14 Most Influential Cameras of All Time

This article is a couple of months old - Jason Schneider over at photo retailer Adorama.com put out a list of the 14 Most Influential Cameras of All Time. That's quite a daunting task, but he did compile an interesting list. Not sure how he came up with 14 as the magic number or what the criteria were - popularity, technological innovation, etc... - but it's not a comprehensive list by any means. I mean, there's not even an honorable mention for Polaroid.

It was nice to see my first SLR, the Pentax K1000, made the cut. Man, I loved that thing! I didn't really know squat about cameras or photography back in 1985 when I bought it but was heading off to my first ship in the Navy and wanted a nice camera. It was affordable, simple to use and, as it turned out, very durable....which came in handy being tossed around in the north Pacific in a winter storm. You could hammer nails with that thing and it'd still work. All-mechanical with a simple needle as a light meter....it really taught me alot about exposure, the relationship between shutter and aperture. I used to tool around with a shipmate named Steve who had a Nikon F3 but I wasn't envious. I like things simple. Even today on my fancy-schmancy 5D I rarely take it off Manual...but AF is indispensable because I'm old and my eyes suck.

Years later I found it had a feature I hadn't realized - legs - because it disappeared on me. I think I still have one of my old K-mount lenses somewhere.