What was your first slr?

MarkS · Sep 9, 2023

When I graduated from high school, 50 years ago, I bought a NOS Canon TL-QL with a 50/1.4 FL lens. It had been on the shelf in my local camera store for several years (by then a discontinued model).
I was supremely happy to have a camera with a fast lens and a spot meter. I roundly abused it for five years and eventually gave it to a good friend. Who kept it in a box until the day he died in 2018... so now that camera has come back to me. It seems to work but I don't intend to use it again.

BMbikerider · Sep 9, 2023

In my impoverished youth I bought a Russian SLR camera called "Start". Very heavy, crudely made and seemed like a mixture of several designs
1. Ihagee Exacta it had a similar auto stop-down aperture roughly the same and a film cutting knife the same as an Exacta. It had 1sec to 1/1000 shutter. There was also a removable prism as well
2. The camera body was almost identical to a Zenith 3m but with a unique bayonet fitting for the lens and an adapter to allow Zenith 3m 39mm screw thread lenses to be used.
3. The lens that came with it was a Zeiss 58mm F2 Biotar from the Praktika factory in Eastern Germany with the name crudely enamelled over and Russian cyrillic letters alongside. Despite how crude it was, it did work quite well although it was a little bit 'agricultural'

FriedLouisStudio · Sep 10, 2023

The first SLR my parents got for their commercial business was a Nikkorex F with a 50mm/f2 Nikkor. That was in 1963 when I was 8.

As the 60s/70s went on, we acquired several Nikkormats and Nikons, and ultimately eight or nine Nikkor lenses.

We sold the Nikkorex to one of my childhood friends around 1980. We placed a broken Nikkormat FTn and a seized-up 43-86 zoom in Dad's coffin in 2011. I sold an F2 that needed a repair a couple of years ago. But I still have a working F2 body and all the lenses, and I shoot with them regularly. (And despite decades of use, aside from that 43-86 - which was never any good to start with - none of these vintage-60s/70s lenses have ever needed so much as a CLA.)

I got my own personal Olympus OM system in the early 80s, and these days I shoot with my OM-2n and Zuiko primes about as much as with the old studio Nikon gear. (Yeah, I'm pretty old school. I only use prime lenses, and I've never owned an autofocus SLR or a "good" digital camera.)

mtnbkr · Sep 10, 2023

MarkS said:
When I graduated from high school, 50 years ago, I bought a NOS Canon TL-QL with a 50/1.4 FL lens. It had been on the shelf in my local camera store for several years (by then a discontinued model).
I was supremely happy to have a camera with a fast lens and a spot meter. I roundly abused it for five years and eventually gave it to a good friend. Who kept it in a box until the day he died in 2018... so now that camera has come back to me. It seems to work but I don't intend to use it again.

The first SLR I used was my Dad's TL QL. I'm not sure when he purchased it, but it was the camera that filled a huge pile of photo albums from the time I was born until the early 90s. My dad had the 50 1.8 and a couple JCPenney branded lenses (28 2.8 and a 70-200 zoom). Dad worked for JCP, so he probably got those lenses at a hefty discount. IIRC, they were made by Vivitar. I used that camera during college in the early 90s.

Unfortunately, when they moved in 2007, they tossed the old Canon TL because digital was the obvious direction of travel and it was getting increasingly difficult to get film developed. Old film cameras were just about rock bottom in price and the TL had so little value it wasn't worth trying to sell. I kept the 50 1.8 and eventually used it on my mirrorless digitals. When I got back into film a couple years ago, I bought an FT QL so I could use the 50 1.8 on a real camera again.

Needless to say, I have a soft spot for the old Canon SLRs, especially those with the QL feature and FL glass.

Chris

GRHazelton · Sep 10, 2023

My first SLR was a Komaflex S, which I bought in IRRC 1959. The Komaflex was a 127 film leaf shutter waist level viewer box, with a rather good f2.8 4 element lens. It had auto film stop after setting the first frame via a red window. Oddly enough the shutter was cocked manually, and woe betide him or her who ignored the cautions in the manual! Doing so could break the mechanism.

I enjoyed the Koma, shooting a lot of Verichrome Pan, I think it was, and Ektachrome. I processed all the film myself - a 127 or Super Slide can run through a 35mm projector and is spectacular! IIRC it was E2 'chrome, reversed by means of a photoflood bulb!

Sadly the auto diaphragm eventually refused to close; of course I didn't notice that until processing some film. It became a shelf queen; no one wanted to tackle the repair. I have recently bought a Koma with a properly operating shutter! Now to resurrect the case from my old Koma and shoot some of what few 127 emulsions are available.

wiltw · Sep 10, 2023

Dad purchased a Beseler Auto 100 for my use as a photographer for my high school newspaper and yearbook staffs, when I was 14. It helped that I also shot models for fashion shows at restaurants, a paid gig.
I put photography aside during my college years, but ended up buying a new Olympus OM-1MD for myself when I was about 26...my first self-purchased SLR.

KerrKid · Sep 11, 2023

Bought an SRT101 with a 58mm f1.4 lens from a pawn shop in 1973. Had it CLA’d by John Titterington a couple years ago. Still use it.

MontanaJay · Sep 12, 2023

In high school I got an Exacta VX, which suffered a shutter failure soon after I bought it and it was replaced by the camera shop owner with a VXIIa/. (Such service!)
I liked the quirky features, like the knife to slice the film between two cassettes which allowed you to change film types mid-roll and the backhanded film wind lever.
But when I became a senior I managed to find my first Nikon F, from a returning Vietnam vet who had picked it up for a song at the PX and had lost interest. I then stuck with Nikon through several models during a 30-year newspaper career.

oxcanary · Sep 13, 2023

My first was a Chinon CM4s. This had a traffic light meter system with green for go and red for over or under exposure. Took many pics for a year. This included discovering black and white film by accident when asking for a 400 iso film I was handed HP5 and at the time was none the wiser until I got it processed.

sold this camera to a friend and went onto an me super which became two. Both eventually had their electronic brains fried and I went onto Pentax MXs eventually augmented by whole family of K series ( KX, KM, K2 and K1000).

BMbikerider · Sep 13, 2023

FriedLouisStudio said:
The first SLR my parents got for their commercial business was a Nikkorex F with a 50mm/f2 Nikkor. That was in 1963 when I was 8.

View attachment 348650

As the 60s/70s went on, we acquired several Nikkormats and Nikons, and ultimately eight or nine Nikkor lenses.

We sold the Nikkorex to one of my childhood friends around 1980. We placed a broken Nikkormat FTn and a seized-up 43-86 zoom in Dad's coffin in 2011. I sold an F2 that needed a repair a couple of years ago. But I still have a working F2 body and all the lenses, and I shoot with them regularly. (And despite decades of use, aside from that 43-86 - which was never any good to start with - none of these vintage-60s/70s lenses have ever needed so much as a CLA.)

I got my own personal Olympus OM system in the early 80s, and these days I shoot with my OM-2n and Zuiko primes about as much as with the old studio Nikon gear. (Yeah, I'm pretty old school. I only use prime lenses, and I've never owned an autofocus SLR or a "good" digital camera.)

When I was an 18 yr old youth just starting out working in the local police photographic section as their 1st civilian technical support I was still learning the job. The principal camera was a MPP 5x4 which weighed a ton when out in the field on a job. Think about a huge wooden tripod, at least a dozen double dark slides and only the standard 135mm lens. plus all the rest of the bits and pieces we normally carried

In 1963 The proposal was for our needs that a 35mm camera was enough for our evidential pictures which were only rarely printed larger than 10x8. The management arranged for us to trial an Exakta 11b and the Nikkorex. They were about equal in performance, but I gave my opinion the the Nikon was a better camera and easier to use when outside (In comparison the Exakta was clumsy and not user friendly) However the decision was made by the non user management that the Exacta was the one to go for because the Nikkorex was then an unknown make and not to be trusted. Also the Exacta was a lot cheaper to us. The Exacta lasted about 3 years before it started to fail. It was replaced with one of the new Nikon F models.

If only they had listened to those of us who used the cameras!

FriedLouisStudio · Sep 13, 2023

The Nikkorex F body did for us exactly what Nippon Kogaku had intended:

It was a "loss leader" - it impressed Dad enough with the 50mm/f2 that we soon (1966) got a 105mm/f2.5. Once we saw the negatives that awesome lens produced (and still does for me today!), we were onboard with the Nikon system. Soon we bought a Nikkormat FT - our first camera with a TTL light meter, which was very exciting - and as I said above, a whole sequence of other Nikkormats, Nikon Fs, and F2s followed. Not to mention a pair of 50mm/f1.4s, the 28mm/f3.5, 35mm/f2, 45mm/2.8 GN, the 55mm/f3.5 Micro...

I haven't handled a Nikkorex F since the 70s, but back then, we didn't think it was the "clunky, weak excuse for a Nikon made by Mamiya" I constantly see it described as these days. Okay, it wasn't as awesome as the subsequent Nikkormats/Nikons, but it was a nicely handling, perfectly serviceable body for Nikkor lenses. It was a different (photographic) world before the internet!

Nicholas Lindan · Sep 13, 2023

Exakta / Exa 500 - the funky shaped one - ~$70. The 50mm Zeiss Jena Tessar was a good lens. I also had a 35mm Lentar, so-so, and a used, and quite execrable, 135mm Cambron (Cambridge Camera) lens - both T-mount presets.

Followed by a Miranda Sensomat, ~$150, with 28mm & 135mm Soligor/Miranda lenses.

First 35mm was an Agfa Solina, 45mm/f3.5 Apotar lens - $14.97 at Montgomery Wards.

First camera was an Empire Baby taking 16 shots/roll on 127 film, ~$1 at Woolworths.

The cameras were all bought new, which was really dumb.

Dachshund · Sep 13, 2023

Pentax K1000, my first 35mm was a Kodak Signet 40

mtlc · Sep 30, 2023

I think mine was a Konica Autoreflex I used in highschool, something went wrong with it though but wish I still had it. The first 35mm SLR I purchased was a used Canon A-1 in college which I still have.

steve reilly · Oct 1, 2023

Canon A1 I bought new in 1980 and used for over 20 years. It finally developed shutter problems and I sold it on Ebay. Still have the 50mm lens that came with it.Nice camera,Steve

RalphLambrecht · Oct 1, 2023

Jon Shumpert said:
I wanted to start this thread because tomorrow I will be using a camera that is the same model as my first slr. In 1989 I was a much younger man stationed in Okinawa, Japan in the U.S Navy. I didn't know anything about cameras or photography, but a friend talked me into buying his Olympus OM88. It is an unusual camera in that it is a manual focus camera that uses a motor to manually focus. Olympus called it power focus. It actually works very well, but takes some getting used to. I ended up shooting many rolls of film with it. In its standard form, it is a Program mode only, but you could buy a manual adapter to give aperture priority and manual exposure. I sold the camera a few years later when I bought another slr, but I kind of had an attachment to the Oly. A year or two ago, I found one at a thrift store for $10. I wrote about it in another post a couple days ago while talking about cameras I had owned before, and bought a second time. I loaded some black and white film in it tonight and will take it out tomorrow. My son, who is 12, will be going along and I will let him take some photos with it. He actually has an appreciation for the older equipment. By using the camera, I will create new memories while bringing back old ones. Not a bad way to spend a day.

my first SLR was a Praktika,which broke the shutter during its first roll. That was 1972 and I bought a Nikon FMafterwards, which broke the shutter last month.

KYsailor · Oct 1, 2023

I fell in love with photography while in high school, had a B&W darkroom with an old federal enlarger - was using my Dad's Kodak Retina III, hated the limitation of the fixed lens and was dying to get a SLR so I could use tele and WA lenses. My Dad bought me a Pentax Spotmatic - must have been in '66 or '67. Loved it - saved my money and bought some less than stellar M42 lenses.... kept it all through college - shutter stopped working correctly in early 70's - repair cost more than a new camera so I moved on... have owned Olympus OM series, Nikon 6006... and moved to digital with a D70 and lots more after that.

Nopo · Oct 1, 2023

My first SLR was a Pentax ME with the 50mm f/1.7, a 200mm f/3.3 and a 2x extender, equipment with which I started as a sports photographer covering the matches of a Rugby team. I still have the camera and the 50mm. Before that I had only used TLR.

Carlos

StanMac · Oct 1, 2023

A Miranda Sensomat. It was more affordable than the big name brands but featured interchangeable prisms, which was only available on the more costly brands of the day (about 1970). Can’t remember what happened to it but a few years ago I bought another off shopgoodwill for little money that was in very good condition. The case is like new.

Stan

Snoop · Oct 1, 2023

Yashica FX3 super, which is still my favorite camera, been all over with it, and still use it
Not the first camera I owned, but first slr...

Minox · Oct 2, 2023

Started photography in the high school lab, never had an SLR until the early 90s. I was given a bag with an OM2n, lenses and other accessories by a friend of mine, so this was my first SLR camera. Brillian camera.

GRHazelton · Oct 7, 2023

RalphLambrecht said:
my first SLR was a Praktika,which broke the shutter during its first roll. That was 1972 and I bought a Nikon FMafterwards, which broke the shutter last month.

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with Praktica.
I bought a Praktica LTL, used it heavily, dropped it at least once, then put it away for perhaps 25 years after going to Pentax and the K Mount. Recently I pulled it out and the shutter sounded good. It needs a new cell for the meter, and its rather good f1.8 50mm has a slow diaphragm. Not bad for a camera which, IRRC, cost me with an ugly ever ready case, about $110.00 in the late '70s.

AnselMortensen · Oct 7, 2023

A Nikon F with an early "flag" Photomic meter head and a 200mm Kaligar lens.
I was tempted by a new Olympus OM-1...but the used F won out.

chuckroast · Oct 7, 2023

Black Nikon F Apollo Photomic FtN w/50mm f/1.4 lens. I still have- and use, one of those, though not my original one.

Trilianleo · Oct 24, 2023

My first slr was a k1000 purchased new. Think I got a 50mm lens with it. Still have both. Need to replace the lens release button which I have but it is a bigger job then I expected and am a little afraid to tear it that far apart.

What was your first slr?

MarkS

BMbikerider

Attachments

FriedLouisStudio

mtnbkr

GRHazelton

wiltw

KerrKid

MontanaJay

oxcanary

BMbikerider

FriedLouisStudio

Nicholas Lindan

Advertiser

Dachshund

mtlc

steve reilly

RalphLambrecht

KYsailor

Nopo

StanMac

Snoop

Minox

GRHazelton

AnselMortensen

chuckroast

Trilianleo

What was your first slr?

Attachments

Advertiser

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency