I also remember reading a late 80's or early nineties news where the merkava tank mistook a AP or Reuters video camera as a RPG.

raytoei

 

[charjohncarter]

I agree that the Nikonos is very tough, but it is a specialty camera...

As I said I never saw one during the VN years in the hands of US Army photographers; but I agree (with Harry Lime), it is not what you would use for 'good' military documentary photography (and I love mine {Nikonos II}, it just is not for that purpose.) It was better to give the US Army photographers all Nikon Fs and if they have problems replace them: after all they were only $450.00 (w/the F 1.4).

 

[gb hill]

I'd love to have one of those Canon F-1s made for the US Navy. most are real beaters now, but are tough as nails. As far as a tough walk around camera I think a Pentax Spotmatic would be a good choice.

 

[tedwhite]

The toughtest cameras I've owned have been Pentax Spotmatics from the early seventies. They've been dropped, banged, abused, and never stopped working. Right now I'm carrying a black MX which seems just as tough. During the San Francisco State police riots in 1969 a cop struck my PJ friend's Spotmatic twice with his billy club. Jammed the camera at 125th and the lens at f:8, but you could still focus and shoot with it, which he did for three more days, then took it to a local camera repair shop and got it fixed. He may still be using it.

I have three spotmatic bodies from that era and they still work perfectly.

 

[charjohncarter]

The toughtest cameras I've owned have been Pentax Spotmatics from the early seventies. They've been dropped, banged, abused, and never stopped working. Right now I'm carrying a black MX which seems just as tough. During the San Francisco State police riots in 1969 a cop struck my PJ friend's Spotmatic twice with his billy club. Jammed the camera at 125th and the lens at f:8, but you could still focus and shoot with it, which he did for three more days, then took it to a local camera repair shop and got it fixed. He may still be using it.

I have three spotmatic bodies from that era and they still work perfectly.

I always wondered why the US Army picked the Nikon Fs for their cameras of choice. Don't get me wrong it was probably the best camera at the time but it was an early camera, who needs a removable prism, and the Spotmatic had a ttL meter that was really built in. Besides, 'The Beatles' used them (well, maybe not the Spots, the one before.)

 

[filmfan]

To me, olympus mju2 is a rugged camera. I used to carry it everywhere. Dropped it more than a dozen times...
I have never had any problems with it.

I dropped mine 3 nights ago from only 3 feet up and it broke into two distinctly separate pieces...

 

[LeicaTom]

Pentax K-1000.....I dropped one out of a 3rd story window in Nuremberg, Germany back in the 1980's and it worked just fine afterwards, my Canon F-1 Mech has gone through hell and back and still works well 🙂

Also I've worked with Leica IIIC's for a long time, quite a few that were WW2 combat cameras, they looked really rough. but worked perfectly.......

Tom

 

[mooge]

funny how people mention Leicas... I dropped my M2 thrice, each time putting the RF waaay out of alignment. they weren't bad drops either- like ~60cm onto carpet, for example. pretty dissappointing, given that myth of toughness...
well, I guess it's not fair- this camera is 48 years old, was beat up before I got it, and was serviced by myself...

 

[Ranger Copy]

Nice thread.

 

[semilog]

Pentax K-1000.....

For all the combat stories, I wonder if an even more stringent test isn't high school photography classes. 9 months a year of constant abuse, year after year after year after year...

...and the answers are: K1000, and Yaschica 124G.

 

[djon]

I recall reading in the early 70s that AP (UPI?) "official" recommendation was Leica for short lenses, Nikon SLR for long lenses. Obviously correct for fast/accurate focus.

Today's Pentax K digital models (10/20/7) are surely tougher than any SLR or rangefinder.

 

[djon]

I always wondered why the US Army picked the Nikon Fs for their cameras of choice. Don't get me wrong it was probably the best camera at the time but it was an early camera, who needs a removable prism, and the Spotmatic had a ttL meter that was really built in. Besides, 'The Beatles' used them (well, maybe not the Spots, the one before.)

The Army, like the Navy, chose Bell & Howell Canons (rebadged Canon) as well as Canon F1. They probably used Nikons as well, and did use some Leicas. They had some of everything. I used to own a Graflex XL system that had been liberated from a Huey when somebody came home.

Spotmatics were physically fragile by comparison to Canon/Nikon, the screw thread suffered dirt/grit problems and was slower to use than bayonet system, and the framing was very inaccurate by comparison to Canon and Nikon. Plenty of Spotmatics were carried by soldiers for all the reasons hobbiests loved them (smallish, light, cheap, simple, good optics).

 

[Roger Hicks]

Maybe 25 years ago I fell off my motorcycle: someone cut me up, so badly that the guy behind me couldn't believe it: from his witness statement, "Mr. Hicks was well within the speed limit . . . I could not believe the car in front of him was going to turn . . . he had no chance of stopping". His insurance paid for a new BMW R100RS fairing and Motorsport paint job.

Foolishly, I had my Nikonos in my pocket. I pretty much landed on it and then skidded on it for quite some way, grinding right through the lens cap and grinding a good bit off the lens surround. I had a hell of a bruise, but otherwise wasn't hurt much. The camera went right on working, though. I eventually lent it to a friend (who lost it over the side of a boat) because I found I was using it very little. That awful combined wind on/shutter release was an invitation to camera shake.

I've owned or used most of the other cameras described in the thread as 'rugged' and I do not believe that any of them could have stood up to the same treatment.

Cheers,

R.

 

[kshapero]

Anybody know what made it through WWII? That would be a story. Also notice that the overwhelming majority of cameras mentioned in this thread are film cameras. Hmmmm.
As for me I would probably go with a Nikon metal film body, but it does appear that my "new" M3 might fit the category as tough but not the newer M's. My Nikkormats have been thru it all and still make a mighty fine weapon. Not the F's because they are so heavy I believe I would kill the opponent. HeHe.