Ilford Sportsman
This is another camera that just “turned up” in my unofficial collection. For those of you who haven’t been following this blog closely (and why haven’t you?), I don’t collect cameras, they just sort of appear.
The Ilford Sportsman was made by the German company Dacora for the British photographic film and paper manufacturer, Ilford. [...]
Zeiss Ikon Contina
One of the cameras in the cupboard has a significant place in my life for a number of reasons. It is a Zeiss Ikon Contina.
In 1955 my mother’s eldest sister, my aunt Ruth, decided to leave our home town of Geelong and travel to Europe. This was not a common thing to do [...]
Agfa Clack
This is another purchase. I saw it sitting in a second-hand junk shop complete with its “leather” case and instruction leaflet and I just had to add it to the collection.
The Clack began production in 1953 and continued through until 1965. A twelve-year production run is unheard of in the digital age.
The camera is [...]
Agfa Optima 1
This little Agfa range finder was my second camera. But it also had several firsts to its credit. It was my first 35mm camera. It was the first camera I bought with my own money and it was the first time I used colour film.
As my interested in photography grew, I wanted to [...]
As I have mentioned before, my family, especially my mother’s side, always seemed to have had a camera on hand at family gatherings; birthdays, Christmas, picnics and the like. So I grew up thinking that having a camera and photographing family events was just what people did.
The first camera I remember is my father’s Kodak [...]
Minolta SRT101
This is the most recent addition to my small collection. I never owned a Minolta SRT101, but it was a direct competitor with the type of camera I did use for more than 20 years and several of my friends used them. This camera was removed from the boot of a car in an [...]
My First Camera
The Kodak Instamatic 25 was produced between 1966 and 1972. I received mine as a Christmas present from my parents in 1967. I would like to think that mum and dad were trying to nurture my budding photographic talent, but I think dad was just tired of me ‘borrowing’ his box Brownie when [...]
Zorki 4
The second in this series of cameras in my cupboard is a Russian Soviet Zorki 4. It is another purchase; in fact it was the first item I ever won in an eBay auction.
The Zorki was made by the KMZ factory in a suburb of Moscow. The factory began producing cameras heavily based on [...]
Let me be clear about this. I am not a collector. I just happen to have one or two cameras that aren’t currently being used. So, OK, maybe more than one or two.
Most of these have just turned up over the years, family members have handed over a few because they know I like cameras [...]