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Dmitri

Voigtländer Vitessa A

1950 German 35mm Rangefinder

A Premium German Foldable 35mm Rangefinder Camera

Voigtländer Vitessa is a German folding 35mm film rangefinder camera, manufactured in the mid-1950s. Variant A is the first Vitessa in this remarkable 35mm shooter lineup. ☝︎Further reading: For an in-depth review of Voigtländer Vitessa L3, the latest folder in this lineup with a selenium light meter, see “Voigtländer Vitessa L With Ultron 2.

FED-2 II/b With Industar-10

1950s Soviet 35mm Rangefinder

An Irresistible Piece of Soviet Photographic Technology

FED-2 variant II is a beautiful camera with its share of flaws and imperfections. A Soviet copy of the Leica II that I could not resist at $50. FED is an acronym for Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, in Russian: Фе́ликс Эдму́ндович Дзержи́нский. His legacy is Soviet secret police and the children’s labour commune which eventually got transformed into the factory that made this camera.

Betty

Voigtländer Vitessa L3

1954 German 35mm Rangefinder

German Precision Optics in a Foldable Rangefinder Camera

Voigtländer Vitessa is a German 35mm film rangefinder camera, manufactured in the mid-1950s. At the top of its line, it boasts a highly-regarded fixed 50mm foldable Ultron lens with an aperture range of 𝑓2-22. Its quiet, vibration-free leaf shutter fires between 1 and 1/500th of a second.

Voigtländer Vitessa L With Ultron 2.0

Rollei 35B

1966 German 35mm Viewfinder

The Smallest* 35mm Film Camera, Its Quirks, Operation, and a Brief History

As far as full-frame cameras go, Rollei 35 surely is compact — even by today’s standards. But it’s not just the size that makes this little lens box desirable. Averaging $300 across different models in the series, it can fetch as much as $10K for special editions.

Danilo Leonardi

Olympus Pen FV

1967 Japanese 35mm Half-Frame SLR

The Elegance of Accomplished Engineering and Invention

When I opened the package from Tokyo, I couldn’t contain my excitement. There it was, the Olympus PEN FV body I had ordered a few weeks before. I checked the serial number and determined that 1970 was the year of manufacture. The FV camera is one of those uncommon objects where everything about them is graceful and elegant.

My Olympus Pen FV

Polaroid SX-70 Alpha 1

1972 American Instant Film SLR

The Most Comprehensive Instant Camera and Film Guide Online

SX-70 is a stunning camera. Along with film, it is one of the most technologically advanced products ever created. This is Polaroid’s finest offering; world’s one and only foldable instant SLR. ✹ Update: In this guide, I refer to the company that produces film for SX-70 cameras, Polaroid Originals — formerly named Impossible Project.

Polaroid Land SX-70

Kent

Bronica ETRSi 645

1976 Japanese 120 SLR

A Complete Medium Format Kit for Less Than $400

I found the Bronica ETRSi system out of pure coincidence while scrolling through Instagram. At the time, I had no budget for an expensive medium format camera, so I was searching for something cheap, that has a good built quality and produces decent images.

Olympus XA

1979 Japanese 35mm Rangefinder

Mini-Review

My well-used Olympus XA rangefinder had an iffy light meter needle and a loose door that kept on getting in the way. But it’s the red shutter button that pushed me to sell the little gem. It comes with a fast 35mm F. Zuiko 𝑓2. 8-22 lens that can focus between 0.

Chinon Bellami

1980 Japanese 35mm Viewfinder

A Tiny 35mm “Barn Door” Point-and-Shoot

Chinon was a Japanese camera manufacturer, bought by Kodak in 2004 during its “painful shift toward digital products. ” Though not nearly as famous as Kodak, Chinon has been in business since 1948, building discount K-Mount cameras. This particular camera, Chinon Bellami, can also be found as Revue 35CC with a slightly-altered design and precisely the same construction.

Pentax PC35AF

1982 Japanese 35mm Autofocus Viewfinder

‘80s Retrofuturism

Manufactured in the 1980s, this fully-automatic shooter features a unique autofocus mechanism, and a futuristic, for the time, design. The gadget packs quality, fast optics, and a reasonably-powerful flash into a pocketable, pleasing to hold and operate black plastic chassis.

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