Fujica Mini

This is one of my favorite half frame cameras. It's has a fixed focus 25mm, f2.8 lens. The exposure meter is very simple to use, so there really is no excuse not to take the Mini everywhere with you. This is not a very common camera but good old Mike Butkus has a manual for it on his very useful site (don't forget to donate if you use it).
First two are from Toronto, and the last is from Chicago.

Moskva 4

Blimey, its a year since I posted. Time to make it up. I have been using my collection and I have taken some pics. How quickly time goes when you are up to your eyeballs in work.
This is the Moskva 4 Russian 6x9 folder, a take-off of the Zeiss Ikonta, which I've just acquired but not used yet. The lens in the Moskva is very, very good - but the camera is tricky to hold. Everything seems to be on the wrong side.
These are pictures from my "studio", a small condo in the same building as my principal abode. A deal I made with my wife to keep cameras out of her hair.

Mamiya 6

Ken Rockwell says this is the best camera ever made (Ken's evaluation of the Mamiya 6 and 7. Not everyone likes Ken, but I value his "down to earth" sentiments on cameras.
The Mamiya is a rangefinder, takes 120 film and I guess is a "Texas Leica" like this one. The lenses are super sharp and are collapsible.
My Mamiya was generously given to me by an internet friend, Mike Regnier who has switched his work entirely to digital. Mike first introduced me to blending textures into images in post processing, moving the art of photography more toward the art. You can see his beautiful pics here - a lot of Mike's stuff is really large and has a very painterly persona. Check it out.

Petri Micro Compact

This camera was designed when it was "in" to sell a competent camera in the smallest package possible. Size was always a factor in the attraction of film cameras, just as it is with digital today.  Every manufacturer had something to offer in this genre, maybe the most well known being the Rollei 35 series first introduced in the mid sixties. This Petri first appeared in 1979.
This one is derived from the more expensive, better made, and feature-rich Petri Color 35 which commands high prices and is tough to get (see Steven Gandy's article here) It has automatic exposure, a pull out lens, and a simple zone focusing system.
I confess I'm a sucker for these tiny cameras - I took the picture of the Petri with my digital Ricoh GRD IV, which surprisingly is just a bit larger.

Rollei Prego 90

 This is a "point and shoot" camera, called that because they need little effort to get a good shot. Auto focus and exposure coupled with a nice zoom lens means the photographer can usually get good images with the minimum of fuss. Just about every camera manufacture did these, including the pricier brands such as Rollei. I have quite a few cameras that fit this genre. The Prego is an example dating to the mid nineties. It has infra-red auto focus and in this case an upscale Schneider-Kreuznach 28-90mm zoom lens. These camera are quite collectible now and their prices have been slowly creeping up.

Kodak Instamatic 500

The Instamatic film cartridge was introduced by Kodak in 1963, just as the Beatles started to roll. By all accounts it was very popular and lots of cameras were introduced to use it. Mostly were cheap plastic low functionality jobbies but others were very high end with a price to match. This "500" was the high end entry by Kodak that fitted the "rangefinder" format (Kodak also introduced an SLR 126 camera.)
The 500 is mostly made of metal and has a nice Schneider-Kreuznach F2.8 38mm lens. The 126 format is square, which I like. I have collected a few cameras,  but shooting with them is a challenge as new cartridges are no longer available. Old stock is available though, but it is expensive. I have tried to fudge 35mm film into salvaged cartridges with limited success. It is rumored that Ferrania may start production on them in the near future - I hope so.
Most old film I can find is color. I process it using my standard B &W chemistry which seems to work OK, but sometimes leaves a color cast, which I sometimes leave in after scanning.

Voightlander Bessamatic

 

Voightlander cameras are beautifully designed and constructed and their lenses have a well deserved reputation for image quality. I guess you would call this their flagship SLR from the film era, the noble Bessamatic. It's noble not only because its heavy, but its also semi-automatic and has a selenium cell that needs no battery. Mine is functioning just fine given that  it was built over fifty years ago.
This is no street shooter. At two pounds it's not the kind of camera to casually anchor around your neck for longer than an hour. The screen goes blank after you take a pic as there is no instant return of the mirror. The interchangeable lenses are self contained and don't share their components with the camera as other SLRs from this era do. It has a leaf shutter, which makes it go through some convoluted mechanical gyrations when it takes a shot. Many of these cameras today have sticky shutters because of this. They are supposedly very difficult to service . . . but it is a thing of beauty.