The LF Camera you have owned the longest and still do.

[TheDeardorffGuy]

Mine is a 5x7 Deardorff Old Style (NFS) I bought the summer of my junior year in High School 1972. Still have it But retired it a decade or two ago...

[David A. Goldfarb]

8x10" Gowland, purchased in the 90s some time, still using it alongside various other LF cameras.

[lenser]

8x10 Improved Empire State plate camera.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

I have a Sinar Norma bought new in Copenhagen 1968. A Sinar P I bought in 1982 and used heavily on a daily basis till 2002 when digital became a matter of survival for a commercial photographer. I still admire this great camera for which I have both 4x5 and 8x10 backs and it is still in an impeccable condition because I always treated it well and sent is to Sinar/Schaffhausen for service. Some times I even use it to shoot 8x10 b&w.

[Ari]

I've had a Wista RF for nearly two years now...

[Jim Jones]

I still have the Newton New-Vue bought in 1965, but haven't used the beast in many decades.

[rdenney]

My first LF camera was also a Newton New-Vue, and if I had used a proper camera in college (a Linhof Color), it might have put me off completely. I don't remember what I traded it for, but it was worth it.

The LF camera I've owned the longest (and still own) is a Calumet CC-400. I haven't used it in decades, but at least I have good memories of using it.

In real dollars, I paid far more for both of those than I did my current camera, a Sinar F2.

Rick "always on a budget" Denney

[Oren Grad]

I think it's my 4x5 Nagaoka, which I hardly ever use now. I bought it around the end of 1996.

[John Kasaian]

A battered 4x5 Anny Speed Graphic I bought in 1996. It might be leaving soon so the heir to the crown will be a Deardorff V8.

[Steve Barber]

Toyo-Field 810M with 300mm f5.6 Rodenstock Sironar-N lens that I bought from Sally Mann, I think in 2003. It was the camera and lens she used for the pictures that were published in "Immediate Family".

[Bill_1856]

4x5 Super D Graflex, purchased used in about 1972 from Lens and Repro.

[Roger Thoms]

Sinar Alpina, bought used 1997, still my main 4x5 although I also use a Speed Graphic and a Titan pinhole. My first LF camera was a B&J Orbit for which I purchased a 90mm SA, well that was a bad combo so when I found the Alpina with the both the standard and bag bellows it was a no brainer.

Roger

[Tav Walraven]

8x10 Deardorff, bought new in 1976. Still have it and it is in the same condition as when it showed up from Lens & Repro in 1976......
11x14 Deardorff purchased a few years later. Still have it also.............


tw

[David Lindquist]

A 4 X 5 Sinar Norma purchased new from Brooks Cameras, San Francisco, Spring 1966, shortly after graduating from University of California, Berkeley.
David

[Robert Perrin]

I bought my Busch D in 1953 after my first "real" summer job as photorapher for a weekly paper. For several years that and a 16mm newsreel type were my only cameras. The Busch still sees occasional use and is in perfect shape except for a 1 stop slow shutter in need of cleaning.

[Mark Sawyer]

I still have my 8x10 Kodak 2D that I bought in 1978 as an undergraduate in the University of Arizona photo program. At the time, everybody was arguing, "what 35mm will give you 4x5 quality?" Some people were even moving up to medium format to get "4x5 quality". I had an 8x10, and everybody looked at me funny...

Okay, so not much has changed...

but you guys can relate...

I hope...

[dsphotog]

About 1982, I bought a 4x5 Cycle Poco from an nice old guy named Larry Mays, he used to hang out at the camera store where I worked. I think of him every time I look at that camera.

[jcoldslabs]

Toyo 45A bought in 1988 in person at 47th Street Photo in NYC during a visit to New York. I still have the receipt. It's still going strong but doesn't see as much use as it once did.

Jonathan

[Tony Lakin]

Linhof Tech III Mk. 4 purchased from a local pro photographer about 1970, the camera came with 3 lenses, a Schneider Press Xenar 127mm f 4.7 which has remained with the camera continuously to this day, a 90mm f6.8 Schneider Angulon which I replaced with a 90mm f8 Super Angulon in the 1980's, also in the 80's I regrettably parted with the 240mm f5.5 Tele Xenar in favour of a 240mm Schneider Symmar S, I have also kept all the original rangefinder cams that came with the outfit.

A few weeks ago I spotted a 240mm tele Xenar on Ebay with a low starting price and thought that it would be nice to bid on it as I have said previously I always regretted parting with the original one so I put it on my watch list, a couple of days later I took another look at the lens on the Ebay page, I noticed something vaguely familiar in that the shutter trip lever had some corrosion on it as had the one I parted with 25 years ago, I sought out the original focussing cam and voila the serial numbers matched, I was astonished so I contacted the seller and offered him a BIN of £90, he stuck out for £100 which I gratefully accepted, the lens arrived back home a couple of days later in virtually the same condition as when I sold it a quarter of a century past, shutter purring like new and the optics spotless, I was amazed and delighted, what a great experience.
74249
Reunited:)

[Ben Calwell]

I still have my Calumet 400 series 4x5 long bellows camera that I purchased new in 1982. It came as a kit with a case, 210mm lens, loupe and dark cloth. I still use the loupe, but not the camera.

[dsphotog]

About 1982, I bought a 4x5 Cycle Poco from an nice old guy named Larry Mays, he used to hang out at the camera store where I worked. I think of him every time I look at that camera.

Correction: The prior owner's name was Ray, not Larry.

[Greg Y]

A 5x7 Deardorff (NFS....from 1938) I've had this 15 years....it replaced an Ebony 4x5, & a Canham 5x7. There is just something about the way this camera works....what a design accomplishment. Usually found with a gold-rim Dagor 8 1/2 (traded a apo-sironar s for that one) mounted on it. Some things just feel right under your hands when your head is under the dark-cloth.

[Jess C]

My 4x5 Wista DX in cherry wood since 1986. I bought it new for just a little over $500 at the time from one of my favorite camera shops which is now long gone. Come to think of it, most camera shops around here are long gone. : (

[neil poulsen]

An Arca 4x5 Classic F with the 300mm expanding rail and old style compendium lens hood (best ever) purchased in the mid-90's for $450 at a local swap meet. I wasn't really sure I wanted the camera, but it appeared to meet my needs.

[Emil Schildt]

My Gandolfi 10x8 - bought around 1990 in London. I has been a trusted friend, but for the price I paied...

My most expensive camera ever - took me 5 years to pay off...

But I'll never sell it!

[Henry Larson]

The camera that I have owned for the longest time is my 1946 Speedgraphic Pacemaker.
It still works and I still use it .

[ic-racer]

I got this Century 8x10 around 1975 for $5 at a flea market (first picture). I still have it today (second picture).
74325
74326

[Andrew O'Neill]

My first LF was a Cambo 4x5 I purchased used back in '93 in Tokyo. I haven't used it since since '98. Still sitting in it's box... I liked learning LF with it but it was a bit of a pain packing it around and setting it up.

[Tony Karnezis]

Oldest: a 4x5 Bender I assembled in 1998 to get me into LF photography. I'd use it but I can't find the tripod mount.

Oldest in use: a heavily used 8x10 Sinar P I bought shortly after the Bender. It apparently belonged to Bill Diebold. http://www.debold.com/

[SamReeves]

Tachihara 4x5 Field, still going after 13 years. Although that isn't all that old. :)

[IanG]

A second-hand Wista 45DX that I bought around 1986 to replace a heavy De Vere Whole plate, half plate, 5x4, monorail I'd bought a decade earlier and finally sold last year.

After 26 years of use the Wista could do with cosmetic restoration, mainly to rejuvenate the brass work.

Ian

[BrianShaw]

4x5 Anniversary Graphic. I've had it 5 years but someone had it before me and seems to have used it quite a bit.

SuperGraphic. I've had it over 30 years...

Cambo monorail camera. I've had it since 1982 or so...

All of these still work and are used for their original purpose (including electronic release and flash synch connections on the SuperGraphic) adn the Dial-Compur shutter on the Anniversary Graphic.

Some things were really built to last!

[Michael E]

My first LF camera was a 5x7" Conley that I still own (since 1993) but hardly use. Probably my best buy (although the most expensive LF camera I ever bought) was my Tachihara 4x5". I bought it new in 1996 and have used it a lot ever since.

Michael

[Gordy]

An 8x10 Deardorff NFS which I bought in 1980, and converted to front swings with the Ken Hough kit 5 or 6 years ago. It wasn't my first--I had several 4x5s before that, and it replaced a Korona 8x10, but I've had had it a long time now, the old beast still looks good, functions perfectly, and isn't going anywhere.

[Drew Bedo]

7437174372


Kodak 2-D: Bougght for a song during the Hay-day of the Houston Camera Show around 1992. Has the sliding tripod block but not the extension rail. Wish it had the extra rail. I have learned to work without front tilt.

Later in the '90s, I disassembled it as far as I could and did a gentle refinish. My attitude is that we cannot actually own them. We are merely stewards of these fine old cameras, keeping thim in good shape for their next "owner".

[joselsgil]

The LF camera I have owned the longest, is my Graphic View camera. Back in 1988, I answered an ad in a local classified newspaper. The camera came with it's original case, an aluminum funky tripod, some film holders, a Polaroid back, a musky focusing cloth and two lenses, an assortment of Kodak filters and lens hoods. One lens is the Kodak Ektar 127mmm and the other a Kodak Ektar 203mm. I paid $280 for the setup. Both shutters were in need of service, so I had Mr. Flutot bring them back to life.

A few days later, I informed one of photography instructors about the purchase. He asked me if I wanted to purchase a 4X5 Crown Graflex he had in storage. The Crown Graflex came with the 135mm lens, some Kodak 203 lens cells, some film holders, a 6x6cm roll film holder, a Grafmatic with instructions, and some filters. All for the tidy sum of $100.

Now if I can only learn how to use these cameras, I'll be set. :)

[tgtaylor]

Toyo 45CF. I bought this camera when the model first hit the market ~ 2003 and paid $549.95 for it new from B&H. At the time I was considering 4x5 but couldn't justify the 2 or $3000 price for a new Linhoff 2000 for a format that I might not like or $500 for a beat-up 50 year old Speed Graphic. Then Toyo announced the CF. The camera looked great and the price was right. I still have (and use!) that camera on a regular basis and have since acquired 4 more Toyo's: AX, C, Robos, and 810G. Great system and brand!

Thomas

[Steve Nieslony]

Canham 45DLC - bought new in 1998... I believe it was from Keith's 2nd batch. Bought from the F-Stops here. Still have it - but I have added some others since then. The 5x7MQC I bought used on ePay gets the most work these days.

Steve

[Peter De Smidt]

The LF cameras that I've owned the longest are a Kodak 2-D and Century #9a, both bought about 1995. My main user camera is a Toyo AX, which I bought a couple of years ago.

[Scott Walker]

A cherry 4x5 I made in the late 80's. Still use it if I do any climbing because it is so light.

[Joshua Dunn]

A Sinar F2 I bought in 2000.

[Helen Bach]

The War Department surplus MPP S.92 I bought in about '74 as a complete kit with Wray 89 mm Wide Angle Anastigmat and 184 mm f/4.5 Lustrar lenses, MPP flashgun, War Department darkslide case complete with RAF webbing shoulder strap and six wooden DDs (the glass plate type with separate metal film holder), two wire frame viewfinders, filter-holder lens hoods, WD yellow and red filters etc. I immediately bought a new Polaroid 545 holder to go with it, which cost about the same as the whole MPP kit, and a 12" Dallmeyer Dallon. I still have everything except the DD case - which was 'borrowed' with four of the DDs in it. The Lustrar isn't a bad lens. I used the MPP hand-held quite a lot.

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/8299985-md.jpg

Best,
Helen

[Robert Brummitt]

Mine is a Wisner 4x5 technical field. I had since the mid to late 80's. But, my RB67 has been with me longer. Since 1982.
Love them both.

[E. von Hoegh]

Mine would be a Linhof STIV factory three lens outfit that I purchased in 1987, all but the body came in the original boxes. It is also the first LF camera for me, unless you count a lawnsale camera in 1972 or so which disintegrated due to dried out glue as soon as I got it home. I did salvage the lens off that one, though.

[W K Longcor]

I got an Anniversary Speed Graphic in the spring of 1962. In the late 1960's, I sold it to a friend. In 1977, I realized my mistake and bought it back from him. Saddly, it sits on a shelf today -- unused in about 20 years. In 1965, I purchased a nice looking Kodak Master 4x5 ( the one that predated the early Calumets). Though I now have numerous other large format cameras -- I still own - love -- and use the Kodak Master. Back in the days before "computer aided" photographs, I did a lot of "special effects" work. Would move the film holder from Sinar to Kodak Master to another Sinar to an 8X10 with a 4x5 reducing back -- adding image upon image on a single piece of film. Now, THAT was photography at its most FUN!

[Vaughn]

New Gowland 4x5 PocketView (Calumet version), bought in about 1983 for a planned 6-month bicycle tour in NZ (1986/7). I bought it to replace a Rajah (knock off of Deardorf Special, bought in 1979) that was too heavy for backpacking/biking and leaked light on a previous NZ trip (1980/1). The Rajah was turned into a 5x7 camera (a Deardorf 5x7 back fit right on it w/o modification), but was stolen in 1995.

[premortho]

My first LF camera was a gift from my grandfather, a pre-anniversity speed graphic in 4X5. This was in 1948, when he says to me, "This camera is superfulous to my needs as I just found a 5X7 Speed graphic. Now everyone knows contact prints are better than enlarger prints" he continued "and 5X7 contact prints are the smallest ones you can see hung on a wall, so here you go." I was 10 years old at the time.

[anglophone1]

The War Department surplus MPP S.92 I bought in about '74 as a complete kit with Wray 89 mm Wide Angle Anastigmat and 184 mm f/4.5 Lustrar lenses, MPP flashgun, War Department darkslide case complete with RAF webbing shoulder strap and six wooden DDs (the glass plate type with separate metal film holder), two wire frame viewfinders, filter-holder lens hoods, WD yellow and red filters etc. I immediately bought a new Polaroid 545 holder to go with it, which cost about the same as the whole MPP kit, and a 12" Dallmeyer Dallon. I still have everything except the DD case - which was 'borrowed' with four of the DDs in it. The Lustrar isn't a bad lens. I used the MPP hand-held quite a lot.

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/8299985-md.jpg

Best,
Helen

Exactly the same kit as I learned to use as an assistant photographer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough some 40 or so years ago!

[IanG]

Exactly the same kit as I learned to use as an assistant photographer at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough some 40 or so years ago!

Do you think Helen will tell us which Park bench she's left the camera on :D

The value of MPP's has gone through the roof in recent years, people were giving them away a few years ago.

Ian

[Scott Davis]

Until recently, it was my Shen Hao HZX45 AT (no II... 3 digit serial #). But I sold it to help pay some legal bills, along with my Zone VI 8x10 (thank you, ex!). Now it would be my Canham 5x7, which I've had since 2003? 2004? It has since grown to also be a 5x12.

[Drew Bedo]

7437174372


Kodak 2-D: Bougght for a song during the Hay-day of the Houston Camera Show around 1992. Has the sliding tripod block but not the extension rail. Wish it had the extra rail. I have learned to work without front tilt.

Later in the '90s, I disassembled it as far as I could and did a gentle refinish. My attitude is that we cannot actually own them. We are merely stewards of these fine old cameras, keeping thim in good shape for their next "owner".


thinking about this a day or so later I realize that the 2-d is only the 2nd oldest.

The first LF in my life and still in the cabnet is an early Pre=Annaversary Graphic. I got it at one of the first camera shows I ever went to during the mid eighties in Houston. It has been re built or re-created by someone who salvaged a junker by gutting the shutter and removing all leather and other hardware (leather covering handle strap finder and RF etc) The holes in the body have bondo filling them. The bellows were replaced I think and the wood painted black inside and out. I replaced the spring back with a Graflok (they were surplis-cheap then().

I took the first images with that bellows-on-a-box by mounting a 135mm zeis tessar on a dial set compur shutter.

stilll have this set-up in a cabnet at home.

[graywolf]

1952 Crown Graphic, I've had it a couple of decades.
Toyo 45G, I've had it a couple of months (grin).

[Peter Gomena]

Zone VI 4x5 bought new in 1990.

Oldest old camera I owned the longest is a Seneca Black Beauty 5x7.

Peter Gomena

[cjbroadbent]

Me and my souped-up 4x5 reflex with custom bellows for a 360mm Stella. It had been adapted for modern film-holders. The shutter is now broken, and so am I.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CRfVI05EJRg/T8vqJuCzBgI/AAAAAAAALFA/mGiKQCbBc8M/s288/reflexD.JPG

[Howard Tanger]

I purchased a Calumet CC-400 in the early 1970's. Some forty years ago. Still own it.
Howard Tanger

[Ari]

Were the 70s really forty years ago?
Crap, feels like yesterday.

Christopher, you're looking pretty stylin'!

[Scott Squires]

Toyo-View 45AII. Purchased it in 1997 and it is still my 4x5 camera of choice! Build like a tank and easy to use!

[Michael Clark]

A 4x5 speed graphic bought in 1968 for $150. Came with a case, flash gun, 3 or 4 film holders and 127mm lens. Payed for it working at local store as a box boy,$1.50 a hour, that a lot of bags of grocery's for a camera. Still enjoy using it once in a while.

Mike

[livan]

I still have an 8x10 Gowland which I got early in the 90s and it still is with me and working well for the time being.

Would actually pay to see the other collections people still have with them and true enough, that would be something that would take my interest, in whatever is being sought as fit.

A local thrift store actually still has a huge collection in them.

[jchesky]

My first was a Speed graphic. Still own and shoot with it. Love barrel lenses.

[Kirk Fry]

I purchased a Calumet CC-400 in the early 1970's. Some forty years ago. Still own it and use it.
Built like a tank. Great starter camera. I even bought a long bellows version later.

[jk0592]

Well I must have the record here so far, a Cambo 4x5 that has been in my possession for 90 days or thereabouts, my first LF...

[Former Member 27732]

Interesting!
My first was an overpriced 2nd hand Cambo SC 4x5, found in Melbourne while I was here on a course in 1993. Shipped the thing back to NZ and used it off & on for a couple of years before it was relegated to its case. It and its successor (Cambo 45SF) were too heavy to lug around. Still have the SC, but it hasn't seen the light of day for some time.

/Frank...

[munz6869]

My Wista 45DXIII! Bought new in 2009...

Marc!

[Jiri Vasina]

My first sheet film camera was an Ica Ideal 325 that I bought in an antiquity shop in January 2006. It uses 10x15cm film, but I have modified it to use 9x12cm film which has better availability... I have shot only ~20 sheets with it, just to learn that large format is really what I want to use. It's only a living room decoration since then.

Since December 2006 I have a M.P.P. Technical Mk.VII 4x5" camera which saw a lot of use ... until I moved larger... but I still have it, and ocasionally use it. Especially for handheld family shots...

Since 2008 I have a Chamonix 5x8" and this one is the workhorse... more than 2/3 of all my LF negatives were shot with it... and I still have it...

Jiri

[Vick Ko]

Linhof Tech Master, had it for 11 years now. Not used much though.

[premortho]

Anniversity Speed Graphic. A gift from my grandfather in 1947. My only 4X5 camera until 2008, when I added a Burke&James Speed Press 4X5. So my SG is my walking around camera, B&J tripod camera. I normally use a 5X7 as 4X5 is too little for contact prints.

[jnantz]

pacemaker speed graphic purchased in 1988 from eplevines in boston

[Preston]

I still have my OmegaView 45E and Schneider-Xenar 210/f4.5 in a Copal-3 that was given to me by my dad in 1980. I haven't used it in some time. I next purchased a used Tachihara for my field work. Today, I use my Chamonix 045N-2 that I bought new last December.

--P

[Peter Lewin]

The 4x5 I owned the longest was my first, a Sinar F (before they had the F1 and F2!) which I probably bought in the early 1970s. I remember that I got a raise, visited the Witkin gallery in Manhattan which at the time was having an Ansel Adams exhibition, and had to decide whether to spend my new-found wealth on an AA print, or a camera. With the conceit of youth I decided that if I had the camera, I could make similar prints... In the early 1980s I added a Wista/ZoneVI field camera, and got an adaptor lens board for the Sinar so that I could use lenses mounted on the smaller Wista boards on both cameras. Ultimately I traded both in for a Canham DLC, which had close to the flexibility of the Sinar, with the weight of the Wista, and I wanted to simplify down to a single view camera. The Canham is the one I use today. Of course, I now occasionally miss the Sinar, with the wisdom of age I would be less worried about owning too many cameras.

[DarkroomDan]

I still have a "Brand 17" 4x5 that I got in '76. If I remember correctly, I paid $40 for the camera, a lens, 6 film holders, a dark cloth, and part of a box of Tri-X. The bellows has pretty much petrified and it now spends it's days in my collection of old cameras. The large format camera that I have owned longest and still use is a Deadorff 5x7.