First real camera that allowed you to take pictures with control

[cliveh]

What was the first real camera you had that allowed you to take serious pictures with control. For me I think it was an Agfa Super Silette. I went to a camera shop with my dad who was going to buy me a camera. I was quite young and in the course of conversation with the salesman I remember mentioning a Leica, but I guess my dad couldn’t afford that at the time and I got the Agfa. However, I wasn’t disappointed as I made many shots at different speeds and apertures.

 

[thegman]

Sigma DP-1. Moved onto film quite soon after.

 

[bobwysiwyg]

Mine was a Nikon FE bought used in the early 70's. I still have it and occasionly take it out for a workout.

 

[himself]

the praktica mtl 3, it took me while to figure out that I could actually control all those things I needed to.
I still have the first negs I ever shot and looking at them I'm surprised how many have images, never mind ones that are "passable" exposure wise.

 

[SkipA]

Canon AE-1 Program with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. I bought the camera and lens new shortly after it was introduced. I bought a flash and the 28mm lens about a year later. It was my second camera, but the first that allowed me full control.

 

[ColdEye]

Canon 1000D, my first "real" camera. Was using mobile phone cameras before that.

 

[heterolysis]

My dad always carried around a Nikkormat FT-2. He taught me to "keep the needle between the + and the -", and that was my earliest experience of using an SLR.

Twenty years later my dad has since passed, and passed the FT-2 to me. And I carry it just like he always used to.

 

[afrank]

Minolta SLR SRT101b with 50mm f/1.4. belonged to my sister but I ended up adopting it and it was my introduction to Film.

 

[Ian Grant]

A Zenit E

Ian

 

[spatz]

nikon fm2

 

[Rick A]

A brick. Argus C-3

 

[Vaughn]

An early-fifties Rolleiflex 3.5.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

ricoh 401ttl.

 

[mooseontheloose]

Nikon FE. Which I'm still using.

 

[BradS]

Pentax KX bought new in 1975 or 1976.

 

[ic-racer]

A Zenit E

Ian

Same here. 1973.

 

[Chan Tran]

Petri 7s rangefinder camera when I was about 10 or so.

 

[Jon King]

Early 70's, a Zeiss Ikonta folder - it was my Dad's from 1948. It's still in fine working order!

 

[Diapositivo]

Minolta SrT-100x with 45/2 and "never ready" case, bought new in 1979 or maybe 1980. I still remember the "wonder" when I decided I wanted to dismount the lens (although I had not other lens to mount) and I accessed the mirror box. The shop where I bought it is now a few meters away from where my parents live, and they still sell film.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Mine was a Nikon FE bought used in the early 70's. I still have it and occasionly take it out for a workout.

Bob, have your memory checked. The FE came to market in 1978. In the early '70s, Nikon's SLRs were F- series (F and F2 overlapped for a couple of years) and Nikkormats FT- and EL).

I started in 1970 with a Nikkormat FTN.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Does a 70's Kodak Instamatic count? I remembering saving money for film, flash cubes and print processing. It was the "Gateway" camera to photography. Been addicted to photography ever since.

 

[EASmithV]

The first camera I started to use seriously was a Nikon F.

 

[phirehouse]

My first was the Pentax K1000. I puchased it new around 1980 from Ritz Camera in Tyrone Square Mall, St. Petersburg, Florida. I still own and use it, and it is in great condition...great camera.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

It was a folding Ansco/Afga 12 exposure 120 film camera w/o a range finder; of course it used flash bulbs. I was 13 at the time and I learned to estimate distances and use guide numbers for flash exposures. Anybody else remember using Guide Numbers?

 

[removed account4]

K1000