What's your personal holy grail camera?

Used to be the Olympus OM-3.

Now, it's ****THE**** camera that can transport me to exotic locations, bustling and charming small town oozing with heart-warming scenes, expressions and magnificent architecture, and give me 16-hours of unadulterated time to use it (once a week is fine).

If it's a Leica, so be it.

😀
 
shadowfox said:
Used to be the Olympus OM-3.

Now, it's ****THE**** camera that can transport me to exotic locations, bustling and charming small town oozing with heart-warming scenes, expressions and magnificent architecture, and give me 16-hours of unadulterated time to use it (once a week is fine).

If it's a Leica, so be it.

😀
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Sounds like heroin to me.😱
 
Brince said:
Literiter, phenomenal Leica is a bit of a stretch....my first Leica was an M3, my last a M6 and several models in between. The most over rated camera of all time! Their product today is average at best. 🙁
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I, never really found "it" in any camera. I think I never will.

A camera is ony a instrument that records a tiny piece of spacetime better than we do. I am really fond of some cameras, however. Some for the way they have grown into my personal history and some for their great utility.
 
Well, as long as we're talking about existing cameras, then I would probably say...
35mm- M6TTL
MF- Hasselblad

Of course, it's the lens that makes it!
 
Ever since I became interested in Leicas I really wanted a 1a. I fought tooth and nail with some Japanese bidders on eBay but I got a very nice one ... I can't discuss what I paid for it or I might weep. 😛

To prove to myself that my personal 'holy grail' wasn't destined to be a shelf queen I used it ... and it broke! It has since been repaired by Youxin and I intend to keep shooting it ocasionally as it has a special feeling that no other camera imparts. 🙂

IMG_2526.jpg
 
My "holy grail" camera, for years, was an Olympus OM-4T. But financially I was always limited to my OM-20, supplemented by the OM-40 I "inherited" from my father when he moved to Canon EOS gear. I was finally able to pick up an OM-4 (not T) 2nd hand when living in LA.

I loved it, and it fully lived up to my expectations. Unfortunately, it and the OM-40 were stolen in a break-in soon after I moved back to Sydney (but still had the OM-20). For years afterwards I looked for a replacement, and finally found a beat-up but functional OM-4T in Hong Kong while working there around the time of the hand-over to China (I spent months, on and off, haggling with the seller before getting a "not tourist" price).

Oddly (sort of) it didn't get all that much use, as I "went off" photography for quite a while afterwards until digital re-kindled my interest by giving me control over my own post-processing.

Currently I'm awfully close to what I want. My Canon dSLR outfit is near-perfect for the wildlife and other shooting that it is suited to. In a digital generation or two (I'm sitting the current one out) I expect that exactly what I want will be there. My first-ever rangefinder, the Hexar RF, was the one I really wanted after reading up at Cameraquest and other places. I didn't think I'd be able to find one here in Oz (I wanted to hold and check before buying) but I did and it suits me as well now as I thought it would. My M3 satisfies my "all mechanical" camera desires. My OM-4T is getting a lot more use and still satisfies for the things I find it best at. I have lots of other cameras to play with just because I can.

Would something like an M8 be nice? Or a full-frame dSLR to go with my crop-factor one? Yes, but so far nothing I truly lust after.

Couple all that with having worked out a digital and hybrid workflow that allows me excellent large-enough size (to 13"x19") inkjet prints on a variety of wonderful fine art papers and I think: "Holy Grail? Perhaps not, but I have a cup from the same set."

...Mike
 
sepiareverb said:
That FM3A must be quite a camera- still over $1K used at KEH.
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It is basically the best Manual focus SLR ever made. They were only $500 or so new :bang: :bang:I had the choice between that body and a 50mm lens or my Canon Elan 7ne with tamron 28-105 and 70-300 macro. I chose the later because it did everything that the Nikon could, and I needed the wide range for a trip out west. However, I kind of wish I had just picked up the Nikon. Wish Nikon would start production again.😡
 
sepiareverb said:
That FM3A must be quite a camera- still over $1K used at KEH.
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I still have my FM, my first really "serious" camera. The more I read about Nikon SLRs here ... I should load some film into it and try it again.
 
My M 8 is my dream camera . I can use classic - [ i.e. old ] Leica lenses from my II / IIIc / IIIf ... some ex-USSR lenses , new lenses when i can afford them - and lenese from just about any manual SLR ever made .
It fits my Autistic dee ficulty ''cos it's a 50s camera with instant digital imaging ... and it's a classic , minimalist design , a dee light to use ...
but I would still love a digital resurrection of my Minolta SRs ... and i have yet to buy that Contax RTS 3 ... Leica M7 ... M2 ... Topcon DM ...

Does it really ever end ?

dee
 
Well, back in "the day" (1970), I saved my nickels and dimes to buy a brand new Yashica Electro 35. After a year or so, I just had to have a Pentax, so I saved up for a nice new Spotmatic. Wow!! That kept my attention for another year or two, when I just had to have a Nikon... (beginning to discern a pattern here...)

Well, after the Nikon (F, Photomic Ftn) was stolen out of my apartment along with my stereo and color TV, I couldn't be picky and snatched up a Minolta SRT-101 which I kept for 35 years.



Then I discovered Ebay...

Now have 3 Spotmatics, along with S1a's, H3's, etc. Also have a nice Photomic Ftn again, as well as a Nikkormat Ftn and a Nikomat EL. Numerous 120 folders, Yashicamat 124, a Yachica 44 on the way, and at last count I have been through over 65 Electro 35's. Some were junk and were stripped for parts, but the better ones are restored and sold on Ebay.


Now, I think I just have to have a Leica...


Oh well.....😀


Russ
 
Well, if I've wanted it at some point, then I've bought it... so my holy grail cameras are ones that I wished they'd make (so that I could, you know, buy it): Nikon F3HPD-FX, or FM3D-FX. Sony-Minolta-Konica Hexar RF-D, Contax G3D. That is, digital versions of cameras that I've liked but now rarely use....

j
 
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