SLR Choices, choices, choices, Olympus, Nikkormat or Leica?

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SLR Choices, choices, choices, Olympus, Nikkormat or Leica?

14 posts & 7 voices | Started 2 years ago by PePPeR | Latest reply from user-removed

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PePPeR - Member

My Father passed away recently and left me with a rather large amount of cameras to sort out (125 Bodies alone)

Now I want to keep one of the classic SLR's for myself and the rest to sell, which one of the following cameras would be your choices and why please?

Olympus first, probably my Fathers favourite brand,

Om-1 Needs a new conversion piece to use modern batteries
OM -10, Om-10 was the camera my father gave me to replace my Zenith EM,
Battery and light meter are still fine after all these years.

Nikkormat FT2 all working complete with 1:3.5 55mm, 1:2.8 24mm 1:2.8 135mm land a Sigma Zoom of 1:5.6 120-300mm.

Or Leica Flex SL with Summicron 1:2/50, elmarit 1:2.8/35 and a Sigma zoom of 1:4.5 70-210mm.

So you see I have a few choices!

Other SLR's are Olympus OM701, Pen F, Nikon F401, F5, EM M 90, Canon, EOS 600, EOS 1000F. But in my minds eye those Four are the stand out SLR bodies for me.

Please do not get me started on which Range Finder I'm going to keep today please!

Posted 2 years ago #
vinnyeh - Member

Pen F, personally.

Posted 2 years ago #
PePPeR - Member

Mmm Quite a nice camera, Got 2 Pen F bodies and a Pen D too. I do like the half frame, idea, but there's only one lense I've found so far,

Posted 2 years ago #
Hairychested - Member

OM1 is lovely, no need for anything else.

Posted 2 years ago #
vinnyeh - Member

Mmm Quite a nice camera, Got 2 Pen F bodies and a Pen D too. I do like the half frame, idea, but there's only one lense I've found so far,

They'll use any Zuiko/OM manual lens with an adaptor. That's one of the beauties of them. Instant 2x focal length conversion.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

Good grief, 125 ?? Did he use them all, or was he just a collector ? I still feel sentimental about my (2) old camera bodies - OM4 and Canon EOS 500, but I know full well I'll probably never use them again, and they now seem hopelessly restrictive compared to my D300. I'd say OM1 as I used to have one and it still puts DSLRs to shame in terms of size of both body and lenses. Why are digital SLRs so much bigger when the OMI had to have room for a film transport too ?

Posted 2 years ago #
PePPeR - Member

Ooo thanks vinny, thats really worth knowing, I am leaning towards the Olympus side of things, its what I know and grew up with.
.
Its the rest of the collection thats staggering, there are 9 Leicas to sort out with upto 4 lenses for each of them

Posted 2 years ago #
PePPeR - Member

Simonf, there's film in most of them and he used around 10 on a regular basis, he loved the smaller cameras, like the Rollei 35s and Minolta GL, he was a pharmacist and so was always surrounded by cameras and the developing side of the business and the amount of photographs we've got to go through are staggering. (Probably compares with your output I reckon Simon).

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

(Probably compares with your output I reckon Simon).

Impressive given that it's so much easier with digital!

Posted 2 years ago #
user-removed - Member

I was in a similar situation a few years ago - my grandad left a whole car load of Leica bodies and lenses, along with a huge collection of modern (non digi!) Nikon gear.

Unfortunately, I wasn't in the same happy position as you - I was merely given the job of selling it all on ebay

Given the choice, I would absolutely keep the Leica outfit. No question. Partly for the kudos, and partly for the quality of both glass and body.

Second choice would be the Nikkormat outfit (but ditch the Sigma zoom). It's definitely worth checking the foam seals on the bodies you decide to keep - the older Nikkormats' seals (on the door) tend to degrade and become sticky. You can buy replacement kits for about a fiver on ebay.

In terms of expanding a lens collection, the Nikkormat outfit wins.

The F5 is a fantastic camera (had one and sold it) but really is a bit pointless now - why carry around a massive lump of a camera? It's unlikely you'd want to use it in the way in which it was intended (professionally, blasting off 5+ frames per second).

For what it's worth, I use all my old Nikons with B&W or infra red film.

P.S. - Sorry for your loss.

Posted 2 years ago #
khegs - Member

Surely the Viewfinder choice will be easy, keep the M3

Posted 2 years ago #
Lionheart - Member

OM1 for me, I have had a few of the above and the one I have kept along side the others is an OM1, one great aspect is it keeps working once the battery has gone! Can anything do that today!? I have managed to get a small collection of the old batteries - still available in places. Might want to hold on to Nikon (small one if poss) .... Good luck

Posted 2 years ago #
PePPeR - Member

Funnily enough there's no M3, he preferred the M2.

User Removed, I'm in a similar position too, what I keep I will have to contribute too as there are other people with an interest in the proceeds, I'm already having to spend a fortune to keep my Dads Panasonic DMC L-1

Posted 2 years ago #
user-removed - Member

Well, one of my life's greatest regrets is selling a black paint M4 to some anonymous Japanese collecter - I had it serviced by a London outfit (they also service the Queen's Leica's apparently!) and it was quite simply, a thing of beauty - both to look at and to use.

The first roll of film through yielded 36 out of focus negs of me staring into the lens - the shutter was so quiet I thought it was broken and was looking to see if I could see the apperture opening and closing. Doh.

Unfortunately, it was worth nearly £4000 just because of the paint job, so it had to go

So keep as many as you feel you can afford!!

Posted 2 years ago #

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