All the cameras I own are OLD - even the digital ones!

My most used cameras are Nikon D3's and D700's. From around 2007/2008 if I remember correctly. I just love the sound of the mirrors slamming up and down and the clear view of the subject through the optical viewfinders. I also love the size and how the big cameras handle--heavy and solid like cameras should feel, like they did when I was using F and F2 bodies years ago. But what I really love is the files that come from those 12 fat megapixels on the 24x36 sensor. Higher resolution sensors fail in comparison.

My other cameras are Fuji X-Pros and the X100S. They're older models too. My back doesn't hurt so bad after carrying them around and they're nice and quiet--very well mannered cameras, socially acceptable in a way. The images are nice too. Sometimes you wanna feel discreet. Sometimes you wanna make noise. I contain multitudes.
 
When I retired two years ago I was still using my D800 and Df. I still have the Df and probably won’t part with it but added a Fuji X-T3 and lenses. I didn’t care anything about the 40mp of the T5 and was so so on the IBIS of the T4. The T3 delivers everything I expected and complements my Df so I bought a new open box T3 and very happy I did.

I found some time ago newer doesn’t equate to better. I put together samples from each of the digital cameras I’d owned since 2000 and pretty much, if used under good light, the image quality of each were excellent and perfectly usable.
 
There are always incremental advances in sensor tech but the steps are much smaller now than in prior years. I’m pretty amazed by the dynamic range and high ISO of my Z6 which is nearly six year old tech.

Newer cameras have higher res and faster processing and amazing AF capabilities, none of which I need. I don’t have any AF lenses anyway. 😀

This camera will be more than sufficient for many years.
 
My most recent camera is a Pentax K-5iis from 2012. This APS-C DSLR has a Sony 16mp sensor that is very very good, even by today’s standards. Pentax made a quantum leap going from the Samsung sensor based models K20D and K-7, which were hardly usable above ISO400, to the K-5 generation with Sony sensors. If I someday stumble upon loads of cash, I would be very tempted to acquire a Pentax K-1ii, but for now I am happy with my 11 years old Pentax K-5iis (and lots of nice film cameras👍)
 
The newest camera body I own is a Leica M8.2, which has about 7500 actuations on its shutter. I have two M4-Ps, and one M4, and a host of Leica lenses, from 28mm through 90mm. I have owned and used the analog equipment since the mid 1980's, the M8.2 was purchased about seven years ago. Unless something goes terribly wrong, I don't foresee updating any hardware. If (or should I say "when") the M8.2 bricks, I'll likely NOT replace it with any Leica digital body (I like living mortgage-free.).
 
I seem to have got myself stuck in the year 2012...

Nikons. D800, two. D700, two. D90, one. Ten D lenses (20mm-300mm). The 18-55 kit lens for the D90, surprisingly useful. Lots of accessories dating to the 1980s, not often used.

Of that arsenal of Nikons, I mostly use one of the D800s and now and then the D90 as a walkabout camera.

Fuji XE2, five Fujinon lenses. My walkabout camera. (Used quite a lot when I travel as it's so light, and my "newest" camera, ha!)

Panasonic Lumix G9, two lenses.

For the moment I will leave out the film cameras - My beloved Leica iig with three lenses (more a showpiece now than a user, but I still adore it), two Nikkormat FT2s and five Nikon lenses, two Nikon F65s, two 1950s folders, three Rolleiflexes, one Rolleicord.

Maybe one or two more I've forgotten, tucked away in storage boxes.

I should take most of my gear out, dust it off and maybe flog it off to people who will use them. Some day.

Last month I did consider buying the newly-released Nikon Zf. But then I thought, if I sold off my entire lot of gear, I could MAYBE make enough to buy that Zf and one or two Z lenses. As I use mostly a 28 and an 85, such a kit would serve me well for the rest of my life.

All that expense. In the end, I probably won't bite at the bait.

If camera manufacturers relied on the likes of me for their business, they would soon all be closing down. So yes, I'm a traitor...

Too many old cameras. Like my gear, I'm old-timer.
 
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mfunnell said:
Another camera from 2012!
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I think this applies to computers as well ... the improvements from here on are incremental. I have an iMac from that era and and I am still totally satisfied with it and probably will be as long as it keeps working.
 
mfunnell said:
The most recent camera I own (aside from my iPhone), which I kind of regard as 'new' (even though I've had mine nearly two years now), is a Canon 5D mark IV - and that model is from freakin' 2016!!

Seven years old!! Which in "digital camera years" (which I've kind of regarded like "dog years", only worse) is freakin' ancient! I'm not sure if this bugs me, or why it should if it does (I don't think it does). They still take photos just as well as they always did. I can still print from them as large as I care to, for the uses I make of each of them
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A mid grade to high end camera from 2016 is still a great camera. My Olympus EM5 II is still a great camera as long as you don't expect it to magically perform by 2023 autofocus and high ISO standards.

There's a point somewhere around 2015 (randomly plucked date) where all serious cameras can still be used for serious purposes today.
 
Keith said:
I think this applies to computers as well ... the improvements from here on are incremental. I have an iMac from that era and and I am still totally satisfied with it and probably will be as long as it keeps working.
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The MacBook Pro 13" from mid-2012 was sold new by Apple until 2016. The 15" i7 quad-core MacBook Pro from 2012 was almost as powerful and fast as the similar models from 2015. The 2012 i7 Mac Mini was a milestone as well. Yeah, 2012 was an important year for innovation.
 
Keith said:
I think this applies to computers as well ... the improvements from here on are incremental. I have an iMac from that era and and I am still totally satisfied with it and probably will be as long as it keeps working.
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Running DOS on a 2.7GHz I5 with a 512GByte SATA drive is like going to Warp 10 compared to my Leading Edge Model M.
It's the damned modern operating systems that make computers slow.
 
My EDC is a Fuji X-Pro3 purchased in September of 2021. But my EDC before then from about 2014-2021 was an X-Pro1, which I still take out and shoot with quite often. The frame line accuracy is not great and it's slower, but the files are stupid easy to work with.

I've shot a lot more film this year and these past couple months have increasingly gone out with either a Leica M3, Minolta XG-M, Canon AF35M or any 2 of those 3, eschewing digital altogether.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
Running DOS on a 2.7GHz I5 with a 512GByte SATA drive is like going to Warp 10 compared to my Leading Edge Model M.
It's the damned modern operating systems that make computers slow.
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Components of them are. I put Linux Mint 21 on my Laptop and tried the new "Cinnamon" UI. Fugly and slower than you know what. sudo apt Install XFCE4 & boom, it's faster than it ever was running anything else. Much more fun to run my NextStep & Interlisp emulators on.

Runs ART 1.20.2 beautifully as well if I want to travel with either digital camera.
 
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