My hunt began some four and a half years ago with a birthday gift of a Holga 120N, my first film camera.
Little did I know that now over 50 months later I would have shot at least one roll of film with over 120 film cameras and owned maybe 50 more.
I didn’t set out to be a collector, but what happened with film was that using the equipment came to equal, maybe even eclipse the final photograph.
Pre-film, I shot first with phone cameras, mostly Sony (Ericsson), simply because it was the camera I always had with me.
A few years later I invested in a fantastic little Nikon CoolPix.
Like the phone cameras, the compact Nikon was really just a tool, something super pocketable that I could take with me when out walking and capture something of the beautiful things I found.
But even from the early days using the humble Holga, the sensations of unwrapping and loading the film, winding it on after each shot, then having to wait to see the results, were all new to me and tremendously engaging and exciting.
And still are.
Add to this the side of my personality that loves shiny new (to me) toys to play with, and I soon found I was seeking out new possibilities of film – the greater convenience, compactness and affordability of 35mm, plus all the different cameras to shoot it with.
As I write this I feel as settled with my small arsenal of film cameras as I have ever done.
At the heart, five SLRs (Contax, Contax, Contax, Asahi Spotmatic, Canon EOS), accompanied by a handful of compacts, including arguably my favourite I’ve used, the humble Olympus Mju-1.
For further variety I have a Kiev-2A (the oldest camera I have ever, c1956) and a not much newer Voigtlander Vito B.
The little I use the latter two, I could easily sell them too, relying on the wonderful Spotmatic for when I wanted the unplugged all manual mechanical experience.
But, as I mentioned when we began, I didn’t get here quickly!
The system that has worked for me in finding the film cameras (and lenses) I love most, has been pretty simple, and can be summed up in three words -Test, Best, Rest.
To expand a little –
Test
We all have to start somewhere. The first 35mm film camera I bought was a Lomo Smena 8M, surprisingly manual in retrospect – I could have chosen something far more automated.
My first SLR was a Praktica BMS Electronic, a solid and serious leather coated chunk of German engineering and electronics. The pictures from my first roll were a revelation – I had discovered (unintentionally!) shallow depth of field and bokeh!
This opened the floodgates and I went on various voyages of exploration with my reading and browsing images online to find the next port of call, seeing how cameras of a similar style (eg, SLR) differed between models and manufacturers.
In other words I just set about testing different kit to find what I liked. Which leads us to the second word and stage – Best.
Best
After a while (and indeed even after trying two cameras), you can make an informed decision about which camera you like best. It can’t be a judgement based on all the cameras in the world, because no-one has used all the cameras in the world, but only what you’ve used thus far.
Plus sometimes, indeed often, it’s not a decision based on the spec sheet or technical prowess of the kit, but more about how it makes you feel when you hold and use it.
With me for example, after trying Praktica, Konica and Canon, I found I much preferred Pentax, especially the M range – ME, ME Super, MV et al. I just really liked how it felt to hold them, wind them on and shoot film with them.
Each time you try something you like better than anything you’ve liked before, you have your new yardstick.
These of course become the cameras you keep, the ones you can’t wait to use again, the ones that seem to call you from the shelf they sit on each time you pass…
Rest
So what happens when you compare two cameras and like one better than the other? You have a choice.
If one is amazing and the other is even more amazing, but slightly different, you might want to keep both.
But if one is clearly preferable, and you feel that every time you picked up the “inferior” camera you’d be wondering why you weren’t shooting with your favourite, then it’s probably time to let it go.
It becomes one of “the rest”, that don’t quite make the grade for you, but might become someone else’s new (old) favourite camera. You can either sell it on, and use the funds for a future purchase, or donate to a charity shop, or photographic friend.
So that’s the methodology I use, and the journey I’ve been on over the last four and a half years, very simply.
Test, test, test, keep the Best, sell/donate the Rest.
There are still I’m sure thousands of cameras I’ve not tried and never will. But I’m ok with that.
The ones I do have are special enough to make me not want to use anything else, or to seek any further.
Have you found your ideal film camera(s)? How did you go about it?
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35hunter 
Nicely done, as ever ✔
Thanks Stu. Have you found your ideal film camera(s)?
Hah, all I know is that it was never my ambition to own only one camera, still true now. If shooting for myself I only really know as I leave the house – could be anything, but I do keep it simple on the day.
Looking forward your next post. Cheers
Stu, do you ever find you’re about to leave the house and can’t decide? When I know I’m going to have some time to go out with a camera, I try to decide in advance which camera/lens/film to use, otherwise even with my now quite modest collection the combinations can be overwhelming!
Just tell my why I’m stuck forever in the ‘Test’ phase? OK, there’s some cameras I tried, sold and bought again (got an Olympus Trip 35 on the way…again). It’s part of the ‘Best’ but I just keep testing… gotta get some professional help to cure my G.A.S. I guess.
I’m not sure Frank! I’m still in the test phase in some ways, I’ve just gone full circle from the Sony phone cameras I first starting making photos with about a decade ago and bought a used Sony Alpha DSLR! It’s the AF mount Sony inherited from Minolta, so I’ve been exploring some old Minolta AF glass. Great fun and very impressive results so far.
But with film SLRs and compacts, I think I’ve probably got as good as it gets, so it’s time to stop collecting and shoot with what I have.
Yep, for the moment I have my Leica IIIa (I’ll never let that one go), an Olympus XA2, a Trip 35, and then the Canon SLRs, an AE-1, A-1, T70 and T90. Way too many for comfort. At least for my taste. I have to make me concentrate on the essential cameras. Will try… hard.
Frank, that’s a very modest collection compared to many. But if you wanted to streamline further maybe just keep one “manual” Canon SLR (AE-1 or A1) and one “electronic” one (T70 or T90)?
I struggle with the Best part. There are cameras I just don’t like. But the ones that clear some likeability bar I tend to see like various Swiss Army knives. If I need a corkscrew and a screwdriver in my pocket, I grab the Swiss Army knife that has both on it. So there are days my Nikon F2AS is *absolutely* the right tool for its precision and fabulous meter, and other days it’s my Canon A2e because it offers exposure modes and is fast to handle, and other days I grab my Pentax ME because it’s so light and easy to carry. I guess all three of these cameras are Best in different situations.
Yeh I think you’ve summed it up Jim, different cameras for different occasions. I love my Contax bodies, but sometimes I want to go old school all manual and Sunny 16 with the Spotmatic, or super light and compact with the EOS 300V. Fortunately with the availability of adapters I can use my same beloved M42 lenses on all of them! This was a key for me – narrowing down to predominantly one lens mount, but having a variety of bodies to use them with.
Hi Dan
Just found your very fine blog here, and can’t wait to go through it.
I’m very much a manual shooter myself, but also got a few with aperture priority automatic on board. I like to test cameras, but have to say I’m a bit more about the pictures these days than just the cameras themselves. I got a bunch of Nikons, as that’s just convenient for me as I do own a few quite nice lenses for the system and like to stick with them. When I leave the house I usually will grab either a Nikon FM2 or a Nikon F3, or I decide to travel light and choose a Leica just because I love the rangefinders and the smooth operation of them. As you say, it’s mostly about feeling and how you feel about the different cameras. How they fit you more than any other issue, I think. If they’re automatic or manual is of less importance most of the time (to me, anyway), but sometimes you clearly will choose by that criteria only.
And some days you want something completely different, and just have to let that old Voigtländer with sticky shutter get out in some fresh air.
Hi Roy, thanks for your thoughts.
Funny you should write about this, I’m half way through a post about how I choose different cameras for different moods, and why one camera doesn’t suit every urge!
Excellent Dan. That just means there will be a lot more food for thoughts coming my way some time soon then 🙂
Keep up the great work!
Yes, thanks Roy, off to write now!
It’s hard to choose the ‘ideal’ body, something I’ve gone back and forth on for a while. My favorite is the Pentax Spotmatic SPII, and I’ve owned that one since 2010. Right now if I had to choose one camera and one lens for the rest of my life it would be the Spotmatic with a 1.8/55 SMC Takumar lens, but there are times when I break out some of the old rangefinders for a while, just for something different, but Pentax is the first love. I’d be curious to try out the LX as I think it would be the only way I’d upgrade to K-mount lenses, but until that happens I’m quite happy with the Spotmatic.
I love the Spotmatics too. I’ve had an F, 500 and an ES.
Have you tried any K mount bodies? An MX?
One of the first cameras I owned was the Pentax A3000 which I used a lot in those first few years (2010-2013). Definitely did what I needed it to, and a camera that ran off AA batteries was very convenient for me. I only had off-brand zooms to use with it though, and eventually the Takumar grabbed my heart. I’ve come across a few K1000s every now and then (all in pretty bad shape), I put a roll through an SF-1 (much too modern). I also think part of the problem is that I’ve not been too terribly impressed with the M-series lenses, but have started accumulating the previous K lenses that are supposed to be optically identical to the Takumars, picked up a KX at the same time but unfortunately the meter doesn’t work. The MX looks alright but doesn’t give me anything I don’t already have on the Spotmatic, so why change? Most of my camera acquisitions are bargain finds at thrift stores and garage sales, if I’m going to search out a particular camera body, I want something with more features, that can still shoot manual, plus the LX is supposed to be the equal of the Nikons, so why not eh?