Your Top Ten Historic SLR Cameras?

[lynnb]

My contender for #1: "The first true SLR camera was invented by the English photographer Thomas Sutton and patented by him in 1861... it was designed for portraiture and was made by two London manufacturers, Ross and Dallmeyer. Only a very small number were produced".
(from A History of Photography in 50 Cameras by Michael Pritchard FRPS. p.70).

 

[johnf04]

The Praktica LLC didn't have an electronic shutter - it had electronic transmission of diaphragm settings to the meter. The shutter is a standard Praktica metal shutter.

 

[tunalegs]

The Praktica LLC didn't have an electronic shutter - it had electronic transmission of diaphragm settings to the meter. The shutter is a standard Praktica metal shutter.

You're correct.

 

[p.giannakis]

*Olympus OM-1
*Nikon F
*Minolta STR-101
*Pentax Spotmatic
*Nikon F4
*Canon A1
*Pentax LX
*Canon T90
*Minolta 7000
*Zenit 11

 

[ForestCap]

Olympus OM-1👎
Olympus PEN-F if single-frame camera counts.

 

[Dwig]

Olympus OM-1👎
Olympus PEN-F if single-frame camera counts.

1/2 frame (aka single frame) counts, in my opinion, as does 110. I wouldn't put the Pen-F overly high on a "historic" list. It was, though, the first of the family of what proved to be the pinnacle of 1/2 frame evolution. What little followed the Pen-F family (F, FT, Fv) was all downhill. It qualifies, in my mind, as an "historic" camera; I just wouldn't put it in my top 10.

The OM-1👎 was in no way "historic". It wasn't the first, it wasn't a "landmark", and it had no novel impact on the market or on the offerings of competitors. It was only a minor tweak to fix the flaws in the original M-1/OM-1 design. It didn't even have any significant impact on Olympus' own sales. It was the M-1/OM-1 that had a big impact on the camera designs of the day and it therefore a "historic" camera.

 

[jsrockit]

These would be my choices (though I've made a few choices about cameras I've never owned but have experienced through friends)... not necessarily historic in a true sense either.

1) Nikon F2
2) Nikon F
3) Nikon F3
4) Nikon F4
5) Pentax 67
6) Hasselblad 500c
7) Leica R6
8) Olympus Pen F
9) Pentax K1000
10) Canon F1

 

[David Hughes]

I wonder how many posts it will take to turn historical into hysterical...

Regards, David

 

[besk]

The Alpa certainly should be on the list IMHO.

 

[unixrevolution]

1. Minolta 7000 AF (first auto-focus SLR)

#10 Is incorrect. The first Auto-focusing 35mm SLR was the Pentax ME-F of 1981.

The first Auto-focusing SLR regardless of format was the Polaroid SX70 Sonar OneStep (1978)

The Minolta is still significant as it's the first Autofocus 35mm SLR to incorporate automated film advance (which the polaroid also had), but the SX-70 OneStep was the first. And frankly, it doesn't get any cooler than a folding instant Auto-focus SLR, at least to me 😉

 

[EA4BL]

Your Top Ten Hysterical SLR Cameras

Your Top Ten Hysterical SLR Cameras

I wonder how many posts it will take to turn historical into hysterical...

Regards, David

I second that!

 

[tunalegs]

#10 Is incorrect. The first Auto-focusing 35mm SLR was the Pentax ME-F of 1981.

The first Auto-focusing SLR regardless of format was the Polaroid SX70 Sonar OneStep (1978)

The Minolta is still significant as it's the first Autofocus 35mm SLR to incorporate automated film advance (which the polaroid also had), but the SX-70 OneStep was the first. And frankly, it doesn't get any cooler than a folding instant Auto-focus SLR, at least to me 😉

I didn't choose the Pentax because it's really more an autofocus lens than an autofocus camera. It is still pretty cool though.

 

[Pioneer]

This is a little like trying to pick your 5 favorite cameras.

1. Kodak Brownie
2. Kodak 2D
3. Graflex Reflex
4. Rolleiflex Standard
5. Leica 0
6. Speed Graphic
7. Contaflex
8. Leica M3
9. Hasselblad 1600F
10. Pentax K1000 (just because many thousands of people were introduced to photography with one of these.)

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Because a first in history is, by definition, historic.

Sorry, I disagree. Something can be a first, without being either famous, or important. But please carry on, it's an interesting conversation and I have no wish to impede it...

 

[Roger Hicks]

The people who actually make/made cameras probably pay/paid more attention to cameras that didn't always sell well (or indeed at all, because plenty of patents never made it to market), but had features people might like; and also to those that incorporated what the French call a fausse bonne idée, a false good idea.

The former group almost certainly includes the (Swiss) Alpa, the (Russian) Sport, the (British) Wrayflex (as patented, not as built), and the (Hungarian) Duflex. The latter group probably includes Alpa again, anything with backs that could be interchanged in mid roll, anything with a film cutting knife (Rectaflex dropped theirs early on), and the (British) Periflex with its reflex focusing but not full-frame viewing.

Cheers,

R.

 

[David Hughes]

Hmm, the Periflex worked best with an accessory RF in the 'cold' shoe, the periscope focussing was the all time photographic PITA imo. I've had two, one when I was young and they were new and the second in retrospective mode a few years ago..

I'd nominate the Lomo 'Cosmic Symbol' as an innovative camera in that it introduced a lot of people to 35mm photography without breaking the bank, it had a good instruction book (something people never mention) and a good 40mm lens. It also had a mechanical 'funny 16' exposure system built into it and so no batteries required - and that's a great plus.

Regards, David

 

[jazzwave]

My slr history,

1.Ricoh KR5 ..(gone)
2.Nikon F90X.. (gone)
3.Canon EOS 3.. (gone)
4.Mamiya RB67.. (gone)
5.Hasselblad 501CM
7.Nikon F5

Now, mostly use RFs and one dslr

~ron~

 

[Dwig]

Sorry, I disagree. Something can be a first, without being either famous, or important. But please carry on, it's an interesting conversation and I have no wish to impede it...

It think "first" makes it "historic", but it by no means makes it the most historic of the type. For a Top 10 list, being first is not, in and of itself, a qualifying attribute.

 

[Dwig]

...The Minolta is still significant as it's the first Autofocus 35mm SLR to incorporate automated film advance (which the polaroid also had), but the SX-70 OneStep was the first. And frankly, it doesn't get any cooler than a folding instant Auto-focus SLR, at least to me 😉

The Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 7000's major "AF first" was being the first interchangeable lens SLR with system wide AF. Earlier AF issues were mere toe-in-the-water experiments. Minolta dove in head first and made a big splash.

I should have included the first SX-70 in my list of historic SLRs, though I don't know which other contender I should have bumped. There were a lot of truly historic SLRs and its not really possible to limit the list to just 10 without leaving out some important models.

 

[unixrevolution]

The Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 7000's major "AF first" was being the first interchangeable lens SLR with system wide AF. Earlier AF issues were mere toe-in-the-water experiments. Minolta dove in head first and made a big splash.

I should have included the first SX-70 in my list of historic SLRs, though I don't know which other contender I should have bumped. There were a lot of truly historic SLRs and its not really possible to limit the list to just 10 without leaving out some important models.

Granted, the Minolta did have a huge historical impact, but the exact nature of such was not noted with a great deal of accuracy.

And yes, the SX-70 is awesome, but a list of 10 is always hard. And you can't do "just list all the historic ones" because you get stuff like "First Japanese Pentaprism SLR with Open Aperture Metering and a Self Timer that Wasn't available only in black, but did have a data back option" 😉

I would need to do many hours of research to compile my own list and call it any kind of authoritative, but I definitely believe the F&S Graflex, the SX-70, and the Hasselblad belong on it. I also would argue for the inclusion of the Asahi Pentax (1957), as it wasn't necessarily the first at anything too spectacular, just the winding lever and rewind crank, and a fixed pentaprism combined with auto-return mirror. But what it DID do was make SLRs a lot more popular, and pioneer the general layout of the 35mm SLR from then on.