What was your FIRST 35mm and how old were you?

[Sportera]

A Nikon FE, a "barrowed" FE. I was 17 I think.

 

[George Collier]

1959, living in Japan, I was 12, the camera was an Olympus Pen-E, half-frame (format was vertical when held normally - 75 pix on a roll), fixed lens (28mm, I think), and zone focus by judgement. The viewfinder had a pink cast to it that I still remember liking. I took notes in school by shooting the blackboard and doing the film after school. Thought I was clever, but it didn't do much for my scholastic average (grainy, etc). I loved it and still have it (somewhere..)

 

[James Hill]

My first 35mm camera was an Albinar MS-2 that I received from my father for Christmas 1985. I've still got the camera and occasionally run a roll of film through it.

 

[wilsonneal]

My first: Pentax

True first camera was a little 620, but my first 35 was a Pentax H1a in 1974. I was 9. Hand-me-down from Dad with a 28mm 2.8, 50 1.4, and 135 3.5 Takumar lenses. In a beatup tan leather attache with yellow foam padding. Picked up a Spotmatic, too, so I had two bodies that used these screw mount lenses. Used it until it was literally falling apart when I was in high school, and then acquired a 1964-vintage Nikon F, and slowly built up Nikkor glass. Then started working with SpeedGraphic with a rollfilm back. Various twin-lens cameras followed.
Neal

 

[b1bmsgt]

Forgot to mention that I also currently have about 15 Electro 35's, which I refurbish and sell on eBay...

Russ

 

[wilsonneal]

Earlier 35

Actually, thinking back, I now remember an earlier 35. Bolsey B22. It was a $2 find. Still have it. Surprisingly sharp little lens.
Neal

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Laugh if you will but....

...my first 35mm purchase (or camera purchase of any sort) was at age 28 -- a whopping five years ago. I've come a long way, baby. LOL!

I bought a Canon Elan IIe kit and really thought I was the bomb. That was followed up about nine months later with a MF kit, which was not surprisingly chased with a full darkroom.

 

[Ian Grant]

Well Agfa packaged 35mm film in a reloadable cassette, as a competitor to 126, and aged 14 or 15 I bought an Agfa Rapid, but I had a roll film camera aged 2, and have the photos to prove it First SLR was a Zenit E aged 16.

I still have my original enlarger bought not long after, I kept badgering my local shop after a 2nd hand model, and was surprised one day to be told we've got a brand new enlarger you can have it for nothing as long as you buy a new lens from us. Yes the enlarger was new, but had been hidden away for 20 years !

Ian

 

[mfahrur]

Inherited the OM-1, which my father bought back in '73, in 2002 when I was 28. The 50/1.4 and 75-150/4 eaten by fungus, though.

 

[digiconvert]

First 35mm

Praktica MTL3 with Pentacon 50mm lens back in 1979 was my first 35mm camera. Bought by my dad for my 21st birthday, it doesn't work now but I would not part with it for the world. It also shot the slides (Agfa of course) for my daughters growing up years until 1992 when I replaced it because of the above mentioned problem. It was a cracking piece of kit, you had to actually be able to focus and adjust things to use it

 

[simulatordan]

First even camera was a Kodak Brownie 127 in 1959 when I was 12. Followed the next year by an Helina 35; totally manual and no metering. Used the 'sunny 16 rule' and then got a johnson calculator ( which I've still got by the way). This was followed by a Pentax ME super - my first SLR , then another ME Super ; both still working and in use, a Nikon F65, a Nikon 501; second hand on ebay, and finally a Bronica SQ. All these are used on a regular basis but I still love the ME's which go everywhere with me every day.

 

[LeonardT]

My first 35mm was a Petri slr I bought while stationed on a remote site in Alaska. It was the only slr the BX sold. I got out of the service in '64 and in '66 traded up to a Spotmatic to get a better selection of glass. I traded the Pentax in '70 for a used Nikon Ftn. I still have a number of Nikon and Leica bodies but bought a Spotmatic II a couple months ago. There's just something about the old Pentax's that feel so right. And the old glass is still great.

 

[BruceN]

An Olympus OM-2n that my parents got me for my high school graduation in 1983. I had been wanting that exact camera real bad for over a year, but the cost was prohibitive. I had posters and sales literature of it pinned to my bedroom walls - my friends all thought I was wierd. I nearly cried when I opened it, I still don't know how they managed to afford it. I still use that same camera body all the time.

Bruce

 

[PeterL]

An Olympus OM-1 when I was 18. I'm still with Olympus until now: got myself an OM-3 when the 1's light meter broke, then an OM-4Ti for the aperture priority, then added lenses of which I now mainly use the 28/f2.8, 50/f1.4 and 90/f2.

Peter.

 

[get_me_a_gun]

I bought my first 35mm slr at age 18 from a wise man. It was a Nikon FM, and 3 months after I bought it the shutter froze. It was a recurring thing after that, and was a big pain, but I love that camera to this day (1 year plus a few days later). Especially the sound the shutter makes. Its almost an echoing noise. Now Ive moved on to a Nikon F100.

This frustration helped me to be patient while beginning to learn photography.

 

[tony lockerbie]

A Praktica FX2 when I was 16, followed shortly by a Zenit EM, what is it about the smell of those Russian cameras!

 

[rosey]

A Petri 2.8 rangefinder I purchased in 1958 at age 13. (More here.) I'm not sure what possessed me other than my Grandfather had a Leica IIIc (Which is mine now.) and the Petri kind of looked like it. That Petri was just like the one in my avatar.

Wow, Gordon, you bring back memories. I lusted after that very same Petri in 1958 at age 16 after my father gave me my first 35mm -- the venerable but ugly Kodak Signet 35.
The Signet 35 took remarkable pictures, both sharp and contrasty, but I liked the looks of the Petri. I got $10 in a trade-in of the Signet 35 for the Petri, which cost something like $59.
I went to Ohio State in 1960 where I joined the staff of the Lantern, the school paper. They gave the staff photogs Rolleis to use, but it was too hard to shoot football games on the sidelines with those. I still had my trusty Petri, but it was only good if I was standing at the back of the end zone and the action was coming right toward me.
I got some fine shots, though, and a couple good sideline profiles of Woody Hayes with the Petri. As I saved my pennies, my upgrade was to a screwmount Pentax H3v with normal 55mm lens and a 180mm Soligor preset from a N.Y. mailorder house. That Soligor, with a 2x extender, cost me less that $45 brand new, and it took some nice shots that appeared in the school paper. Associated Press even bought a couple.
In the 1980s, I lost my Pentax H3v to an apartment fire, but have since acquired two mint specimens cheaply on eBay. I have gone way beyond those early 35mm gems with newer and fancier models, but I'll always have a warm spot for that first Signet 35, Petri 2.8, and Pentax.
By the way, that Petri was used for a B&W pic the day the TWA terminal opened at Idlewild Airport in N.Y. for a silhouette of a pilot walking away from the camera down the tunnel to the gates. It took first place in a national collegiate contest, thanks to the fact I had that lovely, easy-to-use Petri with me. I still like a rangefinder now and then, and the fine Canon GIII does the job when I'm in the mood.
In later years, I taught my wife how to use that first Petri. When she divorced me, she took it with her. I wasn't too sad when the focusing mechanism turned stiff and made it impossible for her to use it.
Ken

 

[Markok765]

Pentax sp500, 12 yeats old

 

[pschauss]

My father bought me a used Aires 35 IIIL when I was 15. Here is a picture I took of him on the first roll I shot with it.

 

[thebanana]

A Mamiya 500 DTL bought when I got my first "real" job in 1975. My oldest son still uses it occasionally.

 

[bart Nadeau]

My first 35mm was an old Argus A when I was 14. I traded my cousin a brick of firecrackers, easy for me to get in Chinatown and a rare commodity for him to get in his white bread area of San Jose.

 

[naturephoto1]

My first 35mm camera was my dad's Argus C3. I believe that I was probably about 14.

Rich

 

[tony lockerbie]

A Praktica FX3, when I was 16....... still got it!

 

[HeliH]

My first 35mm was Pentax ME. My father gave it to me, I was 15 when I used it for the first time. Though photography didn't interest me at all then. I was 27 when I really got interested of this great thing. Again I forgot photographing for years. Now I can say that I've been photographing only abt four years..

 

[Zen]

I got a Practika SLR when I was 14 (forget the model), in readiness for GCSE Photography at school. I had numerous other cameras before that though, anyone remember the disc film cameras of the 80's?