1905 Ambrosio

Whether you love shooting film or appreciate the aesthetics of vintage cameras, this site will definitely be up your alley. Now, you should be aware that this expansive wonderful resource will end up taking you a few hours to look through. Collection Apparelis is a French online archive with over 10,000 cameras. You can browse through some rare models, and probably check out cameras you haven’t even heard of.

Site curator Sylvain Halgand has compiled a great site that not only features a meticulous archive, but also sample photos of each camera, and a discussion forum for camera lovers. There’s a little bit of everything, some cameras only bear the camera name, others have more interesting detailed information.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1930s Agfa Billy

Agfa Iso-Rapid Ic

1925 Ansco 1A Royal

1956 Luxus-Exportmodell

1950s Artima Photo Miami

1940s Leica IIIC

Early 1900s Leroy Stéréo-Panoramique

1920s Leullier Summum Special

Vintage cameras are unquestionably a piece of artwork, something you can appreciate browsing through Collection Apparelis as the photos Halgand offers are of very good quality. Apart from cameras, you’ll also find 697 lenses, and 3,800 accessories cataloged.

[REWIND: A Photographer’s Century Old Notebook Uncovered In The Antarctic]

And don’t worry if you can’t read French, you’ll still be able to enjoy the site as there’s a button on the top left corner that will take you over to the English version.

You can check out Collection Apparelis by clicking here, and follow them on Facebook.

What’s your favorite vintage camera model?

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