What was the first camera that you've ever used?

[PrestonR]

A d*****l sony point and shoot. Used the hell out of it and gave it to my younger sister who never used it.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Pentax ME with a 50mm f/1.7 lens. I still have the roll of Ilford Fp4 from 1984 (I think). Gosh, 30 years. I guess I'm starting to get old.

 

[Nodda Duma]

Kodak Instamatic when I was a kid. Still have some of the prints and negatives.

Start at the bottom of the quality barrel and you can only go up!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye [620] followed by a 120 TLR of minor brand and distinction. The first serious camera was a Voightlander Vito IIb, a 35mm camera that I learned about use of a light meter, depth of field, zone focus, and night exposures.

 

[MartinCrabtree]

Honestly cannot remember but most likely a Polaroid of one sort or another. My parents loved the instant cameras. I have one of the original stainless and leather SX-70s that was my fathers. Just can't bring myself to pay that much (Impossible) for instant film.

The first 35MM was a Hanimex Practica Super TL I still have. Ashamed to say it hasn't been used in a really long time. But I did run it through a few shutter clicks the other day and all seems good. Maybe I'll run some expired Agfa I have through it just to see.

 

[Sirius Glass]

From my parents on my 7th birthday.

I sold a lot of those the summer of 1965 at E J Korvettes on Rockville Pike [Wisconsin Avenue] in Maryland.

 

[pbromaghin]

View attachment 102326 Kodak Brownie Hawkeye [620] followed by a 120 TLR of minor brand and distinction. The first serious camera was a Voightlander Vito IIb, a 35mm camera that I learned about use of a light meter, depth of field, zone focus, and night exposures.

My mother had that exact same model when I was little. She later moved up to 35mm zooms with the mountain-tree-person focus distance indicators.

 

[alanrockwood]

My first camera was a simple box camera using 620 film. I got it in the mid 1950s for $1 and one or two box tops of some kind of cereal. I really enjoyed that camera, but in the intervening years it has become lost somewhere along the way. I don't remember the name of the camera, but it was identical to a camera I recently bought on ebay known as "Imperial Six Twenty".

In early 1969 I bought my first "serious" camera, an Exakta VX iia with 58mm f/2 Zeiss Auto Biotar and a 90mm f/3.5 Tele Xenar preset lens. I also got a Gossen Pilot light meter and a nice leather bag.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Kodak Instamatic 100 at 1977 before elementary school and than Zenit ET ,Kiev 88 , Yashica FXD at university at the last year of the university I bought 6 Leica with working 15 hours a day , hitchhiking to home 70 kilometers at 1 AM to 2.30 AM and working seven days a week for 3 years , 2 3F ,2 3C one 1A , one Leicaflex and than 2 Leica Mini and than polaroid 350 , two zeiss ikon.

Now I have a LOMO Anamorphic Cine Lens on a slr

 

[AllanD]

My first camera was a Kodak 110 thing. I remember the last film I put through it because it the prints came back with the processors QA advisory stickers on them suggesting that there might be grit in the camera. Given that it had been trodden into the mud in a field and then practically filled with sand after I slid down one of the giant sand dunes they have in Southwest France, I wasn't too surprised. I still feel guilty about sending that film off for processing!

The first SLR I used was one borrowed from my brother. He wasn't too pleased when he saw the photo I took of the speedo dials of my 250 Kawasaki. I only wanted to prove that it could nearly hit an indicated 100mph, which needed several runs with one hand on the camera and the other on the handlebars. He didn't let me borrow it again, for some reason.

 

[macfred]

My first one was a Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/16 with Novar-Anastigmat 75mm f/6.3 lens.
My dad gave it to me when I was 11 years old.
I used the camera for about 7 years - it was stolen on a campsite in Bergen/Norway.

 

[MontanaJay]

Here's mine:

An indestructable Brownie Bullet, given to me by my dad about 1960, when I was eight years old. Shutter still works and the lens is still amazingly clear, if only I can find some VP127.
This camera almost got me into deep trouble with the Secret Service as I used it to snap a photo while my Cub Scout pack was in a "no photography" section of the White House during a tour of DC in 1962. JFK's helicopter was leaving and I broke the rules.

 

[Black Dog]

Pentax MX...simply hold a Pentax!

 

[Jim Noel]

A Univex in 1935.

 

[DWThomas]

Alas, I don't accurately know -- and even if my parents were still around, I doubt they would remember. I think at least one of their cameras went on their honeymoon in 1937, and as far as I know, the other was around before I appeared in mid-1941. At some point I had my hands on both -- but pretty much under supervision.

The one was definitely a Kodak folder that took 620 film -- could have been this -- or not! (That's at least about the right vintage.)

The other was a cheap looking plastic/bakelite 127 pocket camera similar to this Spartus item, but I wouldn't stake anybody's life on either ID being 100% certain. Spartus stuff appeared under a "Falcon" brand at some point in its history, and that name just feels a bit familiar.

Circa 1949 or 50, I was given a Kodak Brownie Target Six-20, likely to keep me away from the "good" camera. The folks made a good investment -- I still have it, and when I tried it a few years back, it still worked!

 

[MartinCrabtree]

Here's mine:

This camera almost got me into deep trouble with the Secret Service as I used it to snap a photo while my Cub Scout pack was in a "no photography" section of the White House during a tour of DC in 1962. JFK's helicopter was leaving and I broke the rules.

Do you have the photograph?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye [620] followed by a 120 TLR of minor brand and distinction. The first serious camera was a Voightlander Vito IIb, a 35mm camera that I learned about use of a light meter, depth of field, zone focus, and night exposures.

Then a Minolta SR-7, followed by a series of Minolta SLRs, Nikons, Hasselblads and Graflexes.

 

[heespharm]

I'm about 90% sure it was this one... I remember it was 110 film

 

[Arklatexian]

The first camera that I ever used was the first that I ever owned. It was a "Baby Brownie", bought new, in the 1930s, still in its box, at a drug store for 75 U.S. cents and came with a roll of 127 Kodak Verichrome (not Verichrome Pan)film, which I developed under a red "safelight"....Regards!

 

[Arklatexian]

Dad's folding Kodak, similar to this one.

Don't recall the model, but I'm pretty sure he got it in the 30's. It took 616 film (~6x9cm). I used it in college in the 50's. Upon graduation he gave me a Minolta A (I think it was Minolta's first 35mm camera), probably so he could get his Kodak back. After he passed, my sister still has it but has not relinquished it so far. Reminds me, I need to ask her once again to give it up. I soon discovered Leica M3's and bought two of them, then on to Hassy, now it's only Sinar Normas 4x5/5x7/8x10. Family had no idea what they started.

My grandson's GF recently visited family in Bulgaria and brought back a present for me - a Voigtlander Bessa folder, their first model from 1929, that I'm getting ready to try out. It works perfectly and uses 120 film.

Your (or better yet your sister's) 616 camera was a favorite of my friends who were railbuffs. The print was the correct length to capture most steam locomotives and tenders........Regards!

 

[Meyer Trioplan]

Much as I hate to admit it, a five and dime Yogi Bear 126 camera that took terrible photos, or at least I took terrible photos with it, then eventually a Kodak Disc 3000.

http://collectiblend.com/Cameras/Hanna-Barbera/Yogi-Bear-(126).html

 

[Cycler]

Kodal 127 Brownie. Bakelite body, 8 on 127 and had a neck-cord. Carried in a leatherette pouch/bag. First holiday with it, it produced all the pics of the holiday. Dad opened the 35mm he'd borrowed to change the film! Having refused to let me do it, "Who'd trust an 8 year-old with a complex camera?" Only this 8 year-old had been fully instructed in how to unload said 35mm! Its lender had had no faith in his Dad's photography skills!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Kodal 127 Brownie. Bakelite body, 8 on 127 and had a neck-cord. Carried in a leatherette pouch/bag. First holiday with it, it produced all the pics of the holiday. Dad opened the 35mm he'd borrowed to change the film! Having refused to let me do it, "Who'd trust an 8 year-old with a complex camera?" Only this 8 year-old had been fully instructed in how to unload said 35mm! Its lender had had no faith in his Dad's photography skills!

Welcome to APUG

 

[Kirks518]

 

[GRHazelton]

First Camera

I don't think I've posted to this thread already, if so please forgive me. IIRC the first I used was a roll film folder belonging to my mother. 120 or 620, I think, scale focusing, waist level finder or "sports" finder, lens maybe f4.5, shutter.... 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 plus bulb and time, I think. Not a bad shooter, if stopped down a bit.

I think I have it somewhere, I hope. I'm the only "serious" photographer in the family, so I'd be the logical custodian. I hope it's 120, it would be nice to shoot with it. Astound the peasants, don't you know!