Books on cameras

[belgiumreporter]

I went to visit an old scool friend of mine, he is or better was a serious Nikon collector and had all kinds of extremely rare stuff (Nasa, screw mount bodies and such).

However he grew weary of the burden of maintaining his collection as he found he was getting to old for all that. Exept for some digital bodies he's still using, everything else is sold.

Anyway we had a nice afternoon and evening reminicing the 'old' days over a good glass of wine. At the end of the evening he said to me "i still have something left for you" and came up with just about any book of interest that was written on the Nikon system and history.

Needless to say i was speechless but he insisted i would take them along as they now would be of better use to me than to him. From a brief browse through the books i can tell there's a wealth of information in them, lots of stuff i didn't know about and no matter how much info there is on the net, there's a lot more in these books than can be found on the net.

Even the Canon compendium blew me away with info on rare canon equipement and cameras i didn't know existed.

As icing on the cake some of these books are signed by the author(s) with personal messages. The following weeks i'll be studying the old fashionned way BOOKS! 

A big thanks to Frank for this incredible gift!

[raybar]

I just ordered the Canon Compendium. How have I lived so long without it?

[philbirch]

I'm starting to collect books on the cameras, there are a few there that I'd love.

I have books on Rollei, Polaroid, Leica, Wrayflex, Periflex, Purma, VPK and Canon rangefinder and would love to have other books.

Many of them were printed in small numbers and are therefore quite rare. And expensive.

Some books are well sought after like Princelles book on Soviet cameras. With the advent of cheap, quality printing these days it wouldn't be hard to produce a short run of books at a reasonable price. When questioned, the authors just say look for a used copy.

[belgiumreporter]

Mar 6, 2021 18:21:30 GMT -5 raybar said:

I just ordered the Canon Compendium. How have I lived so long without it?

Yes! for me the part  on (what went wrong with) the canonflexes is particulary interesting, even though it is written from a canon fanboy perspective    The part on the EF was also clarifying and i will get back on the EF in one of my following postings.

[Rachel]

I am a sucker for camera books. I have been collecting them for years even for some cameras I have never owned. Trouble is that I am running out of space. But that is also the problem with my CDs collection. Although I am a dedicated Canon girl I even have a few books on Nikon cameras

[paulhofseth]

The small books by Hartmut Thiele would be easier to store. Lots of interesting info on German cameras and camra industry as well as comprehensive lists of lens numbers for various makes.

p.

[belgiumreporter]

Now as much as i like books on cameras, i am very fond of old catalogues as well. just went trough this 1970-71 general catalogue where i found the page on Hasselblad.

The good thing is this is one of the rare occasions when prices are mentionned. I remember there was allways some 20% reduction on list prices, not so with Hasselblad. By the time i got to the shop to inquire about a standard 500c with WLF 80mm Planar and A12 back prices had risen to 52.000 belgium Francs ( some 1000$ at the 1972 exchange rate)

With some 11.000 Belgium francs as a starting photographer the Hassy was a remote dream and i had to settle for the firms Linhof color cardan and only studio work, no reporting!