Personal Camera History

Cameras I have known and loved, 1993 - 2010, by Blake Andrews.

Blake Andrews posted this clever chart today which lays out the cameras he's used since 1993, along with their fates. It's a quick and fun read. Especially interesting to me are the cameras that get replaced despite failures; Diana, Hexar...

And it reminded me that I keep a similar list of my own, although I don't record their fates, and it's not a color chart, just a list. I like lists. Here goes.

Cameras I've owned, in order of how much I liked/was comfortable with/used them.

Pentax ME Super
Pentax ME (current)
Polaroid SX-70 Sonar OneStep (current)
Ricoh GR Digital II (current)
Graflex Speed Graphic 3x4 (with homemade Polaroid pack film back)
Polaroid Super Shooter/Colorpack/Super Colorpack/etc. (many copies, still have several)
Polaroid Automatic 100/250/360 (many copies, 250 current)
Polaroid 180 (current)
Nikon D1x (current)
Nikon D1 (current)
Canon SD600
Canon S230
Yashica D
Polaroid Big Shot (several copies, current)
Fujifilm GA645 Professional (current)
Minolta Hi-Matic AF2 (current)
Nikon L35AF (current)
Pentax PC35AF (current)
Ricoh FF-3AF (current)
Polaroid SX-70 (non-AF)
Fujica G690bl
Kalimar Six Sixty (current)
Agfa Isolette

Never really used these much.

Yashica Electro 35 GT (current)
Minolta SR-T 101
Contax III

Honorable mentions.

Koni-Omega Rapid 100 (It wasn't mine, but I liked it a lot.)
Camerz ZIIe (I took a thousand portraits with it.)

A few others I've crossed paths with.

Nikon D70
Nikon D80
Nikon D700 (loved it)
Hasselblad 500C (on loan)

And a few I always wanted, but never got.

Pentax 645
Polaroid 600SE
Polaroid SLR 680/690
Konica Instant Press
Fuji Fotorama FP-1 Professional
Plaubel Makina
Graflex Super Graphic
Ricoh GR1/s/v
Konica Hexar
Contax G1/2