Your first SLR...would you buy it again?

First one I actually owned myself was a Canon AT-1 bought on Craigslist in 2013. I was shooting my father's F-1 before that, as well as his RB-67 (in addition to my digital photography, which is where I started in 2010). Still love that AT-1, would absolutely buy again.

I have since collected a lot of older cameras. I love taking them apart, fixing them up, getting them working again, and shooting different ones. I think my favorite 35mm SLR is my Olympus OM-G. These days I don't shoot a lot of 35mm anymore. When I shoot medium format I generally use my dad's old Yashica Mat 124. I got an Intrepid 4x5 for large format and love it.

AgX said:

You were an early developer.

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I guess so. My mother still tells the story of finding me kneeling in her bedroom closet using her roasting tins to make contact prints from my dad's old glass plates when I was aged about 7. I'd open the door to expose the paper having used touch to place the plate on the paper...guess 20 seconds exposure time and guess the develop and fix times too. Made some fair prints that way without any dark room. I wouldn't even fit in the closet today but the roasting tins are still in use for their original purpose!

Olympus OM-10. Looking back, well, no I wouldn't want another one. But it was a nice camera.
OM-1 that I couldn't afford at that time? Yup.

Exakta VX iia with 58mm f/2 Auto Biotar and a 90mm f/3.5 preset Tele Xenar, including a leather bag and a Gossen Pilot meter. It cost me $90 in 1969 from a dealer in Daytona Beach Florida. It was a great camera. I would buy it again under the same circumstances back then.

Today I would probably probably buy something like a a Canon Rebel T2, but I already have one (more than one in fact.) However, I did buy a VX iia for sentimental reasons.

I did, three times.

My first was a Pentax ME Super that my dad bought new in 1982 I think. He bought it for work to take evidence photos with and then his company gave him another so he boxed it back up with probably fewer than 10 rolls through it. I used to sneak into his closet when he was at work and I would take it out and play with it. I was 11 years old.

One day, he came home and caught me red handed. I couldn't think of anything else to say except "Would you sell this to me?" I was a paper boy making maybe $30 a month so he set up a payment plan to sell me the body and 50mm lens for I think $200. I took posession when I was 12 years old. I used that camera for several years until my dad left the company he was with and started his own. He crept into my room while I was sleeping and started digging around looking for that ME Super. When he found it and tried to sneak out with it, I busted him. He said that he needed it back for work and I don't remember if I ever saw a dime for it.

I joined the USAF several years later and eventually bought another ME Super and an LX. 5 years later Dad died and I got the original camera back. When digital became "affordable" in 2002, I bought a Canon EOS D30 for $2800 and sold all of my Pentax gear. Over the past 9 months I have repurchased everything that I had before including another ME Super, LX, and K1000 SE. In addition, I have also purchased every Pentax that I had ever thought of buying but didn't have the money. I have even bought a bunch that I never knew of before (M42s) and more glass than I never knew existed.

Even though it's not the most reliable camera, I'll always have an ME Super.

I'd buy it again, in fact I still have it: a Minolta SR1 which I bought in Newark, NJ, in 1967. This model preceded the SRT 101 I believe. It's built like a tank and it was my only camera until the mid-80s when I got a Minolta x-700 (and 10 years later a used Minolta XE-7). I shoot them all in rotation. The SR1 is what I'm holding in my avatar.

I bought an Konica FT-1 cheap with a ton of lenses and it gave me so much pleasure. It was a good camera but I wouldn't want to buy it again. Really like my Olympus OM-1 md.

Dan Fromm said:

Nikkormat FTN, bought in 1970. Take me back to 1970 knowing what I now know and I'd buy it again. But if I were looking for a manual focus 35 mm SLR now I wouldn't buy a Nikkormat FTN, I'd buy the last version. FM-2n. Lighter, more capable.

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My first camera was a Nikkormat FtN which I sold when I was a broke student. I bought a very clean Nikkormat Ft2 as replacement a few years ago, but it is heavy. ...

Pentax ME Super. No, not rugged enough, but I liked it while it lasted. I have a Nikon 2002 somewhere if I ever wanted to go 35mm again, which is unlikely.

My first SLR was a Minolta QTsi. I haven't taken decent pictures with it, but would not buy again ... because, other than a manual focus option, it offers no manual control of aperture, shutter speed, or ISO setting, If I were to do it over, I would get the STsi which offers all those features.

A requirement for photo school in 1974 was a manual camera. I thought all good cameras were 35mm. I bought a Minolta SRT 102 after reading the consumer report. I thought it was pretty much crap though I had no experience with cameras. In retrospect I would have bought a MF either Rolleiflex or Mamiya. After school I got rid of the Minolta and got a Nikon F... and a 4x5.

My first SLR bought in 1969 was a Topcon RE2, I still have it and it is still working like a charm, including the CdS cell on its mirror.
I bought this one because of its Exacta baïonnet mount, and after, I bought also Exacta bodies and lenses. But both the Topcon body and the standard 58mm/1.8 topcor lens are much better than the exacta gear.

Before my "first SLR" I had also one of the first Yashica Electro35 rangefinders (bought in 1967), and as I converted my whole family to this kind of gear, I now have an almost complete collection of Yashica rangefinders (that I still use from time to time with great pleasure) - as all my family has now switched to digital.

Paul K.

No need. Still have it although it's in need of a restore.

First 35mm SLR: Minolta SR-7 ==> something newer but mechanical
First 120 SLR: Hassleblad 503 CX ==> yes
First 4"x5" SLR: Graflex Model D ==> yes

My first SLR was a Nikon F with the standard pentaprism viewfinder, purchased in 1966 when I was stationed overseas in the Army in Turkey. I loved that camera, and carried it with me on to my next assignment in Japan. If given the same opportunity again, I think I might rather I had chosen a Leica M3, just because I'd probably still have that camera today!

Jim

No, I would not buy it again because I still have it and it's nothing special, it's a Chinon SLR, that's the model: SLR. It's not worth the effort to sell it because it will probably go for a few dollars. It does use M42 mount so there is a chance I would use it again since I have several good M42 lenses. I got the camera from a friend in the late 1980's and used it regularly up until the late 1990's.

The first SLR I ever used belonged to my father, he bought it for his own use and so my brothers and I could use it for photography class. It's a Minolta srTsc-II. One of my nephews used it for his photography class as well. My father just recently gave it to me and I'm finding I like it a lot. It feels very familiar to me, I guess my photography class experience is coming back to me after all these years.

My first was a Nikkormat FT3 with a Nikkor 50/1.4 and 28/3.5. I'd buy it again -- still have it and use it, now with all the Nikkor lenses I've gathered over the years. Really dependable; even the meter still works and runs on available batteries.

Certainly, and I did. My first was a Minolta SRT-101 in 1972 bought new on layaway. That was sheer torture waiting until I was able to finally pay it down and pick it up. The first one was stolen by my roommate a few months later when he left unannounced one night but I have since picked up another along with the 58mm lens. It is still as nice and smooth and wonderful to use as I remembered the first one being.

My first camera was a Zenith E in 1973. It was frighteningly expensive - £45 - which took a lot of saving from my first job. An excellent camera with an excellent lens. I sold it when I got married as we were seriously broke. I now have two of them.

Hi,

I got my first 35mm SLR 1985 when I was 13 years old, a Praktika MTL5 with west german Revue label.
I loved the 1.8/50, I had a lot of fun with it, but it started loosing its longer shutter times.
Buying again at that moment: Yes.

Next camera was 1987 a Canon EOS 650 with 28, 50 and 70-210mm lenses.
Many possibilities, autofocus, technically fine images - but much less satisfaction with the work, camera did to much what I should do.
Buying again at that moment: No. Today the same mess with my EOS 5DII DSLR...

One year later, 1988 sold all the Canon stuff for a new Contax 139 with 28 and 1.4/50mm.
Satisfaction is back, fine and light weight camera, worked great for 12 years, then didn't wind the film anymore.
Buying again at that moment: Yes!

My conclusion: The camera shouldn't do to much automatically, it estranges/keeps me from the imaging process. For my private projects I prefer film based cameras - large formats, old Rolleiflexes, old microscope cameras, alternative techniques, but thats off topic here...

Greetings
Jens

Agulliver said:

I guess so. My mother still tells the story of finding me kneeling in her bedroom closet using her roasting tins to make contact prints from my dad's old glass plates when I was aged about 7. I'd open the door to expose the paper having used touch to place the plate on the paper...guess 20 seconds exposure time and guess the develop and fix times too. Made some fair prints that way without any dark room. I wouldn't even fit in the closet today but the roasting tins are still in use for their original purpose!

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A couple of people have PM'd me suggesting I write some sort of piece about my early childhood photographic exploits...since I seem to have started quite young (aged five).

Would this be of interest to anyone? Any suggestions of which area of the forum would be appropriate?

On topic...it's nice to see a few people started with Praktica MTL5 and MTL3 models. I still fondly remember the mirror slap of my MTL5, and won't let go of it despite the winding mechanism now being dodgy. Seems to be a very well made camera. I don't quite understand reputation Prakticas have for being unreliable, unless I have just been very lucky with mine. I've had the MTL5, B200, BCA and two BX20S and all still work fine. My original BX20S did need a repair.....after I dropped it on a marble floor!

My first SLR was an AE1-P, with a 70/210 zoom. At that time I wanted to do nature photography, and got an uncle's (THE uncle who "is in photography" in the family) advice. Since he likes Canon I had to buy a Canon and since prime "normal" lenses were useless I had to have a long zoom for nature photography...

It's hard to complain since he offered me the zoom, but I think there were sevarl mistakes there. I should have bought almost anything that could carry a K-mount lens (especially a "REVUEflex", which were rebranded Chinon cameras), with a 50mm and a 300, and spend all my time in the forests and not lurking at catalogs until I had enough money to buy a camera...

I ended up selling all my FD equipment save the AE1-P and 50mm (lucky me, the camera has some marks so the shop did not want to accept it, I'm VERY glad they refused it since I still have it and am happy to have it) for a EOS-3 and some prime lenses.

I finally sold all my SLR equipment (except the AE1-P) and now enjoy RF and TLF cameras much more.

So I'm not sure I'd still buy it, but I'm happy to have it even if it does not get much use.

I bought my first camera aged 13 after saving up for weeks from my paper round.

It was a Praktica MTL-3 with Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f2.8 lens.

I still have it but the lens has sticky apertur blades. I keep meaning to try and clean it, but I'm much better at disassembly than reassembly...

If I went back in time, yes I would buy it again. My choice was the Praktica or a Zenit and I always preferred the Prakticas. The next jump up in price was a big one and would not have resulted in better photographs. A lesson I was to learn with the introduction of the plastic-fantastic cameras of the 80e and 90s which replaced my MTL-3 but resulted in inferior photos (crappy slow plastic kit zooms with bad AF) and ultimately to a decline in my interest in photography which took many years to return.

I will shoot my MTL-3 again.

Mine was a Zenit E and the Helios prime... I was setting up a new computer today and found a Win 10 driver for my old scanner. I reached into an old stack and pulled this one to test things. This was taken in 1972 on FP4 in D-76 (all I used then). Spiratone enlarger, no running water darkroom (parents' basement), some cheap Freestyle paper and the Spiratone lens that came with the enlarger. I'm always surprised when I look back at those first attempts with low-end equipment, skills and materials. It's so close to good enough and it takes a lot of gear and money to make very significant improvements. My first sports car, bought used from a desperate divorcee.

A Z... fantastic! Good enough is terrific here. Great work. A bit like bicycles, the first $750 gets you a very nice ride - the next $750 gets you ride and status - and by the time you get to 5Gs, you are paying a stinking fortune to do nothing more than saving a lousy 150g of weight!

I am sad to say that i would not buy my first 35mm camera again. Pentax Super Program. I will admit it did everything i needed, and i used it throughout its life. I became disappointed in the 28/2.8 lens images. Had no idea what i was doing, but liked the fully automatic features and chose the Pentax over the Canon AE-1 due to to the LCD over LED display.

My selection criteria now for a SLR camera of any type is that it has mirror lock-up.

In my album are photographs that i made at Yosemite Park. I had printed some enlargements and made a portfolio of these, of which i am very fond of and cannot complain. But - the results led me take up large format, thus starting a most happy new hobby! I found aused Cambo monorail 4x5 at BH Photo and made a lensboard and pinhole to start, until i could save up enough shekels to get a lens, which i found eventually being sold by a photographer in Queens. Drove up and had an additional treat of viewing some of her work hanging on the walls of her apartment. AND - the lens came on a lensboard for the SC, which was the same camera she was using.

Great journey, but to recap - i would not replace my Pentax today with another Pentax.