Vintage Collections: Cameras

I'm sure that the collecting instinct must be in the genes. My dad has huge collections of old fly reels and pocket knives. My mother...well, she has at one time or another collected tea pots (the uglier the better), Santa Claus figurines, Mr. Peanut memorabilia, polar bear figures, and McCoy pottery, among other things.

And I have my own collections growing. As I've aged, I've gone through different stages. I collected fossils. Then I went through a turtle figurine phase. Wade figures. Small silver-toned jewelry boxes. Vintage rhinestone brooches. Now I'm up to owl-shaped jewelry, ceramic squirrel wall-hangers, and vintage film cameras. (There are other things, such as skeleton keys, old wooden alphabet blocks, and interesting old hand-embroidery, that I always notice but have so far managed to resist purchasing, ha!)


I thought I might share some of my favorite things with you, since I have so many and they tend to just sit on shelves looking pretty for me and my husband. Today, it's cameras! Oddly enough, I think old cameras are terribly photogenic. I say oddly because, of course, cameras are supposed to TAKE the pictures, not be IN them, ha!

Three Kodaks...a Duaflex II, a Hawk Eye, and a Brownie.



A Polaroid Highlander 80a



A Kodak Duaflex I



My Duaflex II again, this time with some friends!



A (non-functional, sadly) Polaroid SX-70



And last but not least, my newest baby, a Yashica Mat 124G!

What sorts of things do you collect? I always love hearing about peoples' strange obsessions with ephemera from days past. Sometimes, people are totally in love with things I'd never even think to collect!