French camera collector Sylvain Halgand has cataloged over 10,000 vintage and antique cameras in an ongoing digital archive called Collection Appareils. Providing a photo of, and from, each device along with its history and specifications, Halgand has been amassing this record since 1999. About 1800 of the records's entries come from his personal collection.
Spanning over a hundred years of camera production, Collection Appareils charts their evolution from a tool for only the most serious and adept photographers to the wide, casual consumer audience they now enjoy. The online catalog also profiles hundreds of lenses and other camera accessories, and includes a forum for enthusiasts to communicate and compare collections.
Here are just some of the over 10,000 antique cameras that have been digitally archived.
via [Laughing Squid]
via [Petapixel]
