Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

[Fox_Talbot]

Canon rangefinder can't really remember which QL1.9? First brand new SLR Canon T70.

 

[FredW]

Canon AE-1 Program with the standard 50 1.8 lens

 

[JMC1969]

Sort of my first as My dad shared his with me. Minolta XD5, until they bought me a Olympus PC for christmas. I don't think they wanted to spend too much until they saw where or not I would stick with it.

 

[Klaus Kokholm]

First 35mm:
Olympus OM10 with 50mm f:1,8, An excellent beginner camera!!!

After many years of crappy point&shoots/disposables I went digital in 2004, which fired up my interest in photography again, and having missed the look of REAL Black&Whites I just got me a refurbished Olympus Trip 35 from www.tripman.co.uk (via eBay).

Really fun little camera, unfortunately cheap processing takes forever here in Denmark (gotta start doing my own processing real soon!!), so no pics for another couple of weeks.


Klaus

 

[wjlorimer]

Canon T70

The first 35mm I ever owned was a Canon T70.

But I got hooked on photography a week earlier using a friends Nikon FA (I think)?

Quickly progressed to a Canon T90 - still one of the best cameras I have ever owned - period.

 

[Chrisg92]

first film camera was a canon TLb with 50/1.8

 

[Bob King]

Olympus Trip 35

Cheers, Bob

 

[Lori V]

A Canon Rebel. I had only shot with point and shoots before that. I spent a couple of years learning how to really use it and then replaced it with a Nikon FM3A and some good fixed lenses. I still love the Nikon.

 

[Adrian D]

My Father and I walked through the snow one winters morning in 1982 to buy my first 35mm- a fully manual Agfa Super Silette rangefinder with a fixed lens. It was for sale in a local chemists shop, and had belonged to the managers father.

There was a Silette (non rangefinder) for £10 and the Super Silette for £15, with lens hood and two filters.

Many cameras have come and gone in my kit bag, but that one remains, still works, and still turns out great images (when its pointed at great images!!) I have made some treasured 12x16" BW enlargements from its negatives, and in the right conditions, it is a lovely performer.

Using it taught me lots about exposure, and photography generally, and its never broken down. A joy to own and use. They go for next to nothing on ebay, if you are looking for an inexpensive way in to rangefinder work, give one a whirl!!

 

[Steve Smith]

My first 35mm was a Halina 3000. A cheap rangefinder like (but not actually a rangefinder) design with built in lightmeter.

 

[sausage100uk]

First 35mm was an MTL 5, I dropped it ontop of the Pap of Glencoe.....luckily the mountain was OK.....

 

[cmo]

My father died, and my mother showed me how to use his Zeiss Ikon "Bullseye" Contarex, it had a 2/50 lens. I was 13 years old. Two years later I worked hard during summer holidays and bought a Nikon FM with 1.8/50, a wonderful camera, like an M-Leica with a mirror.

 

[stefan651]

Ahhh, my first 35mm!

My first was a simple little Fujica ST605. I was 16 and saved up the money from my first part-time job to buy it. It was just just an inexpensive manual SLR, but I made some memorable images with it!

It reinforced the philosophy that its not always the price of the tools that matters...


Stefan

 

[MartinP]

After some years with a 620 Box Brownie (won as a prize at a fair by my mother, when she was eight years old) and a few rolls through a Rollop TLR, I bought an Agfa Optima 35mm compact. Within a year I gave it to my sister and upgraded to a Praktica MTL3 slr. That was a very competent camera which I used until I went to uni.

Whilst at uni, I sold the Praktica and bought a Leica ltm - I think it was a II, but not sure after all this time. It proved to have a very murky finder (needed cleaning) and generally needed more attention than I could afford, so after a few months I part-exchanged it for a Contax 139Q. That was more than 25 years ago and I am still using it. Recently I wondered what would happen if it had a problem, and so have now got two spare bodies.

I re-tried rangefinders too, with some fsu models, including a Zorki that was very similar to the Leica I tried previously but in much better condition. I'm now using an M3 which works rather well.

In between years, the largest format I used was 10"x8" and the smallest was 16mm ! The Praktica must have affected me too, as my medium-format rig is based on the Pentacon six - made by the same company as the smaller slr, and using Zeiss (Jena) lenses with some relationship to the ones on the Contax.

 

[Changeling1]

'77 OM 2 followed promptly by a Beseler 23 C XL and...........................................................................................................................................................................

 

[Irrev.Rev.]

First 35MM

Purchased Petri V as first camera (1964?) with a Gossen 'Pilot' and Sunpak strobe, all of which continue to function. Passed the Petri to young photo enthusiast a few months ago.

 

[Paul Goutiere]

Nippon Kosokki Supra 35mm rangefinder camera. Purchased about 1961 or so. It worked very well, I recall but I haven't seen one since. Probably not all that popular.

 

[shengja]

35mm camera

Here's some tip to have a 35mm camera.

With a spending limit of $200 and an insistence on a new camera, your choices are going to be mostly limited to manual focus 35mm film cameras.

First up: The Nikon FM10 with a 35-70mm lens. You can get one at bhphotovideo.com for just under $200.

You can also try for a "Vivitar" SLR from bhphotovideo for about $160; it's a rebadged generic Pentax-mount 35mm camera. I think you're better off with the Nikon FM10.

Adorama.com sells a Canon autofocus camera, the Rebel K2, but it's out of stock. You could order now and hope they deliver in the near future. Right now, it's under $200, but again, out of stock.

I did also check Porters.com which happens to have a Pentax ZX-60 with a 28-80mm lens for $199.99. Look at porters.com; at least it's an autofocus camera from a big manufacturer. It appears to be in stock.

Hope this helps and I hope you find your camera.

 

[ajuk]

Well I the first since getting into photography is an OM-10.

 

[kevinbell]

Vivitar vs. Nikon FM10

I do know that the Vivitar is a metal body whereas the Nikon FM10 is a plastic body made by Cosina.

 

[2F/2F]

Canon FTb first model with a 50mm f/1.4 S.S.C.

Still have it, still use it. Has no foam left. Shutter bounces above '250. The lens elements are rimmed with fungus. It is sharp as a tack, even wide open. Go figure. It'll be hard convincing myself to spend $200 for a CLA, foam, and shutter repair when the camera itself is worth perhaps $50, and I already have two F-1s and another FTb to use...Not to mention my Nikon F.

Shortly thereafter, I was given a Minolta x-700 with a 50mm f/1.7 and an 80-210 f/4 (or something like that). I liked it alright. It was nice and small, but thought it had an idiotic light meter that was only good for automated exposure. I shot with it for about six months off and on. I loaned it to a classmate, who then dropped the class, and I have not seen it since!

 

[hansutrecht]

1968 i literally found a Beyer Beirette, cheap looking, awful pics... 1969 a secondhand 6x6 Beautyflex which I traded 1 month later for a Zenit-B. It served my student-time wonderfully (also good for your muscles, no fitness needed!)
Finally I could afford a new camera: OM2n which is still my favourite Olympus.

 

[Aurum]

Unlike a lot of my peers, my first 35mm was a Chinon Rangefinder, which was then superceded by a Konica TC-X SLR which was the only shutter priority SLR I could find on the market. Still use it.

A lot of my friends were using and destroying various Zenits and Praktikas

 

[Roger Thoms]

Rollei 35S

First 35 mm was a Rollei 35S which I purchases new in 1979 or there abouts. As I recall I paid about 175 USD. I still own the camera and shoot with it occasionally.

 

[Jim Cole]

A Nikon EL (first aperture priority Nikon) ordered from E.M. Chan in Hong Kong, I think sometime around 1976. I was a grad student in Texas at the time. The camera went with me to Colombia for a couple of years in the Peace Corps and then did a little photography here and there until it was stolen out of my condo in Chicago in 97 or 98.