Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

[T42]

My first 35 was a Yashica J rangefinder, which I bought used in about 1965.

It had no meter, no USM, no TTL, no AF, no AE, no matrix, no spot, no hot shoe, no glitz at all. Took great pictures without all that other stuff that newbies think is so necessary nowadays. It had an f/2.8 45mm "Tessar style" lens that was contrasty and sharp.

I had no proper appreciation of the merits of such simplicity until much further down the path of learning. Sometimes I think of that little camera, and how it is that I have now come full circle, whenever I put my eye to the finder window of my current RF, an M3.

Henry

 

[Monophoto]

Konica S2. Bought it in 1970 when my employer was sending me on the first of many trips overseas, and then sold it to a friend a year later when I moved up to an SLR (the Mamiya 1000DTL).

 

[Christopher Walrath]

My first 35mm SLR

Mine was a Minolta XG-M 35mm. It has been in my possesion since 1995 and I had used my mom's X-370 before that. My wife now owns it. I have puchased a few other cameras since, including a Mamiya M645J, an XE-4 and various others (Wirgin, Canonet QL17, ETC) But I was looking to go LF about three months ago and realized I had all I want right now. So I went and purchased two more XG-M's from eBay. One for a second working body, the other for parts. My bag is getting stuffed (Tamraq Pro8, big bag to begin with). I just won a Lowepro AW Computrekker from an Adorama.com sweeps and that ought to give me slightly more room to work with. Looks like back to the old buying board. . .

 

[vintageslrs]

Mine was a Fujica ST801, which I still have...in mint condition...works perfectly and never was serviced. Bought new in 1973.



Bob

 

[Karl K]

1954 was the year...Minolta A2 was the camera

My Dad brought me, I was 11 years old at the time, to a local camera shop (Nutley Camera, recently closed, in NJ) and bought me a Minolta A2, which was a 35mm RF with a 45mm f/2.8 Rokkor coated lens and brown leather case for $69.95. The lens was pretty good and the Seikosha shutter worked well for many years. Dad also bought a Kalimar folding BC fan flash and a Kalimar selenium cell light meter. I shot Anscochrome 32 slide film which I got processed by MasterColor for 50 cents a roll! I really got into Ilford HPS B+W film because somebody showed me how to push it two stops with Diafine to ASA 1600 so I could shoot available light. I printed those negs on a Solar enlarger using DuPont Velour Black and Agfa Portriga. Wow, were those exciting days!

 

[jbbooks]

Argus C3. It replaced my Brownie.

 

[timeUnit]

Olympus OM10 w/ 50/1.8 and a 70-150 zoom lens. I sold it, but bought an OM1 and a 50/1.4 after a brief encouter with a Minolta Dynax 800si (which sucks. it's in a box here somewhere)

 

[ccbob]

Minolta XG-7 (black body). Still have it, though it is in need of service (shutter doesn't always fire correctly).

 

[reellis67]

It was a Canon T-50 that replaced my Brownie Starflash (127). It was fully auto and it only lasted about a month before I sold it and bought a Ricoh XR-P Multi-program, which I still have. All the features of a more expensive camera for half the price. I shot with the Ricoh regularly for 20 years before it finaly started having mirror problems and got retired. The best value I ever got out of a camera...

- Randy

 

[ricksplace]

Mamiya Sekor 500tl. I think I was about 14. Started my own darkroom the same year. Just bought a Mamiya Sekor 1000dtl off ebay with a 1.4 for $20. Built like a tank and everything still works. I got bitten by the nostalgia bug.

My first MF was a Yashica A. I think I was about 16 at the time.

 

[Oren Grad]

Kodak Signet 35 - my dad's old camera. I still have it, though the shutter's broken. I ought to get it fixed...

 

[alfa]

Canon AE-1

 

[Ted Harris]

Graflex 35 .. not kidding they made a 35mm in the mid '50's.

 

[Mycroft]

Appears to be an old thread, but I'll bite

My first 35mm was an Alpa 9d. I still have it, 2 11els, and 2 11sis. I wanted a camera of my own at college, rather than a hand me down junker that I could get from my Dad (a rangefinder, with a busted meter, and an external meter).

Today, I have lenses from 24mm thru 2000mm, a magazine back and a motor drive and I have branched out and added a Nikonos V as well.

 

[pnance]

Zeiss Ikonta

 

[ingnes]

Mamiya 500DTL with 2,0/50. Moved on to Nikon FM in 1978.

 

[Allora]

My first - a Voigtlander Vito C in about 1960. Progressed to a Model 1 Leica that I was too young and stupid to realise what I had - like sold it for £9 (the shame!!). Took up Pentax S1a and SV.through the 1960's and bought various Nikons and Leicas in the 1970's. Had to leave photography - for several reasons connected to marriage and children - at the beginning of the 1980's but came 'home' last year buying a Nikon FM3a. Had brief (very) flirtation with the 'wonders' of digital but gave the thing away. Happy now - more than ever - with photography in the traditional and best way.

 

[sillyconguru]

My first was a Praktica Nova II (very similar to a MTL3). The "Nova II" bit was just a sticker, not painted on like the MTL3, etc. (I never looked underneath to see if there was anything printed on the body). I progressed to a Nikon FG-20 within 5 months.

 

[Kilgallb]

Folding Baldinette

I had a folding Baldinette.

Still have it. I bought it in 1973 at a now defunct store called photocraft for $35. ( I was 14 years old)

Mine has a Schneider lens

 

[lkorell]

Topcon RE Super (forget exact model) traded for hiking boots. It was a very nice camera until I got my Nikon FTn Photomic. Wow, that was a camera!
I used it for about five years until I sold everything I owned (divorce) to pay bills.

My next "first" camera came eight years later in the form of the Nikon 4004, which I quickly outgrew. Got a basic FM2N after that and I was back using manual cameras until the F4 came out.

Since then....way too many cameras...maybe thirteen or fourteen in all.

My latest film camera - F6. That's the end as far as I am concerned. My last film camera. I don't think I would ever need anything better for film.

 

[Cooki]

My first was a Richoh 500G, still in use
Cooki

 

[Nero]

My first camera as a kid was a compact.Kodak A1.

The first SLR I bought was ZENIT 122.Then my father gave me his Pentax SP 500 which i still use.

 

[AZLF]

My first 35mm camera was a Nikormat I bought new in 1970 at the PX on Cu Chi base camp in Viet Nam. I think I paid $200.00 for it. My first camera was a Yashica 44 TLR my father got me for Christmas in 1965 just before I started the photography courses at my high school.The Yashica 44 was stolen shortly after I arrived in Viet Nam. The Nikormat was stolen about a year later while I was stationed in Germany.Although I liked the Nikormat well enough I did not use it for my duties as a photographer for the 25th Infantry Div. while stationed in Viet Nam. I used my Yashica 124 or one of the Graflex 4x5 units the lab had in its inventory.
My father was an avid photographer and I remember being lined up with my seven brothers and sisters many a time to have a family shot taken with his Retina. Somewhere in the mid to late sixties he switched to a Mamiya/Secor slr and proudly showed me his new camera with what was at that time a REALLY fast lens for an affordable 35mm camera. An f-1.4 or 1.2 as I recall.

 

[RonJ]

My very first was a Petri, I don't remember the model. I really don't count it though. The focusing screen was terrible and I traded it in for a Spotmatic after 3 weeks.

 

[Tony Egan]

Olympus Trip in 1978. Quite versatile once you got used to it. Used to shoot "manual" using the "flash f-stops" down to f2.8 at fixed shutter speed of 1/40th of a second if memory serves. It was stolen from my car leading me to my first SLR an Olympus OM2n which was my only camera for about 15 years. Sold it reluctantly about 4 years ago to help pay for a Mamiya 7 but I still have an OM1n to use with a few nice Zuiko lens.