Se desideri questo testo in italiano, clicca qui The idea to collect "innovative" 35mm cameras came to me after collecting, for many years, specific cameras of specific factories. Very early on, this line of collecting became self defeating. I found that I bought expensive cameras to complete a camera line. I was, however, not buying less expensive, but more significant cameras in terms of importance. I began to question whether it was more important to buy the model variation with the extra screw in the top plate and the red speed settings, or perhaps for example, to buy a less expensive, but beautiful Topcon RE Super, which is certainly a milestone in 35mm SLR development. To be sure, this single theme or "monothematic" collecting specialization gave the great satisfaction at the beginning, when it was simple to find models at low prices and in mint condition, but time after time, camera after camera, research became more difficult and less interesting. Based on these and other considerations and born from an interest in the usual themes. I discovered that I already had some innovative cameras , and that it was easy and not expensive to buy important cameras. Often their guide price did not take into consideration their real historical value. The pleasure to use each of theses different cameras, the discovery of the numerous technical solutions adopted, some really astonishing in their simplicity or the inventiveness of the makers, the possibility to use various lenses, rekindled my diminished enthusiasm for collecting. So I compiled my list, often guided by wrong books or reviews, discovering that this theme was quite open ended. Even after some years of doing this research, my work is uncompleted: often some technical solutions adopted, or some clever aspect disappeared into thin air. For example solar powered cameras have vanished, while others, ordinary in the apparence, and which we take for granted today, like a self-timer led, have became universal. |
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click on me !from 26 Oct 1998
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