graflex

I write about a lot of things here at PetaPixel -- reviews, guides, technical articles, opinion pieces -- but one of my favorite topics to write about is the history of photography. As an avid user and collector of vintage cameras and lenses, I have passionately absorbed as much knowledge about their history as possible over many years. Like studying world history, there is much value in understanding where we came from and what got to us where we are now.

If you were an aspiring photojournalist during most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, then your dream machine was likely not a Hasselblad, a Rolleiflex, a Leica, or any of the other vintage film cameras commonly cited as the most desirable collectibles nowadays.

Check out this absolute unit of a camera that was used to do aerial photography during World War II. Mounted on the front of the camera is a massive 2-foot long 610mm f/6 lens.

There are many photographers covering the hugely popular world of Formula One racing, but none of them shoot it quite like Joshua Paul of Lollipop Magazine. Instead of using the latest and greatest digital cameras -- or even a modern camera, for that matter -- Paul chooses to use a Graflex 4x5 view camera from 1913.

Arguably the most iconic prop from the Star Wars universe is... a camera flash. It's not a joke, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's lightsabers (the handle, not the glowing, cut your hand off part) were both made from vintage camera flash guns.

Between the 1940s and the 1970s, one of the big cameras used by sports photographers was the Graflex "Big Bertha," a giant 120 lb camera that shoots 5x7 photos. At least one of these cameras is still seeing action.