What's your personal holy grail camera?

shadowfox said:
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.

:D
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That's it. A camera with a "Twilight Zone" experience button. A leica in Times square on VE day for example or a Contax on the Normandy beaches in 1944.

Dream on, Ducky!:angel:
 
b1bmsgt said:
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.....:D


Russ
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An acquaintance of mine has the Nikormat EL with a dead battery. How do you change the battery(ies) in that thing. I have heard it is in the mirror area, put I don't see anything obvious and don't want to break anything.
 
oftheherd said:
An acquaintance of mine has the Nikormat EL with a dead battery. How do you change the battery(ories) in that thing. I have heard it is in the mirror area, put I don't see anything obvious and don't want to break anything.
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I had an EL2. You need to remove the lens and lock up the mirror (on the side of the lens mount) and open the door that is exposed. I always forgot to push the film advance forward and ended up with dead batteries.
 
Big Hairy Bee said:
I had an EL2. You need to remove the lens and lock up the mirror (on the side of the lens mount) and open the door that is exposed. I always forgot to push the film advance forward and ended up with dead batteries.
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Thanks. I looked and there does appear to be a door there, but I don't see how to open it. It looks like it is under some kind of bar on one side and held by something else on the other. Can you explain a little more please?
 
I'd like a digital camera the size and weight of a p&s, with a fixed lens that is digitally tweaked to simulate a range of interchangeable lenses from, say, 135mm down to 15mm.(Anyone know if this is even remotely possible?) I want it with a full-frame (or bigger) sensor. I want a viewfinder that shows exactly what the lens sees. I want all optics, digitally tweaked and otherwise, to be brighter than anything on the market. I want it to have its own IP address. I want it to be able to offload image dupes to any net accessible server.


I want it to sell for $699.00.
 
I think I found it yesterday!
I have my F3/T, purchased a D300 and for me the Holy Grail was a Nikon F6 which I just picked up yesterday!
 
I would say the twin holy grail cameras would be a second Leica, a M6 with some really nice Zeiss lenses. On the SLR front, I want a later production (late 1990s - Millenium) Nikon F3HP to compliment my earlier F3HP which as seen some action out there (one would be used for slide, the other black and white).
 
No question in my mind: Nikon S3M for me please.

EDIT: on a considerably more realistic level, an Olympus Pen W would make me very happy.

--c--
 
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Frank, same as you, the ones I wanted were the Nikon F-series SLR, Leica M-series RF, and Hasselblad. I've had the pleasure, in later life, of acquiring one of each and all are as superb as I imagined.

However, what would a young photographer starting out today see as the 'holy grail' camera? None of the ones we did, I suspect. Probably the next gen full-frame Nikon or Canon with stabilized, fast zooms. Things change.

Gene
 
Holy Grail? The above are too reasonable: I want the camera that doesn't exist: a combination of the minolta tc-1 and leica MP (don't ask).
 
I second the G3D, but I would add a couple suffixes to an already never-to-be-made camera "G3D-FX-CF." FX for full frame, and CF for carbon fiber body to replace the current heavy one. Deep matte black finish, of course, that is durable enough to let me take it anywhere and not worry about it. Since this will never happen, I'd settle for a Nikon D300 with the FX chip in it, plus the new full frame VR lenses Nikon is brining out.
 
Either the Pen F w/ pancake lens or a Voigtlander Vitessa, the model that still had the folding lens and light meter. Neither camera is that expensive, but expensive enough they're not an impulse purchase. They also cost just enough that when I have enough in my photo budget it seems better put to use on either my Canon kit or Bessa kit. Guess that's why they're my Grails, I can always see them on the horizon but they never come within my grasp.
 
At this point in my life, I managed to catch all my holy grail cameras. Now I'm in search of a holy grail photography technique...

BTW, the grails were Leicas and a Nikon F5. Sometimes I'd like a Nikon F6, but then I ask myself "what for?" and the desire dies.
 
visiondr said:
Leica M6J. A perfect combination: Looks like M3, functions like M6.
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I have to second that, the M6J was/is an amazing camera, I was stationed in Germany in 1994 when they were sold, I saw one at a Nurnberg camera shop (in real life) but it was sold quickly, they were pretty much sold before they were made, the new MP3 comes close, but it`s still no M6J
(Leica should make a NEW version of the modern M3 camera when they move BACK to Wetzlar.....I hope that would happen, I think I`ll write them till they can`nt stand it anymore) :D

or......if? I could acquire a very well worn Black Paint M3 with a speed loader and a Black Paint Summilux (a REAL 1957 Leica MP Black Paint with matching Summicron and Leicavit MP could never happen unless I won the lottery).......or a Leica IIIC K Grey (ex US Army) that was converted to a IIIF (WHITE DIAL) *same as Black Dial*

I like modified stuff, I like to see cameras that made and recorded history :)

Tom

PS: My hardcore "collector wish* would be a Chrome IIIC K with a Chrome MOOLY K motor and a "wartime" Xenon, I guess that`s my "dream" camera......it`s pretty rare as can be (about $8,000 to $10,000) of vintage camera
(With less then 400 Chrome IIIC K`s ever made during the war and like less than 100 or so Chrome MOOLY K`s and less then 20 Xenon`s make it a pretty RARE combo)
 
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To me there are 3 cameras that are the holy grail... the holy trinity if you will.

1. Leica MP a'la carte. All black paint, no markings/inscriptions except for my signature engraved on the back near the eyepeice. .85 viewfinder, simplified framelines.

2. nikon SP - one of the new black ones that were brought out a few years ago. That is just a beautiful camera.

3. At the moment the nikon D3 would give me a lot of joy. I haven't handled one yet but I have played with a d300 and the ergonomics blew my canon DSLR away. That d3 must be a beauty.
 
There are two ways of looking at the "Holy Grail".
1) Your ideal camera (could probably be subdivided into film or digital). For me, this is the Nikon F4. It works very well with virtually every Nikkor (there are some exceptions) ever made in F mount. I'm a big fan of Nikkors and older ones in particular.
2) A unique camera. A prototype of just about any camera would qualify, or one owned by a famous photographer. One of Capa's Contaxes, HCB's Leicas or an Adams view camera would be a nice thing to own.
 
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