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

stockton · Jul 15, 2007

Minolta xg-1. I was 12 or 13 when my parents gave it to me. I still have it and I am teaching my nephew how to use it.

Black Dog · Jul 18, 2007

Ah Zeniths (and Prakticas).....them were the days.....

FabrizioLima · Aug 29, 2007

My first SLR was a Olympus OM-1 that my dad gave me. I was 15.
I still have the camera and never gonna sell it.
The first I bought was a Nikon FM2 in the college. Only after graduation, and my first job, I was able to get my hands in a Leica. LOL

cheers

kevin_c · Sep 14, 2007

OK, I'll join in...

My first 35mm camera was a Russian 'Zorki 4' rangefinder and a solitary 'Jupiter 8' 50mm f/2 lens:

Dead Link Removed

I was 16 when my father bought it for me, and this was in 1975.
I learnt a lot about photography using this camera and lens combo, having to use a seperate hand held meter. I also used a lot of slide film so getting the exposure right was even more important!

--Kevin--

mjs · Sep 14, 2007

Leica_girl58 said:
My first 35 mm was a yashica tl-electro which I still have somewhere in my closet. It cost $206.00 and I bought it with my first income tax return when I was 16 years old. I had 6.00 left over and bought my first roll of film. That camera took the best photos. If I learn how to post pictures on here or on a gallery, I have a stunning photo I took with it only a couple years ago. The only reason why I don't still use it, is because the batteries are no longer made for it and also because my lens is stuck..can't unscrew it to get it off.
darlene (new member)

http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?YashicaTLElectro.html~mainFrame

A little less than half way down the page, explains what batteries to use in your camera. It still lives, if you want it to!

mjs

yardkat · Sep 15, 2007

K1000

My first camera was a Pentax K1000. We had bought it for my mother for Christmas around 1977 or so; my brother was probably only 3 or 4, and when we got home from Christmas shopping he said, "Mommy, we bought your present. And it's not a camera." Anyway, it turned out to be too complicated for her, she wanted something more automated, so my dad later bought a Pentax ME Super, and I saved up my allowance and bought the K1000 for $60 from him when I was in grade 6. I also remember saving allowance to buy a telephoto lens, it was back in the day when JCPenney had a photo department, everytime we'd go there I would drool over the photo counter. I still have the camera, and I also have the ME Super as well. I used the K1000 until my husband gave me a Nikon 8008 for our wedding 5 years ago, but until then it was the only camera I'd ever used, from age 11 or so until I was 31. Its so funny, because I had the telephoto and a zoom lens, and I dont think I ever used them. I only used the 50mm that came on the camera.
I've enjoyed reading this thread.

spiralcity · Sep 18, 2007

My first 35mm camera was an old KODAK RETINETTE of some type. It was given to me by my Grandfather when I was very young. I was probally about 10 or 11 at the time.

My first SLR was a NIKON EM I purchased new in my early 20's.

newsphotog · Sep 19, 2007

Chinon CM4s. I was, I think, 12.

Nokton48 · Sep 19, 2007

Praktica FX3.

Later on, a -new- Minolta SRT-100.

jja · Sep 19, 2007

The first 35mm I remember was my brother's Pentax K1000, sometime around middle school. He gave it to me when I went away to college. Loved that camera.

filmamigo · Sep 19, 2007

When I found myself the highschool yearbook photography editor, my dad gave me his Canon Ftb. It was the backup camera to his Spotmatic F. I don't know where that Ftb ended up -- but I recently inherited my grandfather's FT QL and still love the sound and feel of the metal-bodied Canons.

Silver&Silicon · Feb 15, 2008

Started out using any borrowed 35mm SLR I could get my hands on while working as a very young Photojournalist. Asahi Pentax K1000 that belonged to my High School Yearbook Staff, Canon AE-1 that had been rescued by a diver from the bottom of a deep freshwater lake in Texas the day after it went over the side of the boat (and yes, it still worked perfectly after it was dried out and CLA'd, one of the reasons I still shoot Canon FD SLRs to this day), A later model Pentax K1000 that belonged to a friend, A Yashica, I don't recall the model, that belonged to a staff member on my local newspaper where I worked as a Darkroom Tech and Photographer starting in my early teens.
My first 35mm SLR was a match-needle metered little manual tank known as the Canon TX which I proudly purchased from my older brother. I liked it so well that I purchased a second body and made a lot of money with those 2 little cameras over the years. I still can quote the serial numbers for each of those Canon TX bodies from memory. I later traded the first TX body and some lenses to my sister for her brand new Canon AE-1 Program, both because she wanted the match-needle manual body to take on the mission field in Africa and because she's the generous sort of person to want her little brother to have a camera he could never have afforded at the time. Though I've since gone through many Canon 35mm SLRs, and now own and use four Canon NEW F-1Ns, I'll always remember the Canon TX. Nice idea for a thread. Thanks for the memories it rekindled.

rcoda · Feb 15, 2008

Yashica 35(G, I think) and I was 16 (1976). Before that a 110 Instamatic.

Bluechapel · Feb 15, 2008

1978, I was 12, and worked all summer (wheat field) to buy a used Canon AE-1. It lasted until 1995, when it was stolen. Despite having the Mamyia by then, I missed it and replaced it through ebay.

Chazzy · Feb 16, 2008

It was an Argus C3 given to me by one of my brothers, and I was about 13 or 14.

Jeffrey A. Steinberg · Feb 16, 2008

Olympus OM-1 and I was 13. The best Bar Mitzvah gift I got. I still have it. Had John at www.zuiko.com update the foam and battery and CLA it and it is as good as new.

DarkroomExperimente · Feb 16, 2008

Konica FC-1 with 40mm f1.8 lens late teens+

Larry.Manuel · Feb 17, 2008

The first 35mm camera that I purchased...

.. was a Rollei 35B. A selenium meter [no batteries] and collapsible 3-element Triotar lens - that was actually pretty good. I used it mostly for colour slides - I was trying to economize then. I bought it in Waterloo, Ontario, in the fall of 1978. The next year, I took it to Norway, and left it - inadvertently - on a huge boulder while hiking on a mountainside. There were hundreds of similar boulders, and I could not find my camera once I realized I had left it behind. Fortunately, I have some slides from that trip [to Kragero, mostly]. I liked that camera; a mechanical shutter has always appealed to me [and generally worked better than an electrical one].

I replaced it with a Minox, which I loved until the shutter died, after about 6 years.

When I was a kid, I used my dad's Mercury II half-frame camera, then his Miranda Sensorex [circa 1965].

Used M4-P circa 1990 [foolishly sold], then Nikon FM2 circa 1997; still have it, never use it. Leica M3 in 2006 - now re-skinned and fully overhauled. That, I plan to keep forever. Mostly, I use my Rollei TLRs, of which I have three.

panastasia · Feb 17, 2008

This thread is getting very long. I'll add one more here:

I was drafted into the Army in 1970, bought a Minolta SRT-101 from the PX, found the on base photo lab and learned B&W film developing and print making, got married to my high school sweetheart, traveled around Europe w/new toy not knowing what f-stops were other than for matching the meter needle. When I look at the old high-speed-ektachrome slides of the Swiss Alps, I know I was shooting wide open @ 1/1000 sec.. It was fun, though. I was hooked and never stopped making photos.

From that beginning (I was age 22) it took me about 2 years to really get up on the learning curve - self taught all the way.

mooseontheloose · Feb 17, 2008

Seriously long thread...

My first SLR, which I still love and use, was a used Nikon FE (which is almost as old as I am). I didn't even know what kind of Nikon it was because it's the only one without a 'name' on the front or back. I got it after disasterous results with some automatic Canon SLR (used) that I had purchased. Notwithstanding the problems with that camera, I realized if I ever really wanted to learn anything about photography, that I would have to go manual all the way. So I went back to the camera shop to exchange the Canon and the Nikon just called out to me -- seemed to be the most 'classic' of the cameras on the display shelf. I have never regretted it since (that was way back in 2001). Not sure what my first film was in that camera, probably some Kodak negative film -- I had always favored Kodak, coming from Canada, but in Japan the sales staff (and other photographers) kept pushing me to buy Fuji (it's better!! it's made here!!) so eventually I did.

I remember at that time reading all I could to teach myself the basics, and one of the books I had was from Freeman Patterson. He really opened my eyes to alternate ways of seeing and photographing the world, which I tried. Unfortunately, the people at the lab thought that my out of focus/zoom/etc. photos were a result of user error, and didn't even bother printing them for me to save me the embarrassment of bad pictures (!). I couldn't even begin to explain my reasoning to them (this was all in Japan) so I finally made the switch over to slide film, where they couldn't delete my 'bad' photos at all. ;-) That was another real eye opener, and I have rarely shot colour negative film since. However, with the prices of Provia being what they are, I may eventually just have to go all black and white to be able to afford all the shooting I want to do!

MP_Wayne · Feb 17, 2008

My first SLR was an original Canon F-1 with a 50mm f1.4 lens, purchased when I was 17 years old (just out of high school) for Cdn$629.99 (1976 dollars). I had sort of committed to Canon FD as I had purchased a Canon FD 100mm F2.8 lens a few months earlier when I purchased it new from a store going out of business (for a mere $86). Those humble starting equipment choices served me very well on a number of trips and other events for over 10 years. I still have that F-1 body and those lenses in perfect working order.

Marc Akemann · Feb 17, 2008

My first SLR was a brand new chrome Minolta SRT-102 (with mirror-lock-up) that came with a 50/1.4 MC Rokkor-X. It was a high school graduation gift from my parents in 1974. I had it for around 8 years before it was stolen from my car in the summer of '82. I still have every negative and slide I ever shot with that camera. About 3 or 4 years ago I bought another SRT-102 and 50/1.4 Rokkor on eBay and I use it once in a while. When I look through the viewfinder and see the familiar settings of the camera, it's like traveling through time a little bit.

Davesw · Feb 17, 2008

When I was 11 or 12 my dad gave me an old Argus C3. I finally had a camera with shutter speeds and F stops! it allowed me to learn how to use a light meter and it toke descent pictures too.

Uhner · Feb 17, 2008

I bought my first 35mm back in 88 when I was 17 years old. It was a used Minolta 9000 – all black and all plastic with a 50mm lens. I never did like that camera; so a few months later I traded it for a new Nikon FM2. That camera still works. It has survived car crashes, travels in Africa and all over Europe and it has served me well on several archaeological surveys and excavations. Sadly I don’t use it anymore; I gave it to my fiancé who thanked me by stealing my 55mm Micro Nikkor…

panastasia · Feb 17, 2008

FilmSprocket said:
My first SLR was a brand new chrome Minolta SRT-102 (with mirror-lock-up).....

The mirror-lock-up was a feature that I constantly used (I also had the SRT-102 for about 30 years - the 101 was my first in 1970), I'm happy that my RB has that feature when I'm using long lenses on a tripod, especially when using slow shutter speeds. I can't understand why it was discontinued on some camera models, it made sense to include it. I think it was that the point-and-shoot mentality was more marketable, leading to the do-everything-auto cameras. Remember the VCR's w/19 functions and most people only used about 4 of them after they bought the thing? More functions meant they were assured of not missing anything - like digital cameras and related peripherals. The early 35mm models were no-nonsense cameras.

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

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