Originally posted by ChrisPlatt The Nikon F/F2 w/plain prism is the archetypal 35mm SLR.
Chris
OM and Kiev, used on a lot of "icons" around the world (and, Darth Vader, apparently), so definitely "iconic cameras" - almost by definition, eh?
Nikon F - I was actually contemplating if they were or were not in the same fold. Truth is, I cannot for the life of me remember....I remember the F3 as becoming /the/ press-photographers camera of choice, in no time, when it came out, but the F/F2 I do not recall much about from that time. This is just as - incidentally - the Spotmatic: I sorta-kinda knew of their existence, but that's about it. The Ricoh KR10 is - for me - more memorable. I was thinking if the Canon AE was in the same calibre...
An entirely off-topic digression: I remember the local photo shop in my home-town when I was a kid and a teenager, was member of some sort of franchise-chain, but otherwise independently owned. They'd every 6 months produce a thick A5 catalogue with all the camera bodies, lenses, ..., they were selling which was...all the bodies/lenses/etc. there was, essentially. Even as a pup I'd run down and pick up a copy on the first day a new catalogue was out, then go day-dreaming of having the pocket money to actually buy one of those cameras.......stupid as I am, of course, I've not held on to those catalogues. At the time, there were - it seemed - an awful lot, and an awful lot of diversity in the SLR space: Practica, Ricoh, Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Minolta all made SLRs. The SLRs usually were part of a "system" with each manufacturer making several different models with different characteristics - but typically using the same range of accessories, such as grips, flashes, lenses etc. And then, there was the rangefinders and the medium format section....such choice.
I can't help but wonder what my rose-tinted glasses will make of today's digital world: Minolta and Practica are gone, as are many others, Ricoh and Pentax have entered into unholy matrimony. What manufacturer there are left produce "almost identical bodies" all using the same sensors (essentially), and differentiation in the days of electronics almost seems to be perverted "intentionally crippling features in the firmware". Honestly, the most differentiating features between the bodies are WR, SR, AA-filter, buffer-capacity, weight and size.....and "system cameras" have gone out the window, even within a brand using the same batteries, grips is not happening much (at least, for Pentax, had to buy everything except lenses anew from *istD to K10D to K-01).
Anyways, enough digressing.....as a former Zuikoholic, one thing is sure: if Olympus were to release a digital OM1 (as in /exactly/ an OM1 in function, not that which they sell as OM-D which just remotely looks like an OM1), then I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. I can fully well understand how an original "Pentaxian" feels about the Spotmatic taking the same place in the K-system evolution - and it'd be really cool to get a Spotmatic-D, as close to the original as possible....