A selection of cameras, in no particular order.

[Praktica]

   
A Halina 35x - this is a basic viewfinder camera, made in Hong Kong in the 1950s. It is styled to look like a Canon rangefinder camera.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Okay.

How did you do that? Teach me!

[Praktica]

Okay.

How did you do that? Teach me!

Put up the picture? At the bottom of the page, just above the "post reply" button, is a new section called "attachments". There is a "choose files" button, which will take you to your computer, so you can select a picture. I made my picture quite small, 640 x 480 pixels. Away to the right of choose files is the "add attachment"  button - press this after selecting your picture. Then choose "insert into post", and then "post reply". The picture you see is a thumbnail - click on it to enlarge.

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This is a Topcon Wink Mirror E - so called because it had an instant return mirror, and a built in light meter. This was a profoundly unreliable camera - I once owned 3 of them, bought dismantled. I failed to assemble one working one from the parts...some of the parts were not interchangeable between cameras.

If you wish to see a professional repairman struggling with one of these cameras, here is Dunedin Kodak repair wizard Chris Sherlock's video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBbHmqiMKT4

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A few years ago, an acquaintance asked me to look at a "Leica" camera he had just bought. What he had bought was a Russian camera, a FED, which had the chrome polished off it, and fake engravings and snakeskin cover added.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Yup, thanks for that, seems my images are too fat lol.

[Praktica]

Yup, thanks for that, seems my images are too fat  lol.

I use the program that came with a Canon camera back in 2005 to resize them. Few forums allow pictures with high pixel counts. 640x480 works fine on here. You may find you have a utility already which will allow you to resize pictures.

[king1]

if you are on windows there is an image resizer in the power toys package
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...ge-resizer

installation info is here
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows...ys/install

or there are any number of online resizers e.g
https://resizeimage.net/

[Praktica]

   

The first camera I bought, back in 1969, was an Agfa Isomat Rapid, like this one. This was an automatic exposure camera which used 35mm film in Agfa Rapid cassettes. It produced 24mm x 24mm pictures. The cassette has a tongue on it, which sets the film speed for the light meter, and film is fed to an empty cassette on the wind side. Agfa film, and rapid cassettes are long gone, but if you have empty cassettes they can be loaded with bulk film; these days, who would?

[Praktica]

   

Before the Praktica, there was the Praktiflex. This camera was manufactured in Dresden by Kamera-Werkstätten AG beginning in 1939. This was a single lens reflex camera, with an instant return mirror powered by pressing the release button. After the war, the Soviets required cameras from Germany as war reparations, and KW made Praktiflexes for them. Dissatisfied with the quality and functioning of the camera, the  Soviets appointed an engineer to redesign it. The new model was released in 1947, and was more reliable than the original, but had lost its instant return mirror, and had the release button shifted from the top to the front. 
The camera above is from 1949, and still has the 40mm screw lens mount of the original Praktiflex. This was changed to 42mm in later production, and by 1951 the Praktiflex was replaced by the very similar Praktica.

The 42mm lens mount was called the "Pentax mount", but it was originated by East German Zeiss on the Contax S camera, in 1949.

[Praktica]

   

In 1959, Yashica released a single lens reflex camera - the Pentamatic. This was an eye level reflex, with bayonet mount lenses, and a front shutter release. The standard lens was semi automatic, but other lenses were preset diaphragm only.
I bought this example without a lens, and later aquired a 135mm lens in Pentamatic mount, a "T" mount adapter for Pentamatic, and a home made adapter which allowed M42 lenses to be mounted on the camera.

After a few years Yashica replaced the Pentamatic with a similar camera, which had M42 mount lenses.

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This is Yashica's replacement for the Pentamatic - the Reflex 35J. This was styled very like the last model of Pentamatic (the one above is the first model). Yashica went on to produce a range of M42 lens mount cameras during the 1960s, and into the 1970s.

[Praktica]

   

An Exakta? Not quite. In 1969 the last camera branded "Exakta" from an East German company, was produced. This was a product  of Pentacon, and was based on the body of the soon to be released Praktica L series cameras. It had a removeable prism, a self timer which allowed timed exposures past 1 second, and shutter releases on both left and right hand sides. The left hand release allowed the use of automatic lenses produced for older Exakta models. There was no built in light meter, but there was a metering prism available. The camera lasted in production until 1973.

In 1974 Pentacon released the Praktica VLC. This had most of the functions of the RTL1000, without Exakta lens compatability, and included a light meter behind the mirror. I have yet to see a VLC for sale in New Zealand.

[crafters_corner]

Wow, your knowledge is amazing. Are these all your cameras??

I would like to get a better camera that I have, to take my pics for TM at night. I can't take any photos after about 5pmish. Not sure if the flash doesn't work properly, or because it's just a cheap camera. Yeah yeah, it's a cheap camera, and that'll be why.:-))

[Praktica]

Wow, your knowledge is amazing. Are these all your cameras??

I would like to get a better camera that I have, to take my pics for TM at night. I can't take any photos after about 5pmish. Not sure if the flash doesn't work properly, or because it's just a cheap camera. Yeah yeah, it's a cheap camera, and that'll be why.:-))

These are all mine - I have around 70 film cameras. With a modern digital camera, you should be able to take pictures with room lighting - on camera flash obscures fine detail, and gives harsh shadows. Most cameras allow the selection of a high "ISO" setting. This is the equivalent of film speed - the higher the number, the less light is needed for exposure. Take your pictures under one of your room lights, on a light coloured background, and with light reflectors - they could just be light coloured cloth of some sort - hung around the object.

[crafters_corner]

Wow, your knowledge is amazing. Are these all your cameras??

I would like to get a better camera that I have, to take my pics for TM at night. I can't take any photos after about 5pmish. Not sure if the flash doesn't work properly, or because it's just a cheap camera. Yeah yeah, it's a cheap camera, and that'll be why.:-))

These are all mine - I have around 70 film cameras. With a modern digital camera, you should be able to take pictures with room lighting - on camera flash obscures fine detail, and gives harsh shadows. Most cameras allow the selection of a high "ISO" setting. This is the equivalent of film speed - the higher the number, the less light is needed for exposure. Take your pictures under one of your room lights, on a light coloured background, and with light reflectors - they could just be light coloured cloth of some sort - hung around the object.

Thank you for that. It could be that I haven't set it right for night time. Will check it out.

[Praktica]

   

Like a big, grunty camera? This Agfaflex is the heaviest film camera I own, solid German metal and glass. It has a leaf shutter behind the lens, and interchangeable lenses. I had the shutter overhauled by Chris Sherlock, and he videoed the process. The first video is here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYbW_Rc9QJs

[Praktica]

   

This strange looking beast is a Pentina, a leaf shutter single lens reflex made by VEB Kamera- und Kinowerke Dresden, the company that made Praktica cameras in the 1960s. Under that case is a metal body with a pentaprism on top. There was a fashion for leaf shutter SLR cameras in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and most West German camera companies produced one, as did a number of Japanese firms. This is the only one from East Germany.

[Praktica]

   

This is a real Exakta, a Varex IIb. The Kine Exakta was the first successful 35mm single lens reflex, released in 1936. The one above is a model released in 1963. It has a left hand wind lever, and left hand shutter release.

[Praktica]

   

In 1953, the Russians took one of the Leica copy cameras they were making, added a mirror box and prism, and made a single lens reflex camera, which they called the Zenit. 
This is a second model Zenit - called an "S" ( C in cyrillic). The mirror cocking mechanism is different on this - it has a cord which runs around pulleys to bring the mirror down. I had to replace the cord, on this one.
The base plate of a 1930s Leica will fit this camera, and the film take up spool I fitted to it is from a Leica.

[Praktica]

   

In 1970, Praktica released a new line of cameras, based on a new shape body, and a new metal bladed shutter. This is a Praktica L, the first of the line. It has no light meter built in.

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This is the first model Praktica, produced in 1952 after the Praktiflex ceased manufacture, although some of these were sold under the Praktiflex brand. It has a waist level viewfinder, and no automatic diaphragm stop down. The lens on it is from West Germany, made for an Edixa camera.

[Praktica]

   

This is a picture of the original Exakta camera, a waist level single lens reflex introduced in the 1930s; pictures were taken on 127 size film, or, with a special adapter, on VP (vest pocket) sized plates. It went out of production early in the war, and was never made again. I no longer own this one - it was pretty rough, so I sold it to an Exakta enthusiast to use for parts.

[Praktica]

   

Olympus Trip cameras, like this one, are currently very trendy cameras. People ask silly prices for them on Trademe, and sometimes get them. I've owned two, which I bought for very little, overhauled, and sold.