What was your first SLR?

The year was 1964 and the camera was a Petriflex V bought at the base exchange in Izmir Turkey. I later added a Spiratone 105mm preset tele. I used this camera all over the Izmir area, Istanbul, Paris, Brussels, and South Dakota before turning it in for my first Pentax, an H2... and my SLRs have been Pentax ever since.
 
Pentax K 1000 - bought it brand new in the US Army PX in Nuremberg, Germany in 1985 and used it 10 years straight over there till the shutter broke 😀

After that, I used Leica IIIF`s, a M6 and a Rollei 2.8C and 2.8F12/24 Planar untill I bought another SLR here in 1997 - a vietnam era Canon F-1 and STILL use that as my main SLR film user along with my Leica M6 and the various LTM`s I own

Tom
 
Pentax Spotmatic (SP1000) purchased new in 1966 or 67. I still have it, it still works like the day I got it.

The first time I saw the Spotmatic was at a trade show. There were a number of them all attached to different lenses and set up on tripods. I bought the thing about a month later with a 50mm, 200mm and 35mm lenses.
 
My first SLR was an Exakta Varex IIb purchased new in the early 60s when I was a teenager. I chose it at the time because it was one of the cheapest SLRs then on the market and seemed to offer a lot of features for the money. It was an unusual camera because it was left-handed. The film advanced from right to left so the advance lever was on the left side, and the shutter release was on the front of the body beside the lens in about a 2 o'clock position if you looked at it front-on. It had interchangeable viewfinders and a built-in film cutting knife. When I had a job and more money in 1969 I traded the Exakta on a Minolta SRT-101. My attraction to the Minolta was that it had a TTL meter, availability of an Exakta lens adapter, and more future as an SLR system than the Exakta system. I still have that camera, although it doesn't get any use these days, and I still have a couple of Exakta mount lenses. Sometimes I wish I still had the Exakta, but only as a collector's item, not a user.
 
mfunnell said:
An Olympus OM-20 and Zuiko 50mm f1.8, some 20+ years ago. I still have them, and while they don't get much use they still work fine.

...Mike
Click to expand...
Mine was an OM20 with Zuiko 50 f1.8 which I borrowed from my mother (and still am five years later). This camera went with her when she travelled, and I like to think that it would come with me if I ever scrape together the money to go travelling.
 
I think we had a thread similar to this before. Mine was the Yashica TL Super, with the Yashinon f/1.7 or f/1.8, which I got in late 1970 or early 1971, while in Quang Tri, Vietnam. I had been using folders and a minolta 16 (My Weilti was scratching film). I had looked at the PX magazine for a long time, comparing the Nikon, Canon, Minolta and other cameras. I finally settled on the Yashica as I knew the brand from a movie camera I once had.

I didn't really use it much until 1974 when I was in Korea. I really got back in to photography then. My first two lenses were Yashikors, a 28mm and a 135mm. Next was the Spiratone 18mm. Next came the Fujica ST 901 and a lot of gear to support those two cameras.

I stilll have them both but the mirror on the Yashica often sticks up so I haven't used it lately.
 
Great shot CJM! I know what you mean about it being all downhill from there too. Better and more gear doth not make better pics. My first slr was a mint AE-1 w/ 50 1.8 lens and a neat Southwest type strap that I bought from a Savannah thrift store for $13.50. I remember that as I was eyeing the thing sitting on a shelf behind the register another customer asked to see it. He looked at it and played w/ it, and the whole time I was praying "don't buy it, don't buy it". For some reason he handed it back to the gal, and when he left I bought it. They even took an out of state check for it. Afterwards I felt so guilty that I kept going back to the store and buying things that I didn't even need, and I would leave them on the sidewalk in front of the store later for others, or maybe someone brought them back into the store for a donation. Who knows? Never should have sold that camera. Back then I thought a 50mm lens was all anyone would ever need. Here's a shot from it that I took in Daytona at the Boardwalk on the beach. One of those old timey strength testing machines.
 

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1972 Prinzflex { Chinon } STTL from Dixons in Uk . It was black with 50mm F 1.7 .
Wrong move - I should have bought the Zodel version from Wallace Heaton - ,cos the black was painted over the chrome !!! The Zodel was brass !

I could not quite afford a Spotmatic !

Actually - big brute that it was it was reliable and made fine slides - I found one on e-bay recently in chrome , just for fun ..

Now I need to try that lense on my K 10 D !!!
 
A Konica Autoreflex TC. I was thrilled, as it took over from my Canon Ql-17 GIII.

Fast forward many, many years: Konica is long gone, the Canon is still in my camera bag!
 
My dad's Pentax MX and SMC-M 50/1.7....its like the `MP' of Pentax (all manual and I think, smaller than any Leica M body)! The lens is long gone (fungus ate it), but I still have the body.


U3889I1134364068.SEQ.0.jpg


(this is one of my first shots made sometime in the early 90s)
 
Pentax ME Super. I remember a mate explaining aperture and shutter speeds to me. I bought it after going on a business trip with XA2 and being frustrated with my photos.

Regards,

Bill
 
Pentax K1000 and 50/1.7. Loved that camera. Used it for six years and traded up to an LX, then on to Nikon FM2, followed by Nikon F4, then really branched out. Mamiya TLR, Speed Graphic, Hassie, Pentax 67 ... and the beat goes on.

Ben Marks
 
was at my parents house recently and i found this in an old box. this was my first camera. must have been around 1980-ish. man, i put a lot of film through this camera.
 

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My first SLR was a Komaflex S back in 1961. It took 127 film. Within a few months the "bug bit" and I traded it for an Exacta VX with a 58mm f/2 Biotar. A year later I saw the light and started shooting with a mix of Leica and Canon rangefinder bodies and lenses.
 
Topcon Unirex....

Topcon Unirex....

Early 70's... 71-72. Ordered it by telephone from Hong Kong. Sent my money and counted the days. Move up from a Brownie Hawkeye.
 
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