What was your first camera?

[anyte]

I don't know what my first camera was. My dad gave it to me when I was 10 - it was some old camera that he pulled out of his navy barrel. He didn't have any film for it so I ran around just looking through the viewfinder - it's been a long time but I believe everything was upside down. It had a big flash with a round handle and a round silver dome behind the bulb. I loved that camera. My brothers broke it - otherwise I think I would still have it.

My next camera was Kodak pocket camera - took the weird film cartridges. I got that when I was 14. Every camera I've had since has been a point and shoot until buying the Minolta in April this year.

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

At the risk of revealing my photographic newcomer status, I got my first camera (real or not) four years ago -- Canon Elan IIe. I use it at every portrait session, along with my Bronica.

Got that camera, and within a year I had constructed a darkroom in my basement. A few months later, I went MF. Things tend to progress pretty rapidly when you're obsessed, eh?

- CJ

 

[jimgalli]

Nikon FG. 1983. I had walked into Canoga Camera to buy an AE-1 like my father-in-law had and the guy at the counter said the Nikon was a lot more camera for the same $$. Had an AE1 later on, and that guy was so right. It took 10 years before I ever got interested in that Nikon, but when I did, it was there waiting for me. No longer have the FG, but it's about 6 houses down the street. I do still have a Nikon system though. Almost replaced with 6.3 mega-pixel Fuji..........going, going.............

 

[rogueish]

The first camera I used was my Dad's new (at the time) Nikon FE. I think I used it more then he did. My dad still has the camera, but now my niece uses it more than he does.
The first camera I bought was a Nikon F-401X (N5005) that was on sale dirt cheap (and now I know why). Fall of 2002 I picked up a Yashica C off ebay. Love that bigger negative. Wasn't long before I had commendeered the bathroom for printing. Debating on wether to go with a newer SLR medium format or getting a 4x5 camera. Hmmm choices, choices...

 

[tom_micklin]

Pentax Spotmatic - 1969 or thereabouts.
Got a Calumet 4x5 a few years after that.
When my daughter took a photography class in high school not too long ago, the camera she picked out from the used section at the local camera store was also a Pentax 35mm. I don't think it was a Spotmatic, however. Something a few more features.

 

[removed account4]

my mom's kodak flashfun. took 127 film and funky flash bulbs. i think i was about 6 or 7. before that i had a mickey mouse camera, you pulled down the ear and it tripped the shutter.

my first slr was a pentax k1000 i got around 1980 ...

 

[harveyje]

1950 - my 11th birthday - I received a Brownie 620 so I would leave my mother's Kodak Tourist folder alone! The next Christmas I was given a Kodak developing kit with a contact printer because my father was tired of paying my processing bills - since then I have been hooked.

 

[ian_greant]

First Camera was an Exacta 35mm SLR with a Waist Level Finder, had a Weston meter too! It and a Rolleiflex were leftovers from my parents studio in Chicago.

Kid brother borrowed for school and school burned that day with the camera in the locker. Didn't replace it with a truly personal camera for... almost 20 years.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think the first was some sort of Kodak 110 Instamatic when I was around 9 or 10 years old, and then I started doing some simple darkroom work, and it seemed time to move up to 35mm, so the first serious camera was a Ricoh rangefinder, and later a Canon A-1. The Ricoh and the A-1 were stolen in a house burglary, but fortunately were insured, and I kept good records as a kid, so we got a good insurance settlement that financed a Canon "New" F-1, which I still use.

 

[Aggie]

My parents wouldn't let me touch their old kodak brownie camera. They bought me an instamatic when I was 10. My next camera didn't come until I was 16. That camera was a super 8mm Kodak movie camera that I won for out selling the rest of our Junior class in HS. That summer I earned the money and bought a canon ftb. I did an end run around the advisor of the HS yearbook, that refused to allow girls on the staff. I dated one of the guys who was a photographer, and did all of the work. He was too lazy to actually do a thing. That camera was stolen out of a company safe when I was working at Zion National Park two summers later. Next came a Canon F1, Which was stolen. Then Hubby got a Canon T-70, I got my first Mamiya 645. A few years ago I upgraded to the Mamiya 7II. 2 years ago I got my first LF, a Wisner 4x5. I'm still waiting for my 6x8 to arrive.

 

[Jon King]

After the "Kodak Instamatic" phase (110, ugh!), I expressed an interest in 'better' pictures, and my father dug out his old Zeiss 6x6 folder. Built in 45 or 46, no rangefinder and sunny f/16 for a meter, I used that for several years until I saved for a Minolta SRT-201. Still have both, although the Zeiss shutter is non functional ;( Nowadays, I split my time between a KO200 & an Ansco 5x7, the latter mostly for alt process negatives.

 

[ian_greant]

John,

You really had a Mickey Mouse camera? Now that's cool!

 

[Aggie]

I have a budweiser can 35mm camera. Still in the plastic and full instructions. I should take a picture of it and put it in the gallery. My most unusual camera.

 

[Ole]

Kodak Instamatic, it took 126(?) film cartridges. Then for a while my father sometimes let me use his Welta Welti, which I still have.

My first SLR was a Praktica TL3 with 28, 50 and 100mm lenses. Used that for a few years, then got a Pentax ME which served me well for many years.
Next I picked up a Lubitel 166U, which I later sold for two glasses of beer (a good deal for me). Then a folding Zeiss Ikon, before I bought a second-hand Bronica ETRS.

First LF was a Technika III with 4x5" reduction back. I then bought another one, with 5x7" back... When I found the Linhof color I traded in one of the Technikas along with the reduction back and a rather ratty 210mm Xenar.

 

[Fintan]

my first, was a Zenith 12 camera with fixed 50mm lens, still have it.

 

[Leon]

1st - practika MTL-5 with CZ jena 50mm and 135mm lenses. I found it in the attic of my brothers then new house left there by the previous owners. The lenses were full of fungus but it sparked a flame. I then bought a canon eos 300, sold it, bought a Voigtlander bessa r2 35mm and 90mm lenses, sold it, bought a bronica sqb 80mm and 40mm lenses, sold it bought my current (and future camera) Rollei sl66 and 80mm lens - definitely will not sell it!

I've wasted so much money to get where I am, hindsight is a terrible thing really!

 

[Andy K]

My first real camera was a Christmas gift from my father in 1976, a Zorki 4K rangefinder. I still have it and still use it beside other cameras. All manual and no meter it taught me the basics.
Nearly thirty years later I still hope to be as good with a manual camera as my father is with his little 35mm German 'Arette' bought in the 50s during his National Service in Germany.

 

[bobfowler]

1st - a brand spankin' new Kodak Instamatic 104 (don't ask the year, it was the mid-1960's).

1st REAL camera - a used Practiflex that had been my fathers, sometime around 1970 or so.

First NEW camera - a Kowa SET-R2, circa 1972ish.

 

[removed account4]

John,

You really had a Mickey Mouse camera? Now that's cool!

sure did <G>
and it was sold for 50¢ at a garage sale in the early 70s. ...

 

[jovo]

Brownie Hawkeye. I loved that camera and enjoyed using it while my father used his Rollieflex, and somewhat later, his Leica M3 which I inherited and were my first 'real' cameras.

 

[geraldatwork]

My first camera was one of those Kodak box cameras where you looked from the top to compose. My first "serious" camera was a Kowaflex 35mm SLR with an 50mm lens. Purchased for $100 in 1967. I needed it for art school.

 

[Snapper]

Kodak Disc camera, early 80's. It was total rubbish, but it fitted in your pocket. Probably the worst designed camera in history.

 

[sparx]

My first camera was a Boots 110 cassette camera. My first 'real' camera is the one I have now, an Olympus OM40 program (also known as an OM PC).

 

[Graeme Hird]

In the late 1980's, I bought a second-hand Minolta SRT 101 with a selection of very poor lenses. It taught me a lot about exposure control.

But I consider my Tachihara 5x4 as my first camera - the Minolta and the Nikon that came before the LF were just toys by comparison. The Tachi taught me a lot about the art of photography.

It still teaches me .....

 

[gr82bart]

My first camera, which I still have, was a brand new Pentax ME given to me for my 12th b-day. It had a SMC Pentax-A 50mm f1.4 lens on it (still does) and has served me very well in this hobby of mine.

Another piece of nostalgia for me was when I bought my first Nikon - an F4e during my university years. I remember feeling 'professional' and proud when I got that piece of machinery. That first Nikon has traveled the world with me and it was twice dropped (once in a creek and another down an embankment in a quarry!) and it still works fine (thanks to the surgeons at Nikon's repair service shop!).

A couple years ago, I bought my first Hassey. What can I say? It's a statement of elegance and engineering in one unit. Just like my other firsts, I'll keep this one for a very long time.

Nice thread.

Regards, Art.