When you were at school did your friends have cameras too

Archiver said:
Is this a real example? Because it would be lovely to hear a bit more about this story.
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1979 - my mother's instamatic. I was 16 & she was 14.

We would date off and (mostly on) till the mid 80's with breaks for the Army & college respectively, though I have fond memories of a weekend in Frankfurt on leave from Uncle Sam.

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2021 - my Leica. Meeting in Springfield Ill as it was halfway between our respective places.

She'd sent me a message on Facebook asking are you the same Bill I knew in high school? Only time I've ever been glad to have that silly account. We'd each been married and divorced and had one child (I have a son, she has a daughter) and we're still dating. She lives in Memphis, and I've recently moved back to our hometown, but both our sets of parents still live here, so get togethers are frequent. We have plans for July.
 
wlewisiii said:
1979 - my mother's instamatic. I was 16 & she was 14.

We would date off and (mostly on) till the mid 80's with breaks for the Army & college respectively, though I have fond memories of a weekend in Frankfurt on leave from Uncle Sam.

2021 - my Leica. Meeting in Springfield Ill as it was halfway between our respective places.

She'd sent me a message on Facebook asking are you the same Bill I knew in high school? Only time I've ever been glad to have that silly account. We'd each been married and divorced and had one child (I have a son, she has a daughter) and we're still dating. She lives in Memphis, and I've recently moved back to our hometown, but both our sets of parents still live here, so get togethers are frequent. We have plans for July.
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This is so touching. Thank you for sharing this story. I wish you and your lady all the best in these crazy times.
 
Archiver said:
What an awesome thread.

When I was at school in the 80s, I had a 110 cassette camera that I used on rare occasions. A few decades later around 2011, I found it in a box and discovered that it still had a roll of film in it! When developed, there were photos of our house in about 1985 and my best friend at the time. The images were so grainy and badly exposed, but it incredible to see them.

In 86, I took a Kodak disc camera to school a few times, and I still have those photos. Sadly, I never used a film camera again during school or uni, missing so many opportunities to capture memories.

During a photography class in 87, I took photos of friends and classmates around the school, and I still have those images. In hindsight, I wish I'd had the urge to get an Olympus XA2 or similar and document my life with it back then.

As for others who had cameras, there were less than a handful. One was a kid from a wealthy family who brought a fancy Polaroid camera to school one day. Another was a girl in our final year who brought a film point and shoot to music camp. My best friend at the time and I quietly took that camera and made a couple of photos of our own, which she only discovered after getting the photos developed, hahaha. One of the teachers at that same music camp brought a camera, and he gave me a few photos later, which I still have and treasure.

I later learned that a friend in the year ahead of me brought a camera to orchestra at least once, and captured images of our conductor. They featured in the school's end of year magazine.

I'm envious of all of you who used cameras regularly in your teens and early adulthood, but I guess I make up for it now.
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The disc camera, I forgot about them, I knew a couple of people who had them, never tried them myself, I never tried the APS too.
 
Archiver said:
That reminds me, in the early 90s I went to our high school reunion and was the only one with a camera, the family's Nikon L35AFD.

Around 2000, I used disposable cameras briefly, but it wasn't until 2002 when I got a digital camera that things really took off.
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the L35AFD is quite sort after by some these days
 
wlewisiii said:
View attachment 4822680
1979 - my mother's instamatic. I was 16 & she was 14.

We would date off and (mostly on) till the mid 80's with breaks for the Army & college respectively, though I have fond memories of a weekend in Frankfurt on leave from Uncle Sam.

View attachment 4822681
2021 - my Leica. Meeting in Springfield Ill as it was halfway between our respective places.

She'd sent me a message on Facebook asking are you the same Bill I knew in high school? Only time I've ever been glad to have that silly account. We'd each been married and divorced and had one child (I have a son, she has a daughter) and we're still dating. She lives in Memphis, and I've recently moved back to our hometown, but both our sets of parents still live here, so get togethers are frequent. We have plans for July.
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That is such a heart warming and equally cool story.
 
A couple of years after graduating from college, a friend's B&W drugstore prints really captured my interest. I finally gave in and bought my first adjustable, real camera--a Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL model. But after reading every photo magazine on the news stands for a few months I knew I wanted a Nikon. Luckily another of my old college friends was selling his FTn with 50/1.4 lens so he could buy one of the new OM-1 cameras. I really fell in love with photography using that Nikon. I got a second, plain prism F model soon after. It was beat-up but only cost $75 and the thing worked for years without any problems whatsoever. Unfortunately both those cameras were lost in a burglary several years later.
 
I had zero interest in photography when at school, which is maybe somewhat weird because I was a voracious cinephile from quite early on. All my closest friends at school were gear and gadget oriented. I remember one of them had a Pentax, I can't remember which but probably a K1000, brought to him by his dad when he went on a lecturing stint in the US. It was a pretty big deal to have such a camera, for all the others who cared for such things -- me, I couldn't care less.

I also remember distinctly a good friend, sadly gone too early, perusing a photo magazine with programmable Minolta cameras. The programming was done by inserting a small card, the size of an SD card as I recall. And everybody, and I mean everybody, was ogling the newfangled EOS camera line. They could talk for hours about this or that automatic function, before they turned their attention to sports cars, or personal computers, or .... That was the late 80's in Greece, we were 16-17, and we knew almost nothing. Most of all I, not suspecting at all that photography would become important to me in ways I could not imagine back then.
 
I think that one thing that may get lost to history is how expensive pro and semi-pro film camera gear could be until the market fell out starting in earnest during the early 2000s. We are pretty spoiled in 2023 to have Nikon F4s for $200, medium format bodies / lenses for under $1,000, Canon F-1s for $150, etc. In the 1990s, quality film photo gear was often too expensive for the average American. Hence, disposable cameras and the ubiquitous 35mm & APS point and shoots of the 1990s, which of course gave way to point and shoot digital cameras around Y2K.

I remember that given how expensive good photo gear was, the conventional wisdom from photogs of the 1990s was to advise people get a "starter" SLR. Like a K1000, a Konica Autoreflex TC, an old Nikkormat, etc.. Even those "starter" cameras were not particularly cheap back then.
 
davidde1000 said:
I think that one thing that may get lost to history is how expensive pro and semi-pro film camera gear could be until the market fell out starting in earnest during the early 2000s. We are pretty spoiled in 2023 to have Nikon F4s for $200, medium format bodies / lenses for under $1,000, Canon F-1s for $150, etc. In the 1990s, quality film photo gear was often too expensive for the average American…
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So true. It seems that between 2000 and 2010, cameras and lenses we could previously only dream about were selling for pennies on the dollar. They were - and are - still just as good and as capable as when they were first made.
 
-1st grade school was back in...1980. At that time I had an Instamatic 25 from Kodak which I still keep and... still works. Never took it to trips though. I was too young.
-1st school outing with camera was back in 1984-85 when we went to the zoo. At that time I had an Agfa optima 535 sensor, which still keep... and works.
-In 6th-7th grade (1987) upgraded to a p&s canon snappy 20. Some classmates brought cameras as well (minolta weathermatic 110).
-8th grade brought a Praktica MTL5B, still owned and working
-And at the end of 11th grade, having finished wuth an A+, got the "dream" camera for me at the time , the Praktica BX20, still working.
Best regards
 
Dogman said:
A couple of years after graduating from college, a friend's B&W drugstore prints really captured my interest. I finally gave in and bought my first adjustable, real camera--a Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL model. But after reading every photo magazine on the news stands for a few months I knew I wanted a Nikon. Luckily another of my old college friends was selling his FTn with 50/1.4 lens so he could buy one of the new OM-1 cameras. I really fell in love with photography using that Nikon. I got a second, plain prism F model soon after. It was beat-up but only cost $75 and the thing worked for years without any problems whatsoever. Unfortunately both those cameras were lost in a burglary several years later.
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The uncluttered view through the viewfinder of the plain F is a joy.
 
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telenous said:
I had zero interest in photography when at school, which is maybe somewhat weird because I was a voracious cinephile from quite early on. All my closest friends at school were gear and gadget oriented. I remember one of them had a Pentax, I can't remember which but probably a K1000, brought to him by his dad when he went on a lecturing stint in the US. It was a pretty big deal to have such a camera, for all the others who cared for such things -- me, I couldn't care less.

I also remember distinctly a good friend, sadly gone too early, perusing a photo magazine with programmable Minolta cameras. The programming was done by inserting a small card, the size of an SD card as I recall. And everybody, and I mean everybody, was ogling the newfangled EOS camera line. They could talk for hours about this or that automatic function, before they turned their attention to sports cars, or personal computers, or .... That was the late 80's in Greece, we were 16-17, and we knew almost nothing. Most of all I, not suspecting at all that photography would become important to me in ways I could not imagine back then.
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I wonder how many K1000 were eventually sold world wide?
 
davidde1000 said:
I think that one thing that may get lost to history is how expensive pro and semi-pro film camera gear could be until the market fell out starting in earnest during the early 2000s. We are pretty spoiled in 2023 to have Nikon F4s for $200, medium format bodies / lenses for under $1,000, Canon F-1s for $150, etc. In the 1990s, quality film photo gear was often too expensive for the average American. Hence, disposable cameras and the ubiquitous 35mm & APS point and shoots of the 1990s, which of course gave way to point and shoot digital cameras around Y2K.

I remember that given how expensive good photo gear was, the conventional wisdom from photogs of the 1990s was to advise people get a "starter" SLR. Like a K1000, a Konica Autoreflex TC, an old Nikkormat, etc.. Even those "starter" cameras were not particularly cheap back then.
Click to expand...
Yes there are some bargains to be had, however, film is so so expensive these days, where as back in the day it was cheaper
 
robertofollia said:
-1st grade school was back in...1980. At that time I had an Instamatic 25 from Kodak which I still keep and... still works. Never took it to trips though. I was too young.
-1st school outing with camera was back in 1984-85 when we went to the zoo. At that time I had an Agfa optima 535 sensor, which still keep... and works.
-In 6th-7th grade (1987) upgraded to a p&s canon snappy 20. Some classmates brought cameras as well (minolta weathermatic 110).
-8th grade brought a Praktica MTL5B, still owned and working
-And at the end of 11th grade, having finished wuth an A+, got the "dream" camera for me at the time , the Praktica BX20, still working.
Best regards
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My friend I an had and still has a Pracktica MTL5, when we used to go camping he used to put his tent pegs in with it!
 
robertofollia said:
-1st grade school was back in...1980. At that time I had an Instamatic 25 from Kodak which I still keep and... still works. Never took it to trips though. I was too young.
-1st school outing with camera was back in 1984-85 when we went to the zoo. At that time I had an Agfa optima 535 sensor, which still keep... and works.
-In 6th-7th grade (1987) upgraded to a p&s canon snappy 20. Some classmates brought cameras as well (minolta weathermatic 110).
-8th grade brought a Praktica MTL5B, still owned and working
-And at the end of 11th grade, having finished wuth an A+, got the "dream" camera for me at the time , the Praktica BX20, still working.
Best regards
Click to expand...
I remember when the BX20 came out, it seemed such a departure, style wise, from the traditional 'boxy' Prakticas, how did you find the BX20, was it good to use.
 
lxmike said:
Yes there are some bargains to be had, however, film is so so expensive these days, where as back in the day it was cheaper
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I dunno if "good" film was that much cheaper back in the 1990s. The pro films like NPH, Portra VC/NC, Kodachrome, etc. were not, given inflation, that cheap; and I remember trying to be careful and deliberate shooting with more expensive film. What we used to have is a bunch of cheaper emulsions you could buy at a pharmacy, supermarket, or camera shops that have long been discontinued. I cannot even remember the names of those three packs. However, having scanned a bunch of cheap consumer film that I took in the late 90s and early 2000s, those emulsions weren't very good. Even modern relatively affordable film stocks like Fuji Superia 400 / Gold 200 are heads and shoulders above them. What I do miss was my local CVS developing "only" my C41 film for $1.50 a roll up until about 10 years ago when CVS ditched their machines.
 
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