Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

[RobC]

It was a canon dial 35 range finder which gave half frame (18x24) negs so I got 72 per roll. My father found the camera at the top of the Eifel Tower in Paris. Some other tourist had left it there. It came to me. I don't know what happened to it but it produced very good quality slides.

http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/...63_dl35.html?lang=us&categ=crn&page=1956-1965

 

[Ian Grant]

I always wanted one of those. I had a Canon Demi and that was a fun camera to use unfortunately one of my friends borrowed it and drop it so the meter stopped functioning, it was replaced by an Olympus half frame.

Ian

 

[manfromh]

It was a Canon EOS 300v, only about 4 years ago. Now its a backup for my manual cameras.

 

[polaski]

Konica S-II. Fairly rare, hnd carried by my uncle from Japan. Greg Wber just did a wonderful restoration on it. Great lens, and during the 60's anti-war demonstrations, very handy for self defense.

 

[S'konow]

Mamiya/Sekor 500 DTL. It was my dad's camera, actually. He found it at Disneyland before I was born. After he died, I started using it.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

My first camera was a chrome Pentax H3v with 55f1.8 Super-Takumar. Got it for my 9th Birthday in '84. Used it for about 2.5 years, then went Nikon.

-J

 

[Ralph Javins]

My first 35 mm camera was a Yashica Lynx range finder. Not too long after, it was replaced with a Minolta SR-1b with a 58 mm f 1.4 Auto Rokkor-PF lens. Had it for years. Loved that camera. Like TPPhoto, it did not survive the death of a marriage.

Enjoy;

Ralph Javins

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Hey Ralph...

Been visiting Camera Clinic in the past week or so? ;-)

-J

 

[TheDreadPirateRobins]

Pentax Spotmatic.

 

[JOSarff]

Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic

Last camera I bought was a Eastman 2D 8X10

 

[Jeff Kubach]

My first 35mm camera was the old Canon F-1 which I'm still using today. A very rugged and easy to use camera. Too bad they don't make them like that anymore.

Jeff

 

[Shelley-Ann]

I don't know if this counts, but my first "35mm" SLR was a Nikon D70s. I discovered the joys of film thereafter, and quickly bought a F90x.

 

[Ralph Javins]

Hey Ralph...

Been visiting Camera Clinic in the past week or so? ;-)

-J

Ho, John;

What a pleasant surprise! No, I have not been over to see Doug in the last couple of weeks. I do need to go across the street for a latte also. There has been a large radio project handed to me about two weeks ago. It is taking a lot of time and driving to Oregon. I hope to complete it this coming Wednesday.

I am still building the "1960's Nikon Project." All of the lenses are there, even though a couple of them are AI'd. If an unmodified pre-AI sample appears, I will change that. All of the filters are the early chrome rings. Now I am trying to find a repairable SB-7E flash. That should just about do it.

When I am not working with the digital, I am still playing with both 35 mm and 2 & 1/4 Square. The new 35 mm f 2.8 Shift CA is really fun to play with; the building or room just straightens right up.

By the way, while I know that you prefer the F3HP, there is a newly formed "Pre-AI Nikon Group" in the Groups section that might be of interest to you also.

Enjoy;

Ralph Javins

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Ralph, I do have a 35f2 Nikkor-O coming to me from Pacific Rim... It's non-AI, but has some fungus growth. If you want it, I'll give it to you for what I owe Pacific Rim. Anyway, we'll discuss later this week. I'll probably be visiting Doug on Thursday or Friday. Waiting for the FTn meter recalibration to be done.

-J

 

[B&Jdude]

After a misspent pre-teen era with 127 point & shoot boxes, I bought a 4x5 B&J Watson Press camera when I was about 13 . . . used it for several years until I went to Vietnam. While I was in-processing near Saigon, I bought a Minolta SRT 101, my first 35mm. Then went out into the boonies where I couldn't use it because I couldn't get any film (no PX out in the jungle!). It was stolen in a burglary soon after I returned to the U.S.

 

[Robin A]

My first 35mm was a Topcon Uni I purchased in Da Nang in 68.Followed by a Topcon Unirex then a Pentax Spotmatic which I still have and use.Someone needed the Topcons more than me and stole them from my Helo while I was in a Marine Base Camp.

 

[Dave Wooten]

Pentax, got it about 1970, f 1.4 lens. Still got it. Still works. Never been in the shop. Still makes my most favored images. Still feels "just right" to my hand and eye.

 

[danphoto_]

Mine is still a Canon 3000v. But the very first camera I had and photographed with was a 35mm Minolta, however I was then told that this camera was no more functional. I'm trying to save some money to see if I can fix it as this camera has more than 30 years of existence in the hand of my granfather/father/old brother. Going trough generations and generations. And it's not everyday that you see a 35mm Minolta, you're morelikely to grab a Medium Format one for its purpose.

danphoto_

 

[ford prefect]

mine was a canon FTb got it from a camera shop back when they still sold film cameras and darkroom chemicals not just (explitive deleated) d*g*t*l and mem cards. bought for like $250 for the body witch was a good chunk of my detassling money i already had a 50mm lens i "Got" from the school where i was on the yearbook staff (the camera stopped working so they retired it and bought a gawd awfull olypus zoom p&s) used it for a long time until it decided it was done working and i laid it to rest

 

[mhanc]

i was 12 or 13 and began shooting with my dad's Contaflex IV. great camera and some of the best shots i have ever made. did some really fun stuff: time lapse, infrared b+w and color. external light meter, all manual camera so i really learned how to shoot.

we built a darkroom in the garage and i learned that side.

several years later i used my meager accumulated savings and bought my 1st 35mm: a Nikkormat FTn with a 50mm f2.0. really loved that camera and it wasn't too different from the Contaflex, all mechanical but it had the TTL metering. used that camera for 20+ years and even took it to mt everest. unfortunately, it was stolen in 1996 -- it was still in perfect working condition at that time.

but by then i had two small kids, a real job, etc., etc... so i just used 35mm point and shoots, some type of nikon and then a Contax tvs, mostly for familiy and vacation pics. in 2002 i went digital which worked well for that type photography: inexpensive, can be emailed to relatives, photo books printed and so on.

last year i got a nikon d-slr and was expecting great things. however, i just didn't like the results: the shoots just had no life to them. but most importantly, the shooting experience was horrible -- more like programming a computer than setting the exposure and composing the shot.

so last summer on our vacation to grand teton and yellowstone i took the d-slr and the contax loaded with FILM and shot the two side by side. got some great shots with both cameras -- but the film results are just better. i can't articulate it well, but they just are -- and it was more fun to use the film camera.

so anyway, i just bought a Nikkormat FT3 and 50mm f1.8 from KEH (how many digital cameras are going to be in perfect working condition 30+ years from now?). i have cleared out a room in the basement and looking at the practicability of installing a darkroom. maybe i can even talk my kids into learning real photography.

wow! -- i feel like a 15 year old kid again.

"you have to walk a long way to come back a short distance" -Edward Albee

 

[Andy38]

My first camera was a Zenit with the Helios 44-2 2/58 ; heavy body , superb lens ; I've broken it and I tried to repair , but... parts are still in a box .
I was young and it was a cheap camera .

 

[markm]

Very first was some cheap plastic mail-order thing designed to roughly resemble a SLR.

First real one was an AE-1 Program around '82 with a 70-210 that I still use as my main camera (more bodies and lenses now).

- Mark

 

[rwbill]

My first was a Nikkormat FT-3 with 1.4 lens, bought new in 1977 (shows my age). It's still going strong, as Nikons do.

 

[awaken77]

my first was FED-5c rangefinder

 

[Excalibur2]

IIRC my first was a Coronet........ just a cheap plastic/bakelite one...The World's Ugliest Camera?:-

http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2007/04/bakelite-gone-mad.html