Camera/Lens You'd Never Sell...

[Monty McCutchen]

Falling under the category of overstating the obvious;

20 x 24 Ebony with a 550 Schneider Fine Art.

Mainly because I love working with the monster but one would think it might be difficult to sell even if you wanted to. Lunacy on this level is a small circle of friends!!

Monty

[Ole Tjugen]

The Carbon Infinity.

And the Gandolfi Precision 10x8".

I have lots of good lenses, and some "cult" ones, and a few truly amazing ones. But none I wouldn't be willing to part with if I could find a good replacement.

[butterflydream]

My Canham 5x7 and 4x10 combination + 210mm Sironar + 120mm Nikkor.

[Steve Barber]

I don't have any cameras or lenses in large format that I would not sell.

Having got that out of the way, what I will never sell are any of my Hasselblads or the accessories for them. The only reason I would ever even consider selling them would be if they did not work and could not be fixed or I could not get film for them. But, then, because they would be worthless, I could not sell them and I don't care.

[Scott Davis]

My Canham 5x12/5x7 combo, for cameras, if I were going to be exclusively a field shooter. For studio, my Century Studio Master 5x7/whole plate. Lenses, well... you can pry my Seneca whole plate 14" f5 portrait lens from my cold dead hands. Another pair of lenses you'll have to fight me for are my 110mm F8 American Optical WA Dagor and the 159mm F12.5 Wollensak.

[Drew Bedo]

My first LF camera/lens that I ever owned was an early speed graphic that had been rebuilt from parts. The focal-plane shutter had been removed as had the viewfinder, range finder and all leather. The voids in the body had been filled with wood putty and the whole thing painted black. The spring back had been replaced with a Grafloc back. I got it at a camera show for ...not much; it was in the late 80s and everything is different now. For a lens: I was salvaging the imaging units from obsolete ultrasound equipment and other medical imaging gear that was being scrapped on the way to a digital clinic. I got several Ocillo-Raptars in Wollensac Aliphax shutters. They were 75mm f/1.9 and would only cover 6x7 at infinity. I kept one and mounted it on my camera.

This rig introduced me to 4x5 photography. I made circular pictures (a few) and did a lot of macro shots to get the coverage. I use other cameras and newer lenses now, but that stripped-down press camera and the odd-ball lens are still in the cabinet. I don't think that it would get a single bid on e-bay, yet there is no offer that would induce me to part with it now either

[Kuzano]

I've been hoarding film cameras for some time, in anticipation of the impending failure of, and mass exodus from, digital photography. Selling prices, under the right circumstance, and for clean cameras, are on the rise. Particularly in Large Format. Medium format has softened, but will come back. The intro of the new film folder from Fuji/Voigtlander (Cosina) in Spring 2009 will cause a spike in MF prices.

So, as I look around, all I see are cameras, every table, every cupboard, etc.

But, as I look around, I also see too many cameras I want to keep. How many can I shoot at one time?

[Jim Galli]

Hmmmm. Some of the cameras / lenses that are the best are quite ordinary and replaceable. That's always an element of the argument. If you're at my house and offer me more than my venerable Kodak 2D is worth, you'll own it and I'll take part of the profit and just buy another one. That said there are some lenses that I really feel if I sold I wouldn't get to own again, in fact it was pure luck that I got to own them in the first place, and these aren't for sale at any price. Pinkhams and Cooke's come to mind. All of my cameras are rather common so perhaps it comes down to the glass. My 7X11 Eastman is closest to answer Wills question though. It's really very lovely. Like someone used it half a dozen times then carefully folded it up and put it in a closet in a perfect environment for 95 years. The bellows is like new and it's such a pretty camera. It isn't really worth much so why would I sell it? Combined with the 18" Verito I have made some of my very best photographs with it. And it's a croud pleaser.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I'm going to say two cameras and two lenses. Also, two tripods. The first is the first camera I ever built. My Walnut 8x20 and the matching Walnut tripod. The second is the recently finished Walnut 11x14 with it's matching tripod.
The lenses are my Hybrid Voigtlander 16" Euroscop that has the original rear element and a plus 1 diopter for the front element with the waterhouse stops that I made for it. The second lens is my Walnut barreled Commercial 14" Ektar with waterhouse stops. I had the front and rear elements and made the barrel and stops. The neg's from these lenses are amazing! It stops down to F-90 and F-64 respectively. . They will have to bury me with these or they could just build the casket out of all this Walnut!

[ghubrex]

I HAD the camera I would never sell--a Canham metal 5X7. A thief who, I'm sure, had no idea what he was getting, broke into my car and stole it. I replaced it with a Canham wood/metal 5X7, which is a great camera, but I miss the all-metal MQC dearly. I would trade what I have for the other model in a heartbeat.