Seminal cameras

[Rob C]

Rusty, why are you taking in vain the name of my venerable old Ford?

Rob C

[tom b]

Back on topic. I just saw a write up of the FinePix REAL 3D W3 camera. It does 2D, 3D and 3D HD video. Could be a gimmick or perhaps a seminal camera. More information here:

http://www.fujifilm.com.au/products/digital.asp?id=77&pid=1003&sid=1

Cheers,

[AFairley]

Olympus E-10.  First foray into the "designed from the ground up" DSLR world.  Sort of contemporaneous with the Canon D30.

[tom b]

Time to dig up an old dog, are there any seminal cameras since 2010?

Just thinking,

[GrahamBy]

Could I note:

Adjective[edit]
seminal (comparative more seminal, superlative most seminal)

Of or relating to seed or semen.
Creative or having the power to originate.
Highly influential, especially in some original way, and providing a basis for future development or research. quotations ▼
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was a seminal work in the modern philosophy of science.

To be seminal, it has to create a new direction that was followed in future developments, not just that it is "good". The OM-1 was seminal because it launched compact SLR's, the OM-4 wasn't, even if it was a better camera.

So I think it's safe to say that the Pentax 110 SLR was not seminal, and I doubt it is reasonable to say that a Lecia is seminal purely for being affordable "for a Leica". The original Leica was seminal because it launched the popularity of 35mm, otoh...

[langier]

Kodak's original Box Brownie camera, 100 round photos, brought photography to the masses.

For me, the Argus C-3, Rollieflex and the Veriwide 100.

The Argus from my neighbor in 7th or 8th grade got me started in 35mm. The Rollie came from a hock shop while in high school and got me into higher quality. Inbetween, a Miranda DR that took my first paying images 3 days after buying of my high school burning down (no, it was electrical on the 71 year old building :-). The Veriwide came as a senior in H.S. It "widened" my horizon in shooting that I still use nearly 50 years later...

[tom b]

Maybe the Sony Alpha a7R II, it sure got LuLa photographers salivating.

Cheers,

[Telecaster]

Brownie

Yep. Mine used 127 film. My mom bought it in the UK c. 1963. Everything since then has been icing. 

-Dave-

[Two23]

As a collector/user who has photo gear going back to the 1840s, I'll take a stab at it.

1. Giroux sliding box camera, 1839.  The first commercially available camera (generally made Daguerrotypes.)
2.  " Mousetrap" cameras, 1839, invented by Henry Fox Talbot.  (Made calotype/salt prints.)
3.  Lewis camera 1851, first camera with a bellows (generally used in wet plate photography.)
4. Dallmeyer stereo camera (1861), first successful commercially available twin lens camera, really got the stereoview genre rolling.
5.  Graflex (Folmer & Schwing), 1898, first camera with high speed focal plane shutter (1/500s, 1/1000s). A true breakthough!
6.  Kodak Brownie, 1900, introduced photography to the masses
7.  Kodak Vest Pocket, 1912, first successful pocket sized folding camera, favored by several early explorers
8.  Leica (invented 1913, produced in 1924), a quality pocket sized camera taking 35mm film. Interchangeable lenses 1933.  Latest generation still in production.
9.  Kine Exacta, 1936, (35mm), introduced the form most cameras still use today, interchangeable lenses
10. Hassleblad 500C, 1959, small sized professional camera with Zeiss interchangeable lenses
11. Nikon F, 1959, revolutionized camera design (a form still most common today.)
12.  Topcon RE Super, 1962, first mass produced camera with TTL metering
13.  Polaroid SX-70, 1968, first camera with autofocus
14.  Kodak DCS, 1991, first commercially produced digital pro camera
15.  Canon EOS D30, 2000, first popular DSLR
16.  Hassleblad HD1, 2004, first dedicated MF digital camera.


I own several of the above cameras, and they are just as exciting to use now as when the original owner had them!


Kent in SD

[tom b]

Time to dig up an old dog, are there any seminal cameras since 2010?

Just thinking,

Yep, seminal cameras, the Nikon D810 DSLR must have had medium format camera manufacturers very worried.

The Nikon D850 is just adding to their woes.

Maybe Sony is their saviour.

Cheers,

[BernardLanguillier]

I believe that the Canon 1Ds should belong to these list.

I find it much more significant than the D30.

As far as recent cameras go, the original Sony a7 is the one I would point out. The a7rII and other a7 variants are just minor upgrades in the grand scheme of things.

Cheers,
Bernard

[tom b]

I believe that the Canon 1Ds should belong to these list.

I find it much more significant than the D30.

As far as recent cameras go, the original Sony a7 is the one I would point out. The a7rII and other a7 variants are just minor upgrades in the grand scheme of things.

Cheers,
Bernard

Second the Canon 1Ds, at Au$17,000 for the body it was aspirational. Pro photographers sucked every Mp out of it.

Cheers,

[Rob C]

Can't, off the top of my head, remember the year I bought, but it was definitely post '09 and, stretching the date by a couple of hundred days, I'd put the D700 up there: many of the best features of the then kings, and at an affordable price, relatively speaking.

For me, other than the attraction of, per se, a Leica digital M, not much I'd think of trading that D700 for insofar as my current needs are concerned. Even were I rich, only the Leica would join the rest of the gang, with an EVF and a 90mm lens.

Rob

[petermfiore]

The one camera that changed my life was the Rollei 35...my everywhere third eye.

Peter

[Internaut]

Seminal cameras since 2010?  I’ll pick a Camera I’ve never owned: the Panasonic GF1.  It’s been copied many times since launch.  I’d also agree with the suggestion of the Sony A7RII.  Never before had so much resolution been crammed into something that, thanks to the electronic shutter tech, could be easily used hand-held.  Oh, and a camera I do still own and use: the Ricoh GR.

[adias]

What about the Pentax Spotmatic?

[KLaban]

There are seminal cameras that are as such on a personal level and others that are as such on an industry changing level. The latter are fewer and further apart than the former.

[petermfiore]

There are seminal cameras that are as such on a personal level and others that are as such on an industry changing level. The latter are fewer and further apart than the former.

100% correct...Seminal has to be relative state.

Peter

[amolitor]

The seminal cameras of today strike me as the ones that are doing computational photography. The dual lens phones, the light-field cameras, that kind of thing.

These are not simply iterations and improvements on things we already know about, these are fundamentally new ways of taking pictures in the same way that the digital sensor was a new way. Of course, if computational photography fizzles out, they won't have been seminal, but I do not think that is going to happens. We're going to see focus, depth of field, and lighting itself moved into a post-exposure phase, at least in consumer "I just want pictures" photography, and it appears to be happening now.

[32BT]

I believe from the digital age the Panasonic LX100 deserves to be mentioned because of its lens?