About camera collecting

Over the years I have been collecting cameras and other photographic paraphernalia, and now my collection is outgrowing the space for it. Mainly I collect the older mechanical, manual-focus, metal-bodied cameras manufactured before 1970 (if you will pardon the alliteration). In the earlier part of the 20th century, the Germans had the field almost entirely to themselves, producing the classic Leica and Zeiss cameras, which today are so prized as collectibles. Then around the middle of the century, the Japanese came into the picture, and Nikons and Canons, which began as copies of the German products, won the hearts and pocketbooks of the serious picture-taking public.

There is beauty in these fine mechanical cameras with their shiny chromed brass bodies, and their black vulcanite coverings. On eBay these would today be classified as 'vintage' cameras. Their mechanical shutters are still working (at least mine are) but those with built-in light meters are likely to be of questionable accuracy due to their age, and sometimes because the old mercury batteries are no longer available. Though I have some cameras with selenium cell meters that still work remarkably well.

I would sometimes take one of these finely-crafted artifacts in my hands and put it through its paces, clicking the shutter at different settings, setting the exposure and focus rings, and generally playing with it as though it were a toy. Just handling it provides a tactile pleasure that surely the inventors way back when must have considered when they produced these beauties.

Besides still cameras using film of various sizes (mainly 35mm), I also collect 8mm and 16mm movie cameras. The mechanism is clockwork, and the craftsmanship of these, such as the Swiss Bolex and the German Nizo cameras, are such that, though they may be half a century old, they purr like new.

Perhaps I have been fortunate in finding pristine examples that have hardly been used by their former owners. Most of my collection is double-run 8mm. If one can even find the film today, chances are that finding someone to process it will be both expensive and difficult.