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Survivor cameras

Lars

Active member
I think it's interesting to note what compact cameras did (and didn't) survive over the years. Treating cameras like tools (you know, a crowbar?), here's my experience:

Ricoh GR1:
No survivor. Power button too easily activated when packed, resulting in a broken lens mechanism. This happened more than once; I broke two of them. The LCD on the second one quit.

Canon S45:
Survivor? Not sure. I still have it, but never quite liked it so it didn't get much use. In all honesty, it did survive Chile.

Sony DSC-W1:
Survivor! Followed me everywhere over a year in Australia - bull dust, canyon descents, accidental creek dips, ocean cliffs in storms, South Sea waves, hundreds of hours out in the dunes. And about a million or so road ruts. Still works like a charm (although image quality was never stellar).
What makes this camera take a beating or five is that it's no typical Japanese miniaturization engineering masterpiece. As far as compacts go, it's outright clumsy. AA batteries, gigantic Memorystick cards, deeply recessed LCD, reeeally thick body all covered in aluminum. It bounces well on granite, tested more than once :).

Canon G9:
Don't really know - pampered it, sold it after two months. Just not the compact I wanted.

Lars
 

sizifo

New member
I think it's interesting to note what compact cameras did (and didn't) survive over the years. Treating cameras like tools (you know, a crowbar?), here's my experience:

Ricoh GR1:
No survivor. Power button too easily activated when packed, resulting in a broken lens mechanism. This happened more than once; I broke two of them. The LCD on the second one quit.

Lars
Can't comment on the others. But I've treated mine quite rough, and it's fine so far. One solution to the button problem is to get the ricoh leather bag.

My old nikon coolpix 5000 went through some amazingly rough times, and always came out on top. It still works, but I don't really use it any more.
 

Tim

Active member
Hi

Contax T2:
No survivor, took great images, loved the build Q, still worked when I sold it. It was worth too much and was sold to finance something else - regret selling it.

Nikon AF600
No survivor, cheap but good build, fixed 28mm lens was good performer. I still can't explain why I sold it, again it still worked when sold.

Contax T3
Survivor, still have it, even bought a spare. A jem, high yield rate for me from this camera. Best film compact made IMHO, someone send me a free GR1v to prove me wrong ;-)

Leica CM
No survivor, probably slightly better IQ than the Contax, but for me the Contax T3 wins in every other way for me.

Pentax Digital 330
No survivor, used it for a while, but sold it when I found it ate batteries. One charge would yield about 30 frames as I recall - things certainly have improved.

Olympus C5050
No survivor, sold when the D80 arrived. Good solid build, bright lens, but too slow.

GRD II
Survivor, I doubt I'll be parting with this one.

Canon G9
Survivor - so far, wife's camera, she seems to like it. I suspect she will use it till it breaks.

I might recall some more later

Tim
 
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scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
Nikon Coolpix 5000 has been with me since it was new and still works fine (although slow). I broke my GR-D1 once, and it has been reliable since then.
A GX-100 is serving my kids well, and seems to take abuse. GR-D2 looks like it will be a survivor.

scott
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
Nikon 990. My first digital camera, 3+ MP but very nice nonetheless. The swiveling LCD panel and viewfinder make it very handy and easy to use in some situations that would be awkward for other cameras (i.e., hold the camera above your head and shoot behind you and actually be able to see what you're shooting!). Strange things are flashing on the menu screens, but it still works.
 
S

SimonL

Guest
Survivor: Canon S40 - built like a brick outhouse, clean pix that you could print to A3 size but had awful shutter lag.

Time Will Tell: Ricoh GRD2 - depends on the advances in sensors over the next couple of years
 

Lili

New member
My Konica Hexar AF is my Survivor camera.
Had it for years, only film camera I ever use at all.

Ricoh GRD; the camera I use most over any of them; a definite Survivor

My Fuji Finepix S6000fd, bought as an interim while Pentax was being repaired and the Fuji was on discontinuance sale at Wolf Camera, has proved a surprisingly capable and effective camera, at lo ISO and prints up to 8X10 it matches the IQ of the also-6mp K100d!
Definite Survivor; I bought a bunch of fast, 2gb type H XD cards for it.

Pentax K100d, lovely camera,uses all my old Super Takumars with modern IS.
Sadly hot pixels(now fixed) and an UnHoly attraction to dust on sensor is not helping its prospects :(

Nikon Coolpix S6, bleah!

Fuji Finepix F31fd, stealthy fast and great at hi ISO, too few image controls, gave that one away :(

Fuji Finepix S5200, wondferful 38-380mm efl lens, excellent sensor; Survivor
 
N

nei1

Guest
My minox b is perfection,will never sell it.When my scanner eventually arrives a minox neg will be first in.
 
C

Caer

Guest
Nikon D70: shutter died after about 40,000 shots. Mind you, it wasn't exactly babied.

Pentax DS: survivor. Found out a few months ago that the AF motor was dead. I'd not noticed because I use it exclusively with old MF lenses.

Pentax K10D: survivor. It's been drenched in pouring rain numerous times, dropped more than once, has a cracked bottom plate, but it's still working fine. On the other hand, the only thing stopping me replacing it with a Nikon D700 is (a lot of) money ;)

Ricoh GR-D II: survivor (so far). Gets a lot of use - the paint has worn away on the corners :) Still going though, and I intend to keep it for many years unless something with the same level of speed and control comes out with better enough image quality to make upgrading worth it. The new m4/3 cameras might be contenders, we'll have to see. Ideally Ricoh will make a GRD2-like camera based on m4/3, that'd be awesome.
 

scott kirkpatrick

Well-known member
I forgot one. M2, bought used, which I haven't owned as quite as long as Woody's M3. CLA'd it this year, but it has seen pretty much continuous use since around 1970. Not funky enough to compete in the "survivor camera" fest now taking place on TOP.

scott
 
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