Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

madvax · Jun 27, 2005

I used disposable cameras for years (I wasn't really into photography then). My first real 35mm camera is my Nikon F80/N80.

mysuzuki2 · Jun 27, 2005

A Mamiya-Sekor 500 tl. Not only my first 35mm camera but also the first thing I ever bought on credit. It was $10 down and $10/month or something. I was in college about 1968. The Mamiya -Sekors were c onsidered amateur cameras but were actually very good, with very nice lenses. I still have it and shoot about 6-7 rolls a year with it. It still works great!

DKT · Jun 27, 2005

as a kid-- first 35mm was a hand me down Argus C3, and an old GE lightmeter. After that-- a Minolta SR1. First new 35mm, Minolta XD11. Traded that and all the minolta stuff for a Nikkormat FTN and a couple of lenses. Later on I had a part time job at a newspaper that supplied me with an FE2, MD12 and a few lenses. I realized if I had my own Nikon, I would be better off....so the Nikkormat was traded against a new FM2 around 1985. Still use that camera, on it's second shutter....

first camera though was a 126 Mick-o-matic.

RichSBV · Jun 27, 2005

Hey don't knock those Mamiyas! My first SLR was a Mamiya 1000TL, because it had a spot meter and could use my friends Pentax lenses. Gees I put a lot of film through that poor thing and still have it, and it still works! That was an upgrade from an Argus Brick. Although it only lasted a couple of years in regular use as I then moved up to Minolta XK's. They're still in use today!

sionnac · Jun 28, 2005

Canon A-1; still making pictures.

gnashings · Jun 29, 2005

I am almost afraid of another A series Canon... my AE1 has had nothing but grmelins from day one - nothing outright disabling, but when I take a photo, I want to know it will be there on the negative... Its probably just my example, but you know how you can get weary of things that way.
I think I will go with an EF next.

wiseowl · Jun 29, 2005

Practica Super TL2, bought as a christmas pressie after I joined the camera club at school. I'd have been about 13 if memory serves.

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 29, 2005

My Pops bought me a Ricoh KR5 Super when I was 14. We were going on a trip to Armenia (Soviet Armenia back then in 1984) and I needed a camera. Well, that did it. It got me on the road to making great images and I've never looked back. I sold that camera years ago. Can you believe I got $150 for it?
Ara

resummerfield · Jun 29, 2005

I can't believe it! In 11 pages of postings, nobody started with a Pentax Spotmatic! When I first saw one in a store window, I KNEW it was destined to be mine. At the time, all I could afford was a Kodak box using 127 film. But finally I had saved up $200 in grass cutting wages, and it was MINE!

I've gone through quite a few cameras since then, but I still have that Spottie! I think it's one of the best cameras ever built. So surely someone else started with one?

gnashings · Jun 30, 2005

I thought I saw a spottie here somewhere...

Woolliscroft · Jun 30, 2005

resummerfield said:
I can't believe it! In 11 pages of postings, nobody started with a Pentax Spotmatic!

Grief, when I started that was an impossible dream. They cost actual money

David.

grahamp · Jun 30, 2005

The first 35mm camera I used was my father's Voigtlander Vito B (which I still have). I progressed to a Voigtlander Bessamatic (35mm, 50mm, 135mm lenses) which was an interesting camera. The Bessamatic has the distinction of being the only camera I have ever sold. I have a couple of OM1s and an OM2 which were acquired in the mid-70's and 80's. I rarely use 35mm these days, though.

johnfalky · Jul 1, 2005

My First 35mm was an Olympus Pen. (Late sixties or early seventies) It took horrible pictures ( It still have all of the prints and negatives to prove it.) Then a Chinon Autofocus....which found a garbage can after less than a year of use...clunker. What restarted my photography was a sale at the new defunct LaBelle's Catalog showroom ca. 1980. I became the owner of a Minolta SRT201 complete with 50mm lens for the stunning sum of $53.00. I still have the camera, still works excellent.

bob01721 · Jul 3, 2005

My first 35mm was a 1/2-frame Petri -- I forget the model. It got blown up in a rocket attack in Vietnam and I replaced it with a Minolta SRT-101 in 1967. I still have and use the 101.

CraigH · Jul 27, 2005

My dad gave me an Olympus 35Ec that I still have. I was very unhappy that it had zone focusing & no shutter & aperature adjustments. I wanted a Nikkormat FTn since I knew I couldn't ask for an F2. A year or so later my dad got a Minolta SRT 101 that I mostly use. I also still have it. When I was able to afford it, I picked up a Nikon F2 FTn with a 50 MM F1.4. It's still my main camera. I'm happly stuck in 1972 with photography.

magic823 · Jul 27, 2005

Learned on a Pentax Spotmatic and Yashica MAT-124, but my first 35mm I ever purchased for myself was a Fujica ST-701 (I still own it along with and 801, 901 and AZ-1 for collection - I have a Yashica MAT-124 also). I shoot two Maxxum 7 now, when I shoot 35mm - 4x5 when I'm not.

ingobohn · Jul 27, 2005

Praktica MTL5B

edz · Jul 27, 2005

My first 35mm camera was a Leica IIc with the 1:3,5/50 Elmar which my father got on the black market during his days as a DP. It was a nice but somewhat finicky camera but luckily an old hollywood camera builder would lay down the Mitchells to work for the price of a cup of coffee and a smile from a young kid. It was not, however, my first camera.. that was a Hit-type camera I bought "with my own money" at the age of 5 from a pawn-shop near where I then lived.....

Elox · Jul 27, 2005

Ricoh Singlex TLS & Ricoh 55mm 1.4 lens. Purchased used in '75 and it still works great. Don't shoot much 35mm today but I've kept this, and a nice collection of Vivitar Series 1 & TX lenses, to use occasionally.

Travis Nunn · Jul 27, 2005

My first 35mm was an Iloca Rapid A1. My father used it while in the Army back in the late 50's early 60's and he gave it to me when I was a kid. My first SLR was a Canon EOS Elan II. I still have both.

raucousimages · Jul 28, 2005

canon AT-1

jon · Jul 28, 2005

My grandfather's Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, still use it to this day.

bohica · Jul 31, 2005

when I was 12 I worked for 2 weeks for my uncle to get $10 to buy a plastic 127 camera with detachable flash gun, that hooked me, at 18 I bought my 1st 35, an Argu C3 (the brick), this was followed by a Petri Racer and a Minolta Himatic 7s. My 1st slr was a Miranda Sensorex, great camera that was ahead of it's time. Currently use a Ricoh XR-P, Pentax Program Plus, and for pure fun a Kodak retina IIIC. Foe MF I love my Mamiya 645 1000s

snegron · Aug 1, 2005

Pentax K1000. I couldn't afford a lens for it so I super glued an old Soligor 35 mm from some other mount I found on it. It actually worked, meter and all! After I got enough cash for a lens, I scraped off the old super glue crust from the lens mount and continued using it. The camera fell off my car one day (with the new lens) as I was driving off, bounced on the road several times, but was unharmed. I guess all the super glue kept it together!

narsuitus · Aug 4, 2005

Based on a Consumer Report magazine that declared that the Miranda Sensorex was the best 35mm SLR for the money, I purchased a brand new Miranda Sensorex with a 50mm f1.9mm lens.

I dumped the camera after it broke for the third time within the first two years of its three-year warranty.

Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

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