Pentax KM
The Asahi Pentax 6x7 is a behemoth of a camera. One of the few medium-format SRL camera models ever built, it looks like a 35mm reflex camera blown up to almost comical proportions. And it is as heavy as it looks - already almost 2 kgs for just the body and the finder: when you add a lens (and you have to), you might be lifting 2,5 to 3 kilo easily. The camera was introduced in 1969; in 1976, a slightly adjusted version with a shutter lock was brought unto the market. In 1989, the 6x7 was revised again and rebaptised 67. I believe I owned the original, 1969-1976 model.
To give testimony to my folly, I bought the Pentax 6x7 to do street photography. Somewhere, sometime I read that it was an inconspicuous camera to use on the streets because it resembled an ordinary 35mm camera so much. That was without taking into account that by 2008, ordinary 35mm cameras weren's so ordinary anymore. That was without taking into account the pistol-shotlike sound the shutter makes when you take a picture. That was without taking into account the sheer size and weight of the thing, which left your brow and armpits pearled with perspiration before you could finish a block. Although I did manage to complete one street photography project with this camera and the quality of its Takumar lenses was breath-taking, I grew tired of tugging the machine along. I also grew tired of fidgetting with the complex controls, with the scratches the film transport sometimes left on the edge of the frame, with the hassle of it all. And I didn't like the fact that the 6x7 is dependent on battery power to operate its shutter. I was already developing a fondness for more simple, purely mechanical cameras.
The Asahi Pentax 6x7 is the most expensive camera I ever bought. The body was still reasonably affordable at 194 euros in 2008 (postage included), but it was useless without a finder and a 300€ 105mm lens. The Asahi Pentax 6x7 is also the only camera I resold again, in 2013, one of my many anni horribili, when I was approaching financial rock bottom once more and dearly needed the cash. By then, I had long switched to the other extreme, using plastic Agfa Clacks that could be bought for 5-10€ in thrift stores and on flea markets.
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