ken zirkel

Here are all the cameras that I’ve owned or used. This is an updating of a previous post.

Film

• Kodak Instamatic: 1970’s; my first camera as a kid. Surprisingly, I did quite a bit of planned model shooting, specifically a set of my friend Jeffrey posing as a “Wacky Statue of Liberty” holding up various odd items
• Agfa Silette LK; 1982; my dad gave me this old Agfa rangefinder (I think it had been owned by my grandfather) in high school. I mostly shot snaps of my friends. I quickly grew out of it …
• Olympus OM-10: 1983; my first SLR. I think I got it as a Christmas gift. It had a weird removable shutter speed dial (in case you didn’t want to shoot manually?) Where you would expect a shutter speed dial, there was an ISO dial. Mostly used it for shooting snapshots of school life and friends.
• Olympus OM2SP: I vaguely remember getting this when going off to college. I’m sure it was a matter of, a new camera came out and therefore it must be better.
• Olympus OM-1: 1987; when I was working at the photo desk at the college camera store. Some lady bought a new camera, and she didn’t know what to do with her old OM-1. I offered her $20 on the spot, and she accepted! I later gave it away to a friend who was an Olympus afficianado.

Yearbook

When I worked on my college yearbook, I had access to their collection of high-end Canon film gear. This was the age when camera manufacturers were beginning to add more electronics into their gear, and we saw the first experiments with autofocus. Canon had just introduced their autofocus EOS mount in 1987, but it did not yet dominate the market. The yearbook had invested thousands in high-end manual focus FD mount cameras and lenses.

• Canon “New” F1 This was the main workhorse at the college yearbook. God, what an amazing camera, it was built like a tank and a dream to use.
• Canon T90: This was the first all-electronic camera and a revolutionary statement from Canon.

Post-college film (1988-2003)

When I graduated from college, I had to take a look at my own camera situation. I felt, justly or not, that the Olympus line was not suitable for the kind of serious work I was expecting to do. I loved the Canon New F1 and T90 combination very much; that would have been my choice, but for the fact that Canon had introduced a new lens mount, and was clearly abandoning the old FD mount. On the other side, the fact that Nikon was sticking with their F mount meant that I could economize by purchasing 30 years’ worth of used lenses, and I could match old gear with new bodies and lenses. This, plus the fact that the Nikon FE and FM were first-rate, affordable bodies (much cheaper than the Canon F1 or T90), made Nikon the practical choice.

• I briefly had a Nikon 8008. This was Nikon’s attempt at an all-electronic body, years after the Canon T90. Yet it was not nearly as well-built as the T-90. I became frustrated with it, and since I am a traditionalist at heart, I sold it pretty quick.
• Nikon FE black body (tres chic)
• Nikon FM2n also black body. The FE and FM were my workhorse cameras through the 1990’s. They were marvelous pieces of engineering. I think the FE and FM were among the best values in cameras that were ever sold. They were made to high standards; pros would often keep an FM (or FM2) as a backup body. I loved my Nikons, but I do think, in retrospect, that I would have preferred a T90 and “New F-1″ combo like I had at college. But this was a more affordable pair
• Lenses
• 20mm f/2.8 Nikkor: Bought it from a creepy used-lens seller in Ithaca, NY
• 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor with nice metal lens hood
• 85mm f/1.8 Nikkor old style lens with manual AI conversion. A classic.
• 200mm f/4 inexpensive tele. What I really wanted was a 180mm f/2.8.
• 300mm f/4: I remember I paid $300 for 300mm. I hardly ever used this lens. It was the first one I sold when I moved to digital.

Other film cameras

• Rolleiflex 120 camera I purchased used from Berger Brothers on Long Island.
• 4×5 Speed Graphic: I think I was given this camera, not sure. I think I shot about a dozen sheets of film with it, then sold it. it was too awkward to use.
• Olympus Stylus Epic: In the film days, one’s choice of point-and-shoot camera was pretty clear. The Olympus Stylus, and later the Stylus Epic, were the “pocket” camera of choice for serious shooters.
• Widelux F8 I loved this awkward, strange little panoramic camera. I occasionally wish that I had kept it, although scanning the film was a big annoyance.

Digital

• Nikon Coolpix 950 (1999): The first digital I used much was one of those early Coolpix models with the swivel body. I was intrigued by the design and I was amazed by the quality. It was owned by my employer, but it probably spent more time at my house than at work.
• Nikon Coolpix 990: work upgraded their camera
• Nikon Coolpix 4500: I couldn’t afford the $1500 or so for a DSLR in those days, so I scraped together what money I could find to buy this, which was pretty much the top point-and-shoot digicam of its day. With that camera, I photographed dozens of images for iStockphoto, and it continues to pay for itself over and over again.
• Nikon Coolpix 8700 (borrowed from work)
• Canon D30: 2001; At the college I worked at, the photographer had upgraded from the D30 to D60, and then the 1D. At the point when she had three bodies, she let me borrow the D30 from time to time. It was my first experience using a DSLR, and it definitely influenced my decision to buy Canon myself, years later.
• Canon 20D: Actually I bought the Rebel version first, and I hated it. I returned it and got the 20D, which I do not regret. In many ways, the 20D is all the camera that I, personally, need. However, my stock agency does not agree, therefore I upgraded to …
• Canon 5D: a fine piece of machinery and a great value. It’s a lot of megapixels, and a heavy thing to be carrying around. Honestly, it’s more camera than I really personally require, but as I say, my stock agency does require it. I’m privileged to be able to own one of these.

Also-rans

In addition to those, I have a few digital point-and-shoot cameras, including a Coolpix 700 I bought for the kids and a Panasonic DMC-LX2. Update: I have upgraded my LX2 to an LX3 in mid-September 2008.