Steve's Cameras
Some of the cameras I've inherited, acquired and used over many years.
Kodak Portrait Hawkeye No 2
This 620 film camera, made in Great Britain by Kodak out of card and wood, belonged to my grandfather. It has a single aperture but with a selectable additional portrait lens. The view through the two viewfinder prisms is dreadful. I inherited this including an unprocessed film which when I developed it revealed my grandparents on a long-ago holiday.
620 Film Cameras
My collection of 620 cameras shows how they evolved in design and construction, made from card, wood, tin, plastic then more compact designs. They were given to me by relatives and are in working condition due to their simple principles and basic construction. Kodak Portrait Hawkeye No 2 (Great Britain) Agfa 620 (Germany) Coronet Ambassador (England) Kodak Six-20 'Brownie' (Great Britain)
Kodak 620 Bellows Camera
Epsilon shutter Kodak London Anastar 100mm lens. Originally came with a fine leather case. This one I have used. It was a family camera used for colour prints in the 1960s. Today the bellows don't open fully but a beautiful piece of engineering none the less. I always loved to watch the paper-backed film in cameras passing the dark-red frame number window. Each shot was precious in those days.
Kodak Colorsnap 35
Made in England by Kodak. 35mm film camera with Kodak Anaston lens. This was my father's main camera for almost 20 years. Exposures were from "Bright Sun" to "Cloudy Dull". Notice that the lens is calibrated in Exposure Values. Used mainly for transparencies, he favoured Kokachrome 25. My first personal camera was a Kodak Instamatic 114. The negatives were tiny and the quality was really poor.
Voigtlander VITO C
Made by Voigtlander in West Germany. My father in law's faithful 35 mm camera, built like a tank and very reliable. Voigtlander Lanthar 2.8/50 lens with shutter speeds of 1/30 to 1/250.
Pentax MX
I've been a loyal Pentax user since 1974 originally with an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F and Takumar screw-mount lenses. This is my trusty manual MX. The M series 35mm cameras were just superb. The MX was built solidly from aluminium and yet one of the smallest and lightest SLRs at the time. Still works perfectly today.
Pentax ME Aperture Priority Automatic
My Pentax M series collection which I used for over 25 years. ME with autowinder. In those days we needed two bodies for different film materials (transparencies, film, colour, b+w). SMC Pentax-M 2.8/40 short barrel SMC Pentax-M 2.8/28 SMC Pentax-M Zoom 4/75-150
Rollei 35B
One of my favourite cameras. Superb compact 35mm design, made in Singapore, no bigger than a couple of packs of film. Collapsible compact Triotar 3.5/40 lens and shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/500.
Pentax Espio 115
Start of the auto age. Battery powered, auto winding, auto exposure, auto focus, auto flash, compact. Widely used and shared by the family.
Pentax * ist DS
I didn't join the digital camera age until I was convinced that the images were of a high enough quality. The *ist DS image is 6M and A4 prints are as good as from film. SMC Pentax-DA 3.5-5.6/18-55 zoom SMC Pentax-DA 4-5.6/50-200 zoom Best of all, my existing Pentax lenses (even screw-mount) are still fully useable with the digital bodies and give outstanding results.
Panasonic/Leica Lumix DMC FX-33
Digital compact made in Japan, with images up to 8M. DC Vario-Elmarit lens. This camera goes (almost) everywhere with me - you just never know what you might come across. "Always carry a camera".
Pentax K5
Totally awesome digital SLR. Images up to 16M; totally weather proofed; image stabilisation in the camera (useable with any lens); amazing features and exposure modes. In terms of camera evolution, the K5 makes the *ist DS look like a box "Brownie". How fast things are changing.
Fujifiim X-M1
Light, flexible and very versatile. More and more this is my camera of choice and the one that I'll pick up and carry 'on the off chance'. No viewfinder but very useable display and interchangeable lenses.