Classic Camera Reviews

As I confidently predicted last time, you can’t possibly please everybody when it comes to picking the best, the greatest, or the most influential cameras ever made. After we posted our list of The Top 20 Greatest Cameras of All Time, it came as no surprise that we received a ton of emails, varying in tone from pugnacious condemnation, to anguish, to polite suggestion, all begging to differ with our first top ten choices.

A score of digital and analog cameras that set standards for their era and pointed to the future.

I’m a fanatic when it comes to classic 35mm rangefinder cameras. And based on 50+ years of hands-on experience, I’m confident that the very best analog rangefinder cameras do embody something special that’s mostly lacking in today’s digital marvels.

Back in 2005, before Sony launched their Alpha line of interchangeable-lens digital cameras, they introduced the very unusual DSC-R1 “bridge” camera, which offered a highly regarded zoom lens, a wide ISO range of 160-3200, and an APS-C 10.3 MP CMOS sensor. The camera even featured a two-inch swiveling and rotating LCD, which was a pretty big deal in 2005.

Today’s digital cameras have become so adept at almost any shooting situation that, paradoxically, they can inhibit creativity by always delivering a technically perfect result. With little effort, a photographer can produce a sharp, clear, well-exposed image, color balanced and, well, a bit too perfect.

Here are some tips I discovered when researching this month’s column. One was from my wife who uses this technique all the time—smile! And you know what, people smile back, making you appear friendly and non-threatening. The other was from Michael Archambault, who suggests you “acknowledge that street photography is not perfect.” Or as my grandfather once told me, “If you spend your whole life looking for happiness, it’ll make you miserable.”