Treasure Hunt

When I was a small child, my grandfather collected coins. He had tons of them; boxes and boxes of coins from all over the place and all different periods of time. He also collected coins for each grandchild, starting with the year they were born. I had a small tub full of coins from 1985 and on. I never really thought much of them- actually I thought it was kind of boring. I think back now, and I wonder how far those coins traveled before they ended up in his hands. How many hands did they pass through? How many places around the world did they travel to? What small treasure did they buy for someone?

As I've grown older I've had a yearning to collect something interesting. Something with history behind it like my grandfather's coins. So a few months back I began looking for things I would be interested in collecting. One of my favorite hobbies is photography. I've always loved taking pictures and I'm usually the friend with the camera when we go somewhere. So I decided to collect cameras. There's nothing else with more history behind it than an old used camera. Thinking about all of the hands it could have passed through, all of the memories it may have captured is fascinating. Thanks to Nick, I have a small collection of 3 or 4. He loves thrift stores and yard sales, so he usually brings me home some lovely treasure to add to the shelf. So far, most of my cameras originated in the late 1960's to 1970's, but I'm going to take the hunt more seriously and start searching for older ones.

This is something that really interests me, so hopefully I will actually stick to it. I'm so bad about starting projects and losing focus. I know it is so cliche, but being in a new place makes me want to do things differently. I have so many ideas that flow through my head constantly, and I never just let loose and let them out. It's mostly laziness, but I am really going to work on not being so inanimate. But that's an entirely different subject for another day.

So far here are the few cameras I have. I would have taken my own photos of them, but my camera is dead at the moment, and in the move I have misplaced my charger.

Kodak Instamatic X-35 produced 1970-1976

Magimatic X50 126 Magicube produced in the 1960's

Polaroid Colorpack II produced in 1969

Of course, I have more current style cameras as well. But those are boring, and have only been used by me. So I decided to only post the ones that are considered collectibles. I'll post more as I collect them. I may even try to find film to fit, and see if they still work!