Nikon FM. The only true answer ;-)
What was your first slr?
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- Thread starter Jon Shumpert
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A (used) black-body Canon AE-1 Program w/50mm f1.8 lens. It was a birthday & Christmas gift from my parents back when film was king and d*****l was reserved for watches.
I used it for many years before purchasing an A1 w/ motor drive and then traded the AE1 for an old F1 w/drive (12 AA batteries drove that bad boy!)
Really wish I'd kept that FD kit; from a 17mm - to a 300f2.8, it was amazing, and I'm slowly building my EF kit back to match.
I used it for many years before purchasing an A1 w/ motor drive and then traded the AE1 for an old F1 w/drive (12 AA batteries drove that bad boy!)
Really wish I'd kept that FD kit; from a 17mm - to a 300f2.8, it was amazing, and I'm slowly building my EF kit back to match.
Minolta X300
Canon A-1, bought by my uncle in 1988. Found it in cabinet last year, with sight wear and fully functioning. Impressed by Canon's build quality.
A Yashica TL-Electro, bought new in 1976 as a junior in high school. It's still going strong.
Nikon FM
Welcome both of you to Photrio.
Though I never owned the Spotmatic, it's one of the very first I ever used. I was- and remains a landmark in the evolution of 35mm film photography.
Mingca MCK1000 and 50/2 or whatever the name over 20 years ago. A licensed Pentax K1000 and M 50/2 built in China. I'm still fond to Pentax to this day, and just picked up a MX last year, which was my dream camera I could not afford as a poor colledge student back in the day
The first SLR I ever owned was a beat up looking Nikon F2 that I bought from a buddy on my ship when I was in the Navy. It looked horrible, but it worked beautifully. He was a Photographers Mate in the ship’s Photo Lab and had used it extensively and always kept it well maintained. Unfortunately, I had to sell it when I got out of the service due to lack of funds.
The first SLR that I used was a Mamiya 500 DTL that belonged to my High School’s Journalism Class. It was actually a pretty decent camera. Years later, I found a 1000 DTL at a flea market for $15.00 USD. Somebody was checking it out before me and was trying to talk the owner down to $5.00 because “the meter didn’t work.” After the guy put it back down, I picked it up and looked it over. Then I ran the camera through all the shutter speeds and made sure that everything other than the meter was working. Since the slow speeds seem to be working okay, and I didn’t really care about the meter, I handed over the money to the seller, who gave me back $5.00 and said that it just needed a battery and appreciated that I didn’t try to lowball him on the price.
Sure enough, there was no battery in it, so I took it to a nearby camera shop and bought a new battery for it. That was all it needed to get the meter going again, and the first roll of film I ran through the camera turned out fine. I gave the camera to my wife since she was taking a beginning photography class, and she did some really nice work with it.
The first SLR that I used was a Mamiya 500 DTL that belonged to my High School’s Journalism Class. It was actually a pretty decent camera. Years later, I found a 1000 DTL at a flea market for $15.00 USD. Somebody was checking it out before me and was trying to talk the owner down to $5.00 because “the meter didn’t work.” After the guy put it back down, I picked it up and looked it over. Then I ran the camera through all the shutter speeds and made sure that everything other than the meter was working. Since the slow speeds seem to be working okay, and I didn’t really care about the meter, I handed over the money to the seller, who gave me back $5.00 and said that it just needed a battery and appreciated that I didn’t try to lowball him on the price.
Sure enough, there was no battery in it, so I took it to a nearby camera shop and bought a new battery for it. That was all it needed to get the meter going again, and the first roll of film I ran through the camera turned out fine. I gave the camera to my wife since she was taking a beginning photography class, and she did some really nice work with it.
Minolta X700 and bought it as a teenager from my pocket-money the year Minolta presented the 7000 and practically dumped their SR-System. I always thought Minolta earned their fate by lurking me and others into their system with generous discounts and then dishonored our investment just weeks later. Learned my lesson switched to Nikon when I could afford to.
A Nikon F5 for $200 in 2015, coming from a D610. The hipsters can keep their μjus 
I saved my money in high school (1970's) and bought a Canon Ftb(n). I don't have that one anymore, but I did buy another one awhile back mainly for nostalgia. I do still have and use my original Canon A-1 that I got as a graduation present a few years later.
Nikkorex F w/50mm Nikon lens. Hey, the lens does all the work, not the body...
Nikkorex F for me too (see #228). And there's no need to retroactively trash it, it was a perfectly serviceable body.
Back in the mid-60s, not everybody was complaining that the Nikkorex was a surprisingly underwhelming/disappointing camera body unworthy of Nikon. We still used ours at times even after acquiring Nikkormat and Nikon bodies. Sure, the Nikkorex was kinda clunky and spartan compared to its big brothers, but writing it off as "just an el cheapo body sourced from Mamiya to sell F-mount Nikkors" is a latter-day interpretation.
Of course, I also recall when the "Nikon shuffle" for non-AI gear was introduced... And it was seen as a brilliant, elegant solution to how to communicate between the lens and meter... NOT the "awkward, hard to remember, really odd procedure" I constantly see it described as now!
Back in the mid-60s, not everybody was complaining that the Nikkorex was a surprisingly underwhelming/disappointing camera body unworthy of Nikon. We still used ours at times even after acquiring Nikkormat and Nikon bodies. Sure, the Nikkorex was kinda clunky and spartan compared to its big brothers, but writing it off as "just an el cheapo body sourced from Mamiya to sell F-mount Nikkors" is a latter-day interpretation.
Of course, I also recall when the "Nikon shuffle" for non-AI gear was introduced... And it was seen as a brilliant, elegant solution to how to communicate between the lens and meter... NOT the "awkward, hard to remember, really odd procedure" I constantly see it described as now!
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My very first was also an X-700, bought at Shutan's here in Chicago '84, just in time for my trip out to L.A. to see Carl Lewis and the rest of the Olympics. I think it together with the MD 50mm1.7 was around $400.
What memories. What a simpler world we lived in.
What memories. What a simpler world we lived in.
My first SLR was an X-700 bought in 1984 right after college. It was mail (not online) ordered from 47th St. Photo of NYC for $240 w/ 50mm/1.7. It was stolen in 1987 but I again bought an X-700 which I still have.
Canon FT (no b). I wanted the Zeiss Ikon Icarex, but all these years later I realize I was hustled.
My first 35mm SLR was a Practika LTL with a f1.8 50mm, and a truly ugly everready case. The LTL had an excellent implementation of stopdown metering; the 50mm focused down to 18 inches. I used it heavily, once bouncing it off a sidewalk! scarring it but it still worked. I pulled it out recently; the shutter sounds right; the meter needs a new cell, and the lens needs a CLA. It will make a good backup for my Spotmatic F, along with the really good Tamron 200mm f3.5 along with the LTL kit. IIRC I paid about $110. for the LTL in the early '80s.
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