What was your first camera?

[Lee Shively]

I'm glad this thread was resurrected--very interesting stories from all.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye when I was a kid. I annoyed everyone with that camera. I can still hear my mother telling me to stop wasting film.

My first "real" camera was a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL bought (as best I can remember) in late 1972. It had a 50mm f/2 lens. I was broke after buying it and 3-4 rolls of film. I shot a lot of Tri-X because it was cheap to shoot and black and white was cheap to have printed at the drugstore. I learned to love black and white photographs.

I quickly got seriously interested in photography. By the spring of 1973, I had sold the Mamiya and bought a used Nikon Photomic FTn with Nikkor 50/1.4 and a couple of truly wretched used third party lenses. I also set up a darkroom with a used but decent Vivitar enlarger. I worked at my job during the day, shot pictures of anything and everything after work and on weekends and processed film and printed late into the night. I was obsessed. I seldom slept. I remember trying to catch up on my sleep by coming home after work, going directly to bed and sleeping around the clock. I did this a couple of times a month, thinking it was doing me good. Within a year, I quit my job, spent a few months making pictures and putting together a portfolio. By the summer of 1975, I got my first newspaper job.

 

[JLMoore3]

Mine was a "Mini Spy Camera" from the back pages of one of my dad's mechanic/tech mags (can't remember the name)... It came with 5 rolls of film, which I shot up that first weekend & then dragged around for at least six years worth of moves (Navy Brat). Finally lost the rolls without getting them developed. I was sure there were Masterpieces on those rolls... especially the pictures I took of a slide show at the neighbors house.

The first "real" camera I got to use was a TLR Yashica D in my high school graphic arts class. Had that class for 2 years & don't remember much else about the class other than the darkroom.

After high school I followed in my dad's footsteps & joined the Navy. Bought my first camera at the PX in Long Beach- a Pentax K1000. They had just come out & I bought the first one shipped to the PX. Dragged that thing halfway around the world twice. Sold it to buy the first model Mamiya 645. Kinda wish I could have kept the K1000- it was solid.

 

[David Brown]

A lime green, plastic 620 box camera!!! If it had a brand, I don't remember. Wish I still had it - would be worth $1.50 at any flea market, but priceless to me.

Cheers, y'all.

David

 

[colrehogan]

My first camera was a Polaroid Zip. I still have it today. As far as I know, it still works. After that, it was the Kodak Instamatic 110, the Kodak Disk (still have that too). Went to Europe in 1986 with my dad's Canon AE-1 Program and a 50 mm and 135 mm lenses. I used that camera for a long time (I have it, mostly because I used it more than he did). Used to have an A-1, but recently sold a lot of the gear that wasn't being used as much as it should. The first camera I bought was a Canon Elan IIe. After having battery door problems, that camera was sold and put towards a Leica M6TTL. I later bought a Mamiya 7II, a Toyo 45AII, an Ansco 8x10 and a Hasselblad 501CM.

Of the antique cameras, the ones I think are neat are the Folding Pocket Kodak Model 3A and the Kodak Retina IIa.

I sound like an equipment geek again! Oh well, I've pared down my 'collection' and there are several I didn't mention, but this post is too long as it is.

 

[Lee L]

David,

Your description fits my first camera; a Tower Snappy 620 I got at Sears in '61, near Houston, TX.

Lee

 

[David Brown]

Yours description fits my first camera; a Tower Snappy 620 I got at Sears in '61, near Houston, TX.

Yes, yes, yes. That's it!! And 1961 sounds about right, too.

Cheers!

David

 

[ThomHarrop]

Polaroid Swinger. I loved this thing. You had to coat the images with goo to fix them. It was all great.

 

[Max Power]

Polaroid Swinger.

Polaroid SWINGER!!!

International Man of Mystery voice Sounds Shagadelic Baby!!! International Man of Mystery voice

 

[rbarker]

Would you believe . . . ?

Dead Link Removed

 

[smieglitz]

First was a Polaroid Swinger received as a gift. Then a few months later, another gift of a Big Swinger. I caught the bug and read all I could for a couple years then bought a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL with dual spot and averaging meter. Sold that a few years later a bought a Canon F1N w/20mm lens (couldn't afford both a 50mm and a 20mm). Then a Canon EF, A-1, AE-1, Speed Graphic, Speed Graphic, Speed Graphic, CC-401, Sunpet, Diana, Holga, Grover....Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 110...Burke & James 11x14.

 

[Dave Wooten]

Lee thanks,

That is the camera mine was black I loved "aiming" through the framer in the center and getting compositions.

 

[roteague]

Would you believe . . . ?

Ralph, I really don't know how you do it, but, you always seem to come up with just the right image at the right time. Do you produce these over the years hoping the right opportunity will come up to use them?

 

[rbarker]

. . . Do you produce these over the years hoping the right opportunity will come up to use them?

You'll notice from the copyright date, Robert, that one has been hanging around for a while.

Some people believe that was my first studio, opened after I finished shooting the Civil War. But, in truth, it was a nifty diarama at the Deutsche Museum in Munich, photographed when I was there while in the military. More recently, my twisted sense of humor has prompted me to do a fair amount of table-top stuff just for fun. These often lend themselves nicely to being editorial fodder on the forums.

 

[sp_maher]

I started with one of my father's Mirandas--a mechanical RE. It had an incredibly sharp 50mm 1.4. When the meter died, I was forced to make exposure decisions on my own and did so for years. I'm a better photographer now because of that experience. That poor Miranda is now in dire need of an overhaul and I can't bring myself to spend the money on it, so I keep it around for sentimental reasons. While I do own an autofocus Pentax zx-5n system, I still prefer older bodies and I still often make my own exposure decisions.

Sean

 

[argus]

A polaroid I got from an uncle when I was 7. Don't have it any longer.

G

 

[Robert Hall]

A polaroid BW and a Zeiss Icon

 

[Claire Senft]

Kodak

Kodak 35mm Motormatic. I upraded to an Alpa 6C and regretted it until I got rid of it...JUNK..but a wonderful lens and very pretty.

 

[Carol]

My first was a Kodak 127. I still have it and the photos I took with it when I was a child. I'm either a hoarder or it was very special to me.

 

[Mongo]

The first camera I owned, given to me in my youth, was a Kodak Instamatic of some sort. I showed enough of an interest that my father started letting me use his Zeiss Contessa.

The first camera I bought, and one that I still have (and will probably never part with) was a Nikon FE2. It think they'd been on the market for two months when I bought mine. Great camera. I don't know how many thousands of rolls of film I've put through it, but it still operates like new. I don't shoot much 35mm any more, but just picking up the Nikon and handling it takes me back.

Great thread!

 

[carsten]

My first camera was a Hasselblad 500 from the first Seventies.
And I bought it in the late nineties...
But after a couple of month I purchased a Linhof Kardan E that I am still using as my favorite camera (and I have only one objective, (a Linhof signed Schneider 150).
Ciao

 

[oriecat]

My first was a kodak instamatic of some sort also. Then in 8th grade my dad bought me a Mamiya/Sekor 500TL and some lenses and accessories. I still have them all. The light meter died, so a couple years ago I bought another one on ebay in the hopes I could fix it. Same problem! Two years ago my boyfriend bought me a 500DTL for Christmas that's in great shape. So I can still pretend I am using my old camera, plus I have 3 50mm lenses to pick from.

 

[mikebarger]

My first was a Baldnette folder. It used it for vacations and photos of my kids for years.

Kinda wish I still had it around, must be old age.

Mike

 

[jmailand]

First Cameras.

I had some sort of 126 camera I bought from the back of a Life cereal box. It didn't work very good though. My mom later got me a Kodak 110 with a built in flash. I have some old pictures from a vacation in Colorado taken with that camera that still look surprisingly good. Later while in Texas in the Air Force I bought a Canon T50. I have probably have taken over a 1000 pictures with that camera and it still works as good today. I now have a T70 to go with it so I can have some manual control to use with then lenses I bought for the T50.

 

[naaldvoerder]

A Minolta XG-1, with a 50 mm. I bought it because me father owned a X-700 and I hoped to lend his primes. Later I did buy his X-700 for a very friendly price. I still have it. I cannot bring myself to sell it. It served me well....

 

[eagleowl]

mine was...

... a Canon EOS 30.