A Stroll on Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris

I was heading to the birthplace of Moleskine just to take a picture of the street sign back in the end of January 2007.  I intentionally stopped by Boulevard Beaumarchais coz I'd never been there and would like to see what these camera shops offer on this famous camera street.  Of course none of them I can afford but just seeing all these beautiful clear lens on a sunny early morning already worthed the journey.
I didn't know many of these cameras but its fun to just take pictures of them and came back to find out all about them after the trip.  Linhof has been producing cameras for over 100 years and it is interesting to find that, like Polaroid (abandoning instant film altogether and adopting LCD/digital hardware production) , it is migrating towards other industries such as laser technology, printing technique and medical equipment, although how much of Linhof's effort to remain in the film photography industry is unknown, they still produced new equipment in 2006.  The above model is called Technorama 612 PC II, a 6x12 panoramic camera using 120 film.
On separete note, about panoramic, I recall seeing a super size Seitz 6x17 Digital Camera from a recent Wallpaper magazine.  The product was actually introduced in Photokina 2006.  Don't be fooled by this image, it is actually bigger than you thought.

I also found used Fotoman cameras which is produced by a "manufacturing company located in Mainland China, with corporate offices located in Kowloon, Hong Kong, founded in 1993".  The company focuses in large format and panoramic cameras.  There is a Fotoman Cameras Flickr group dedicated to Fotoman brand cameras.

Next I found some more 4x5" cameras including this Linhof Master Technika classic, and the following ShangHai ShenHao Professional Camera.  Comparing to Linholf, ShangHai ShenHao was established only since 1994.
On the same trip, I did visited Leica's store, but I didn't feel like taking any picture at all.  I did fancied a while ago owning their Digilux 2 or 3, went to the Hong Kong show room to try out Digilux and digital M series, it didn't click (user interface and operation) and the price turned me off (I know, it's Leica).  I guess I am staying away from Leica for a while :)  Check out AC's comment on his experience using M8 here, not a good one.