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

[removed account4]

mickey mouse camera, then a kodak flashfun

 

[payral]

Werra 1 with Tessar lens

 

[LyleB]

Kodak Hawkeye Flashfun

 

[MattKing]

Dad's folding Kodak, similar to this one.
View attachment 91972
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.

If it took 616, the image area was most likely 2.5" x 4.5" - perfect for contact printing. Just like the camera my Dad gave me for my 11th birthday, along with all the stuff I needed to learn film developing and contact printing.

It wasn't my first camera, but I still have it, and use it.

You can see it here:

 

[RalphLambrecht]

a 6x9 box camera for 120 film with a single element lens(terrible optics) one shutter speed(1/50s)and three different aperturesbut that didn't matterbecause,I didn't know at the time(7years old)what that wasanyway.the images were still decent;the large format was very forgivingwhen it comes to image quality.

 

[jcc]

A plastic keychain camera that would attach to a 110 cartridge, and has a flip up viewfinder (which really looks more like a sports finder)... Kind of like this.

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

My parents bought me a Kodak 126 Instamatic when I was ten tears old because I begged for a camera. I shot a few rolls but tired of it quickly due to virtually no control. Later, at age thirteen I found my dad's Kalimar TLR 6x6 and had wonderful time with it shooting and processing B&W until it quit working.

 

[TheVDM]

I couldn't say what the first camera I ever used was, but the first film camera I ever owned was a Praktica MTL-3 with a nice range of heavy Russian primes that was given to me by a stranger, shortly after I acquired a Minolta X-300, the Praktica stayed with me up until a couple of years ago and the X-300 died a couple of months ago. I was a little sad about the X-300's passing so bought another one on ebay, cost me a total of £12 inc shipping and was in mint condition (even had some of the plastic wrap still on it), also came with a cased 118x flash and a really nice Tamron adaptall II lens... Bargain!!

My first digital camera was a Canon Powershot A400, followed by lots of Canon cameras (one Fuji) and I'm now on a classic 5D.

 

[Wade D]

My 1st camera was an Instamatic 104 which I still have after 48 years. 2nd camera was a Petri Flex V.

 

[Jesper]

At the age of five I got an Instamatic for Christmas.

 

[UKJohn]

The first camera I actually owned was a Yashica FX Quartz with a standard 50mm lens.

 

[resummerfield]

Kodak Hawkeye Flashfun

View attachment 91956

Yep, that was MY first camera, too. Before that my Mom let me use her TLR for a few rolls, but once I demonstrated an aptitude, she bought me the Flashfun.

 

[Analog Swede]

Some model of Agfamatic (126 film) 45 or 46 years ago.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

RicohTHL 401and it was junk compared to today's standards.the lightmeter was a pain and so was the viewfinderbut the manual operations taught me a lot.Also ,I made more money with than it cost me.Can't say that about every camera I boughtunfortunately,except for my first Hasselblad.

 

[pgomena]

Wow, that Kodak Hawkeye Flashfun is almost identical to my Kodak World's Fair Flash Brownie, my first and long-lost camera. Only the colors are different.

 

[MattKing]

Camera and operator shown here on vacation at Niagara Falls.

Cropped down from an almost exactly 50 year old 828 Kodachrome slide.

I came across this while putting together a retrospective in honour of my mom (shown in the slide along with my brother and I).

Unfortunately, my mom passed away last month .

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Matt,

Cool photo. Looks like your younger brother was about to sneeze or something, though.

Anyway, my condolences.

-J

 

[MattKing]

Thanks John.

I think he was reacting to the roar of the falls.

 

[spacer]

My brother and I got nearly matching Instamatics when we were kids. His used flashcubes and mine used a flashbar. I wasn't sure why, but given his ideas on 'sharing', I was happy enough with the arrangement.
While our parents couldn't afford much in the way of film and processing ( I'm still loathe to waste film), I took a surprising number of photos with that little camera. I've no idea what ma and pa did with the images though.

 

[klop]

Gift when I was a kid

Kodak Instamatic 44

 

[siguii]

Polaroid iZone... I feel young.

 

[norm123]

A Zenith B.....a Nikon FG. I began late...1978. I was 18.

Normand

 

[RalphLambrecht]

What was the first camera you've ever used?

I"ll go first.
As far as I remember, it was a Red Konica Pop.

a 6x9 box camera from 1923(my grandma's hand-me-down;God bless her).

 

[JimCee]

An original Polaroid Land Model 95 camera that had belonged to my brother-in-law, who was an avid amateur photographer (he also had a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera, which I unfortunately never got to use!).

Jim

 

[pbromaghin]

From my parents on my 7th birthday.