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

[Prospero]

Yashica "J" rangefinder, Age 12.

 

[uraniumnitrate]

I got a Nikon f2 and still have it but based of memory faliure I just can't remember any longer how old I was!

 

[MAGNAchrom]

Leica M4 + Sumicron 50mm

 

[ElrodCod]

I was 20 years old when I bought a Canon FTQL at the base exchange in Yokasuka, Japan in 1966. It came with a 55mm(?)1.4 lens & I also bought a 135mm lens and a camera bag to go with it. I don't remember exactly how much the outfit cost but it was less than $200.

 

[Chan Tran]

Nikon F2AS at age 22.

 

[Jerry Basierbe]

Argus C-3 around 12 or 13 then on to a Canon AE-1 a few years later.

 

[Doug Knutsen]

Asahi Pentax SV. I bought it brand-new and wish I still had it.

Doug

 

[DougGrosjean]

Olympus XA in 1982, I was 20 y/o. Brand new, still got it, and still use it sometimes. But not much - it's been honorably retired. Don't want to lose it / damage it.

 

[anyte]

I only got my first 35mm SLR a few years ago: a Minolta Maxxum 50. Prior to that I had only had point and shoot cameras.

 

[don sigl]

My first 35mm was a Canon TX that I bought new at the base exchange in 1976. It cost me $180.00 and I took out my first loan at the base Credit Union to buy it. I was 19. Amazingly, I had not even thought about photography until that day. I went in planning to buy a stereo. (or a Browning 9mm. You could just buy stuff like that off the shelf in the military back then).
But when I looked through that viewfinder... it just did something. Being just 19, I had no idea what it was, but I knew it was something important. I shot with that Canon for the next 5 years. I took it to the arctic with me and used to have it freeze up solid in the -70F tundra. Somehow It survived.
When I got out of the service and was attending photo school, the camera fell from the front seat of my car to the floor. It never worked again, neither did the lens. I promptly talked my parents into paying for a new F1.

A few years ago I bought a TX on ebay for about $50. I used to use it for copy work, but now, my girlfriend uses it when she accompanies me on shoots.

 

[reellis67]

A Ricoh XR-P Multi-Program, which I still have, although after 16 years it finaly gave up the ghost and was replaced with a Canon. I bought it new when I was 17 or 18 (I believe ) - it was a HUGE deal at the time, very exciting.

- Randy

 

[David Lingham]

Zenith E, in 1970.

 

[poutnik]

My first camera was a Canon EOS 500, which I bought second hand when I was 25. That was the birth of my photography passion, until that day I was using cheap P&S of my parents. And I was taught the basics of photography (like what is the Aperture for ) by brother-in-law... He nearly stopped photographing since then... And the Canon is in different hands now too...

 

[Ole]

The first was my father's Welta Welti, which he allowed me to use occasionally from age 8 or so.

Then at 14, I bought a Praktica LTL3, my first SLR. Upgraded that four times, then realised the Welti was much more fun. So now I have my own Welti!

 

[Lee Shively]

I was 25. The camera was a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL. I sold it after about six months and bought two used Nikon F's.

 

[dmr]

Used Mamiya-Sekor Super Deluxe rangefinder when I was 16-17. Don't ask me what year that was!

 

[Noons]

First 35mm? A Canon Canonet QL19. Back in the late 60s, I was a high school kid then.

 

[mayokevin]

Canon AV 1 in 1980. I was a newlywed it was my first purchase after a color TV

 

[eubielicious]

My dad got me a cheapo Boots Beirette BL for my 16th birthday. I haven't used it in years and years but ran a film through it only a couple of weeks ago and it's still working fine. Not the most precise bit of photographic kit ever, but not bad for a 24 year old cheap camera.

Euan

 

[picturetaker]

My first 35mm was an Agfa zone focus bought used in 1968. Sold it at a garage sale about about 8 yrs later and have been looking for another one ever since. I can see it in my minds eye, but have seen nothing like in the Agfa lineup or Argus for that matter just in case I got my brand wrong.

 

[DWThomas]

I purchased a new Argus C3 during my junior year in high school, late 1957 or early 58. That was my graduation from a Brownie Target 620 and occasional use of an old folding Kodak my mother had. I just used that C3 sucker Sunday ("Argust 6th") for the first time in about thirty years! My first SLR was a Konica FP in 1963. That gave good service up to about 1980 when I bought a Canon A-1 after the Konica shutter started misbehaving. All of the above (except the folding Kodak) are still in my possession.

DaveT

Dead Link Removed

 

[AgCl4ever]

I was about twelve years old, and bought a Graflex 35mm with the 3.5 lens and the fast focusing (!!) press-to-focus-levers aside the lens. I had a chance at great "deals" on an Argus C-3 or a Rollie, but got a great price on the Graflex from the local camera store. Learned to develop Tri-X and to print on an old Federal enlarger.

 

[Curt]

An Exacta 500 bought at Kmart in the US for the sum of $99.00 new. My age, a lot younger than I am now. First photo was of my cat which I photographed in BW and found that it ran with feet movement like a rabbit. The rear moved together then the front legs together. Caught it in mid air.

My first camera was a 620 Kodak folder. Those 35mm cassettes were really cool in the metal cans. Go Kodak... No... go please go...

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

My mum's Canon AE-1P after years of loyal service, and served me pretty well too. That was last year, so I was 16. Got an EOS300X in december.
This topic points out just how new at this I am, wow.

 

[Abbazz]

My first 35mm was a Voigtlaender Vitoret "compact" with a so-so 50mm 2.8 Color Lanthar lens (nothing to do with Apo-Lanthar), that my father bought me for my 9th birthday. No rangefinder, no light meter: distance guessing and sunny 16... But I managed to get quite nice pictures, thanks to the exposure latitude of b&w film.

I remember the first one I took: it was my brother standing in front of the living room window on a cloudy day, with his pet guinea pig in his hands, shot on Ilford FP4 at f/2.8 and 1/30. I still have the negative somewhere.

Cheers,