The models
Written once, for every one of them.
A page for each model that comes through here often enough to be worth knowing: what it was for, what it is good at now, what tends to go wrong with it, and what actually fixes that. All of it is true of every example of the model, here or anywhere else. Written from the maker’s own figures where they exist, and left out where they do not.
Braun Nizo 801The German answer to Canon: an aluminium slab with a shutter you can close by hand, designed inside Dieter Rams's department.Braun · From 1974 or 1975, into the later seventies
Canon 1014XL-SCanon called it the pinnacle of its 8mm cameras, and put a microprocessor in it six years before it stopped making them.Canon · From May 1979
Canon 310XLThe smallest Canon Super 8 camera, and the one with the fastest lens anybody put on 8mm film.Canon · From August 1975
Canon 514XLThe 310XL's older brother: a stop slower, and far more camera for it.Canon · From October 1975
Canon 814XL-SThe 1014XL-S's smaller twin, launched the same day, and the one people who have used both often prefer.Canon · From May 1979
Canon AE-1The camera that put a microprocessor in an SLR, and automatic exposure in everybody's hands.Canon · From April 1976
Canon Auto Zoom 518 SVThe undervalued one: 24 frames a second, a real manual aperture, and no obsolete battery to hunt for.Canon · From March 1971
Canon Auto Zoom 814The camera Kodak said could not be built: the world's first 8x f/1.4 zoom on Super 8.Canon · From March 1967
Canon FTbAll mechanical, all manual, and it works with a flat battery. The connoisseur's cheap Canon.Canon · From March 1971. Revised as the FTb-N in July 1973
Minolta X-700Minolta's answer to the AE-1, and the camera where the serial number matters more than the condition.Minolta · 1981–1999
Olympus XAA real rangefinder that fits in a shirt pocket, because Maitani refused to let it be thicker than four centimetres.Olympus · 1979–1985
Seiko 6139 chronographA column wheel and the world's first vertical clutch, sold at sports-watch prices, and it went to Skylab.Seiko · 1969–1979
Seiko 6309-7040The cushion-cased diver that taught most people what a dive watch is supposed to look like.Seiko · About 1976 to 1988
Missing one? Ask for it. These get written when the same question keeps arriving.