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

[magic823]

Fujica ST-701 when I was 16. I still have it. I had to replace the seals but it still works. Bought an Omega B-22 enlarger that same day.

Second camera was a Contax RTS.

 

[Murray Kelly]

Retina IA 1953 aged 17yo. It was a huge jump from the Kodak Vigilant. Never went back to MF. Dabble in 16mm minoltas/Kievs tho

 

[MikeK]

Russian Zenit with cyrillic script bought when I turned 18. Still have it today; has not been used now for at least 20 years.

Mike

 

[Chuck_P]

A Canon A-1 in 1981 and I was 17. That camera was stolen from me while in the Navy in 1988, along with 5 lenses, motordrive, and a domke bag. It was a very sad day for me indeed.

Chuck

 

[Shelly Grimson]

I was 17. I sold my Walther .22 target rifle with walnut stock and bought a Topcon R. It did change my target but not my aim. Wish I would have had the dough to save that gun though. It is worth a lot now, with that fancy stock and sights....
Shelly

 

[flashgumby]

My first 'real' camera was a nice little Ricoh 500RF, with a Sunpak flash. My parents bought it for me sometime around 1980/81 when I was about 14 - I had just taken up photography as a high school elective class.
When I got my brand new Minolta Dynax 5000i, I kept the Ricoh - it was still good, and meant a lot to me.
I lent the Ricoh to a friend's daughter to use in about 1995, and haven't seen either of them since :-(( maybe it was worth it...

 

[Steve Bellayr]

I was about 18 when I bought a used Agfa SLR. Sold it a year later for a Demo Nikkormat FTN. Still have that FTN and several lenses. I works fine no problems. 1967/69

 

[jimgalli]

I bought a brand new Nikon FG in 1983. I was 31 and a new dad.

 

[Eric Rose]

Well I started off with my Dad's Exakta when I was about 12. That would be in 1967. Used that and my Dad's Minolta Hi-Matic 7's until about 1973 when I bought a Minolta SRT-101. Very quickly moved from that to a Nikon F.

Before the Exakta I had a Kodak Brownie. Still have the first set of negs I developed at age 8 or 9. My ability to make a good photo has been going down hill ever since.

 

[ingobohn]

Praktica MTL5B with 3 lenses (fix focal length), I was 16.

 

[wclavey]

A Praktica Nova 1B - I bought it for $100 when I was 15 or 16. Prior to that it had been 120 roll film cameras and a Kodak Bantam (828 film - - almost 35mm...).

 

[Taurus 8]

A new Pentax K1000 & 50mm F2 lens bought with grass cutting money from a very productive summer! I was 15 - 1980.

I was always using the family's Kodak Instamatic as a kid...I think the K1000 with lens cost about $250 with Tax in Canada

John

 

[jonw]

My first 35mm was an Olympus OM-1 (still have it). I would have been 16 or 17 yrs old...1972 or 1973. Olympus OM-4 is still my favorite 35mm system.

 

[jasemty]

My first 135 camera was a Nikon FE10 when I was 17 years old. It's a shame that I repaired its shutter for several times but it still didn't work.

 

[analogfotog]

I received a Praktika Nova I at Christmas, 1968, when I was 15 years old. It came with a 50mm f/2.8 Meyer Domiplan lens, a never-ready case, and an inexpensive electronic flash, as well as a roll of Kodacolor-X film and four AA batteries. The camera and case are long gone, but I still have the lens and the flash, although neither have been used for many, many years. I still have the negatives and prints, too, although now a bit faded.

That equipment helped to light a fire under me, and I have been photographing for nearly forty years, both professionally and for pleasure.

 

[weststarflyers]

My first 35 mm camera was a Bolsey model C (I borrowed it from my dady) back in the old country (Peru) and the first 35 mm I have ever own was a Olympus Pen half-frame... 40 pictures in a 20 exposure roll film. That drove me crazy. A Bar-Mitzva present, of course.

 

[Mike Wilde]

loaner K1000 at 16, X-700 at 17

when 16, I was part of a semi-technical stream at my High School. You took 7 academic subjects and one vocational subject. The one vocational class was a mix of 6 different tech department 'shops' for about a 6 week stretch before you would switch to the next one. There was drafting, woodworking, auto repair, machine shop, welding & sheet metal, and electrical. The two drafting teachers also ran the photo club. They would wander the room while you were drawing taking pictures, asking you to try out the camera, handing you a tank of film to agitate when they got called away, etc. Like a fly to.. is was drawn in. The Photo club - free to join- would loan you the camera for the day, or after a few weeks for the weekend; Shoot pretty much whatever B&W you wanted, for something like a dollar for the film, chems, and contact sheet. You provided the labour for the yearbook in exchange - someone would have to go and shoot the club x or sports team y, to keep their sweet deal of camera loan, etc going. Then when the yearbook editor returned the marked up contact sheet, you were given a box with say 10 sheets of 8x10 and sent into the 2 enlarger equipped darkroom to produce the requisite prints, sized per the editors order. This could be before class, during a spare period, at lunch, or after school til say 7 or 8pm, if you mom didn't kill you for skipping dinner. Turn in the pictures the yearbook wanted, and no mention was ever made of where the rest of the photo paper went; enlarge your own stuff to your hearts desire.

The photo club memebers also shot bulk rolled Ektachome, and then in the late spring we would edit the whole lot down to about the best 1000 or so images, and design a slide show, set to music, and with two projectors on a dissolve, and a third projector off to one side. The whole school would be dinged $2 to sit in the doubel gym where the thing was screened. Between that income, and some sort of club funding that we never saw, we had free reign to do pretty much what we wanted.

After one year of this, I knew what I wanted - my own camera & darkroom. For the camera I got in in on a group purchase with three others, including my chemistry teacher, who headed the effort. We bought Minolta x-700's fitted with a Vivitar 35-70mm lens. Until last summer, when the camera went accidentally for a swim, it was still my primamry colour film camera.

The darkroom happened the fall I was 18, in a corner of my parents basement. That would be, lets count now, 5 darkrooms ago.

 

[BBonte]

Olympus OM 1

Olympus OM1n. I was sixteen. I'm 44 now and the camera is still with me and in regular use.

I have same age and my Olympus OM 1 black is also still with me, functioning perfectly. Wonderfull. Just bought canon G7 but will never sell my OM gear.

 

[Jeff L]

I learned on an veiwfinder Optina but my first own camera was a Yashica FR. I was 14 and cut a lot of grass for that camera. Still have it. Had it serviced and managed to find a film counter gear- so that works. Don't use it anymore because I don't want anything to happen to it. Funny thing, sentimentality

 

[MAGNAchrom]

My 1st 35mm camera

What was your very first 35mm? How old were you?

Leica M4 w 50mm Sumicron, 17 yrs old

 

[pesphoto]

K1000 here at 12 years old.

 

[pesphoto]

oh...40 yrs old now and the k1000 still works perfectly.

 

[Craig]

I was 10 and our class did a "Field trip to Field" on Via Rail. At that time Field, BC was as far west as you could go in a day and catch the return train, The Canadian. When my Grandfather heard of this I was promptly gifted a Ricoh XR-2 that he wasn't using.

My Father came along on the trip and under his watchful eye I learned the basics of photography on Kodachrome 25. For my first roll of film the slides came out remarkably well.

 

[Thorney]

First SLR FTB Ql

Ahhh,

'Twas the Fall of 1973 and I was 11 years old when my parents bought me a brand-new Canon FTb Ql with a 50mm 1.8 lens at Sears in Victoria BC for $271 with taxes.

It was traded in for a Contax 139Q in about 1982. I still have the Contax and also a pretty cool little Rollei 35s (with the good lens). When I get nostalgic, I check eBay for a mint or NIB FTb

That camera was a tank!

 

[polaski]

Konica S-II

Yes, that's a Roman numeral II. I was maybe 12 years old, ready to leave my Baby Brownie 127 behind. My uncle (after I sent him the money) brought it home from a PX in Japan. They are very rare in the US; so I believe that distribution was primarily in Japan.

Here's a fellow admirer of this particular camera:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www3.kiy.jp/~daddy/KONICAS2.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3DKonica%2BS2%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DGGLD,GGLD:2004-21,GGLD:en

I still have it, and maybe some day the shutter might get fixed...