What is it? This is a Leica M3 35mm rangefinder camera, built by Ernst Leitz GmbH from 1954 to 1966. It was the first Leica that used the Leica M lens mount, the first Leica with a coincident image rangefinder, and the first Leica with a wind lever. It is…
This past year has been one hell of a ride for heavy metal music. This year saw the release of new albums by 4 of the 5 “Big 5 Thrash Bands”, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Testament. Hell, even Metal Church put out a new album! Really the only classic 80s…
What is it? This is a Vivitar 35ES 35mm rangefinder camera made by Cosina of Japan around 1978. The Vivitar 35ES was one of many variants of this model all made by Cosina. There were versions sold by Minolta, Revue, Prinz, and possibly others, all made by Cosina. Unlike most…
What is it? This is an AGFA Optima I produced between the years 1960 – 64. It was the followup to the original Optima from 1959 which was one of the very first cameras with a fully automatic program auto exposure mode. It’s selenium meter would allow the camera to…
What is it? This is a Chinon CE II Memotron 35mm SLR camera from 1976. This model was one of the very last 35mm cameras released by any company to still use the aging M42 screw mount. It’s headline feature was that it was capable of open aperture auto exposure…
What is it? This is a Yashica-D twin lens reflex camera made by Yashica Co., Ltd. between the years of 1958 – 1972. This particular model is a later variant, likely made in 1970 with the company’s top of the line 4-element Yashinon lenses and f/2.8 viewing lens. The “D” represented…
What is it? This is a Nikon One Touch AF3 auto focus 35mm point and shoot camera made by Nikon starting in 1987. The AF3 was the third version of the original L35 from 1983 which was Nikon’s first compact auto focus camera. The AF3 has a simpler 4 element lens…
This is a Fujica 35-ML rangefinder camera made by Fuji Photo Film Co. starting in 1958. Fuji would use the name “Fujica” on all of their film cameras until the late 1970s. It was an amalgam of the words “Fuji” and “camera”. The ML was otherwise identical to the Fujica 35-M released…
What is it? This is a Yashica Lynx-14 35mm rangefinder camera made in Japan starting in 1965. The Lynx was Yashica’s top of the line 35mm rangefinder series in the 1960s. The first two models, the Lynx 1000 and 5000 both had fast f/1.8 lenses with modern light meters. Then…
This is a Clarus MS-35 camera made by the Clarus Camera Manufacturing Co. based out of Minneapolis, MN. This was the first and only camera made by Clarus and was sold between the years of 1946 and 1952. The Clarus MS-35 was an ambitious 35mm rangefinder that bore a striking…
This is a Certo Dollina II rangefinder camera made in Dresden, Germany by Certo Camera Werk. The Dollina II was first introduced in 1936, only a year after the Dollina I which did not have a rangefinder, making the Dollina series the second cameras ever made designed to use Kodak’s new…
When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth… This is a followup to an earlier post I spontaneously wrote back in August called “The Cameras of the Dead”. In that article, I applied a tongue in cheek analogy to George Romero’s 1968 classic “The Night of…
