First real camera that allowed you to take pictures with control

E. von Hoegh

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Sep 14, 2011
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Adirondacks
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Kodak 35, Kodachrome, and a late 1930s Weston meter; this was ca. 1974 and I still have many excellent quality slides from that camera.Wish I still had the camera, but the store I bought it at is still alive and well!
 

DWThomas

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Jun 13, 2006
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4,606
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SE Pennsylvania
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Personally owned -- like several others upthread, an Argus C3 purchased new at the end of 1957 -- the Brick! After about 35 years in the back of the closet, it has been out at least once every year since 2006 to shoot a roll for Argus Day. I subjected it to a DIY CLA and rangefinder calibration in the succeeding couple of years. It is certainly no longer my first choice for most work, but some of what it's done in recent years has come out significantly better than I expected.

Prior to that I did some stuff with a folding Kodak of late 1930s vintage that my parents owned. I have no idea (60 years later) exactly what it was, but it had some control. Alas, my first personally owned camera was a Brownie Target Six-20 -- not much control there!
 

pbromaghin

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Sep 30, 2010
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Castle Rock, CO
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Checked out a Pentax K1000 from my high school in autumn, 1974. It was a revelation.
 

Griz

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Jan 22, 2012
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78
Location
Landisburg,
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Branny new ME Super around 1980, bought from Lone Star Camera in San Antonio.
 

LarryP

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Jul 17, 2011
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charleston s
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spotmatic think I paid 15 or 20 dollars for it in a pawnshop. It was still working fine when it was stolen some 12 years after i got it.
 

moki

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Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
161
Location
Wismar, Germ
Format
35mm
Actually my very first real camera (not counting cellphones and similar contraptions of the devil) allowed full control. It was my mother's old Exa 1b with Domiplan lens. Sure, it only has 1/175 as fastest shutter speed and the lens is of a primitive triplet type, but it works well enough and the controls are all manual. I stll use it occasionally for old time's sake, though I've got a lot of better cameras and glass now.
 

benjiboy

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Apr 18, 2005
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11,973
Location
U.K.
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35mm
Zeiss Contax 11 with a 5 cm f1.5 Sonnar lens that he brought back from Germany after W.W.11 my father gave me when I was thirteen that I still use, I had the camera given a full service over twenty years ago by the leading Zeiss repair man in the U.K who was World renowned at that time Les. Frankham.who did a fantastic job, and it's still going strong I was shooting street with it yesterday .
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

Membership Council
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Apr 2, 2005
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4,793
Location
Montréal, QC
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A Praktica L, which I still have.
 

MattKing

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Apr 24, 2005
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53,182
Location
Delta, BC Canada
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Medium Format
The one pictured below.

Other than that, also a Kodak 35 and Kodachrome, although my first meter was a Vivitar 45, IIRC.
 

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baachitraka

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Apr 6, 2011
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3,565
Location
Bremen, Germany.
Format
Multi Format
Olympus OM-1n + 35mm Zuiko.
 
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