SYDNEY, N.S. - For as long as John Duffy can remember, he said he has always been passionate about cameras and photography. “When I was young, I bought a couple of cameras and took a few courses,” said Duffy who landed a job at a camera shop after finishing high school. “Customers would bring old cameras in and see if they were worth getting repaired and if they weren’t, they would say, ‘toss them out’. And they were just too gorgeous to throw them away.” So, Duffy kept them and eventually started his own camera collection. “I went to yard sales and auctions,” said Duffy. “The more I got, the more I got into it and then the more I got really into it.” Duffy now has more than 175 cameras. Most are from the early to mid-20th century with slower shutter speeds and they all still work. Each one is a conversation piece. “This one is from the 1950s and the original film is still in the camera” said Duffy as he described his collection. He also has several century-old accordion-style expandable bellows cameras which are his favourites. His oldest cameras date back to the early 1900s. “I have one from 1901 and the one next to it is from 1902,” said Duffy, who also has a tiny James Bond-style spy camera, which were popular in movies in the 1960s and 1970s. Duffy is especially nostalgic about his four film projectors which hold home movies of his parents from more than 70 years ago. “In those days you would take your film and send it away and two weeks later you would get the film with movies back,” he said. Duffy also said, as he examines his collection, he is reminded of how photography has changed over the years, especially compared to digital photography. “These older cameras were much easier and user-friendly. A lot of smartphone cameras today don’t come with a proper manual and it is very hard for someone in my age to buy a phone and figure out all the hidden features,” said Duffy. “But old cameras back in the day, had a four-page manual and if you read it, you were good to go.” He cannot pin down the exact date when he began collecting these cameras, but Duffy estimates it was roughly 45 years ago. Now as he approaches his retirement years he would like to donate this collection to a museum, but he has two conditions: the collection would stay intact and always be properly displayed. “I don’t want to put it in boxes or put it in storage,” he said. Tech analyst Carmi Levy said a collection like this is a treasure and would be a valued addition to any museum or photography school. “This collection excites me and we need to preserve this history for ourselves to understand how we got to where we are, and why we appreciate all the things we use today,” said Levy. “If we don’t, we could lose that sense of history.” Duffy said it is more than a hobby or a just fun collection. It’s a throwback to a long-lost era of photography, a living history of the evolution of cameras.
