Your FIRST 35mm Camera...

[PrestonR]

A Pentax ME with a 50/1.7. The auto shutter speed and meter didn't work and it was always on 1/125 so I just guessed the aperture. It's a pretty fun camera but not too versatile with no meter and one shutter speed.

 

[whippetgun720]

Ricoh Singlex TLS

I bought the Dec. 1968 issue of MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY magazine because it had a report that detailed the top 47 cameras of the day. After pouring over the specs and recommendations of all the 35mm SLRs I decided that The Ricoh Singlex TLS with a 55mm f/1.4 Rikenon would give me the most bang for my buck. I ordered it from whatever New York advertiser had the lowest price. It was like $129.99 and a couple of bucks shipping. I don't really have that good of memory, I found a copy of that issue of MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY on ebay last year.

 

[cuthbert]

My father when he earned his first money in 1949 bought a Comet S, but at my time we couldn't find the film so it was just a novelty, even if my father used it for a lost of shots during the motorsport seasons in the 60s. I recall we had a Polaroid..I think a white 1000 with flash cubes, that was the first camera I used but I have limited memories of that, I was about 6 or 7 years old.

When I was 12 I decided to buy a "real" camera, I went to a famous shop in my home town who ripped me off and sold me an Exakta HS-10 as a DDR camera. In reality of course it's a Cosina in Pentax mount, decent camera but nothing special, besides the normal zoom that sucks like all normal zooms. However it was my only camera for 10 years, I took some pretty decent pics with it but I haven't used for at least other ten years. I restarted shooting just recently, my first "new" camera was a Zorki 6 because I wanted an I rangefinder, then I discovered that on ebay cameras that I couldn't see with a pair of binoculars today are selling for little or nothing and my addiction started.

 

[Tamara]

The first one I used was my mom's Yaschica Electro 35 for a darkroom class in high school. The first one I owned was a Canon AF35ML. First non P&S was an AE-1 Program.

 

[OptiKen]

Nikon EM

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Yashica Lynx, 1964

 

[Nathan King]

Mine was an AE-1. I still have it but use an F1N whenever I want a small format SLR. I mostly use rangefinders these days.

 

[MontanaJay]

Learned on my dad's Argus C-4, briefly used and Exacta and then on to Nikon F while I was still in high school in 1969. Stuck with Nikon for a 30-year newspaper career.

 

[r.reeder]

This place was looking a bit dead...not much doing, so i thought this might be fun. Lets see what all you folks cut your teeth on - what was your first 35mm camera!

Here is me: this little East German thing that you had to walk ten steps away from your subject to be more less in focus! Then you wound the little wheel until it stopped. As far as I recall, your legs were the only adjustment.

But the first real 35mm (I had a Lubitel after that) camera was a Zenit ( I forget which letters - I think MF - it had a photo-cell light meter over the lens). It still works although the rewind knob broke and I cant locate the pieces to fix it (and I just realized that I can't locate the camera... wife cleaned the place...it can be anywhere... it may be in YOUR house!). Pretty good for over 20 years of use!

Hope everyone has fun recollecting!

Peter.

Argus C3 in 1965. Still have it, & still use it. It'll outlive me.

 

[TenSpeed]

first 35 would be a nikon N80, wasnt into photography then

first 35 that got me back into film photography would be a Canon Canonet28 and followed by a Canon AE1 Program

 

[Nodda Duma]

Olympus OM-1 for doing astrophotography. Still have it

 

[Unr3touched]

For me, it has been a Kodak Retinette IIc, found when we cleaned my wife's late grand fathers house after he passed away. Infected me with the film photography virus, G.A.S. kicked in pretty soon after that...

 

[pentaxpete]

When I was in the British Army in Germany there were wonderful 'Camera Shops' that we could only dream about in England -- I was sent to BMH Berlin in 1956 when I was 19 and camera dealer came regularly to the Military Hospital with gear -- one day he had a LEICA III with 50mm f2 scratched Summitar and a Zeiss CONTAX III with 50mm f1.5 Sonnar lens -- well I bought the CONTAX for £ 38-00 ( In DMarks when we got 11.5 D Marks to £1-00 British ) I had to pay it off monthly -- then I was sent to BMH Iserlohn in the British Zone and there was the Canadian Maple Leaf Store that British could use - and they sold BRAND NEW LEICA IIIf with 50mm f3.5 Elmars for £ 45-00 !!! I was still paying off the Contax -- but I did get a Braun Hobby Electronic Flash there for £ 14--00 when in England with all the Taxes it was over £ 39-00 !! The un-coated Sonnar suffered flare easily -- wish I had bought the LEICA with coated Elmar !!
Self-Portrait at 19 years old in BMH Berlin on Perutz Peromnia film with my CONTAX
Berlin 01 : 'Selfie at 19 years old!' by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Russian War Memorial Garden in Berlin -- blocks from Hitler's Bunker carved !! Perutz Peromnia film, CONTAX

Berlin 12 : Russian Sector by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

 

[jcofer]

First 35mm; a borrowed Kodak Retina IIIc in 1965, if you don't count the 35mm insert for a Yashica 635 TLR. First purchased 35mm; a Yashica Minister D, soon replaced by a Yashica J5 SLR, both in 1967. First really high-quality 35mm; a Nikkormat FTN purchased in 1968 that replaced the J5.

 

[filmyginger]

My first film camera was a Minolta X700. The only problem with it now is that the film counter doesn't work. No biggie...still my favourite out of my collection.

 

[Sirius Glass]

My first film camera was a Minolta X700. The only problem with it now is that the film counter doesn't work. No biggie...still my favourite out of my collection.

A CLA [Clean, Lubricate, and Adjust] will take care of that problem.

Welcome to APUG

 

[f/16]

First 35mm was my grandpa's AE-1 I got from my grandma after my he died in 1990. My first cameras ever was a Kodak instamatic 110 my mom gave me in the late 70s and I had a Kodak disc camera in the 80s.

 

[Cropline]

I started w/ an EOS Rebel. What ever U.S. model designation they had in '92. Learned a lot w/ that li'l camera.

 

[BayG75]

The first 35mm cameras I ever used were my mom’s Braun Paxette (purchased in Berlin in 1956) and my dad’s Kodak Retina (purchased at a PX in Newfoundland in 1955).

My own first 35mm camera (a 1975 Christmas present when I was 12) was a Ricoh G75 rangefinder.

My first SLR was a used Nikkormat FTn. My first new SLR was a Nikon FE2.

 

[btaylor]

Olympus Pen S. Used, probably 1968 paid $30 for it- my paper route money. I shot a lot of 72 exposure rolls through it! Sold it to buy a Contax IIa with a Zeiss Opton f2. Should have taken great pictures but the shutter was off and I didn’t t have enough scratch for a CLA.

 

[Horatio]

Wow. Almost a five year lull between posts. Anyway, my first 35mm camera was a Minolta Himatic F rangefinder. Really sharp lens, as I recall. I traded it for my first SLR, a Petri. Wish I’d kept it.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I like resurrected posts. I don't know if I posted here when this thread first came up, so I'll add my first SLR here - a Nikon FE (chrome). I liked it so much I've gone through several (cheaper to buy a new one than repair the older ones), I much prefer it to any of the other models that came afterwards. That said, I'll probably replace the current version I have (a black FE) with an FM3a. I'm hoping a newer camera will last me longer and be a bit more rugged than the FE.

 

[grain elevator]

Pentax ME Super with the 50 1.7. Give by a relative who had move on to something more automated, long after the time these were made. Not bad at all, but the camera soon died on me, on a vacation no less. I still have the 50. The 50 was always too long or too short in those days, I hated it. I still think one should give a beginner a 35 or 28, more fun for most.

 

[wahiba]

Cosmic 35 around 1966 or there abouts. Johnson Exposure Claculator. Amazing what you could but in Boots and/or Timothy Whites in those days. Russian kit was all the rage back then.

 

[MattKing]

I like resurrected posts. I don't know if I posted here when this thread first came up

If you want to find out, go up to Thread Tools near the top, click on it and then click on Who Replied? You will see a list that is ranked by number of replies, with the largest at the top. Click on the number beside each person and you will see links to each of their posts.
It is really handy when you are looking for a particular post.