Which camera made you fall in love with photography?

Although this was my first camera (below) I think the one that ‘piqued my interest’ in photography (rather than ‘fall in love with’) was my father’s Exakta VXIIa. It had been unloved and forgotten in the deep recesses of a closet, and I found all the chrome knobs etc to be quite fascinating. I soon discovered, however, that the shutter curtains had pinholes and as a result many little white spots were imparted on my photos. Ah well that affair soon ended and I moved on to greener pastures in the guise of a Minolta SRT-101. It was all downhill from there.

CF795B93-1EDE-4ABA-8C67-38C04A6748F9.jpeg
 
It's a pretty common answer, but after a few forgettable point and shoots, the Canon AE-1 was my first "real" camera, and the one that showed me what was possible.

That was my main camera through high school and art school, where I studied photography.

However, I have to begrudgingly give props to the Canon Rebel XT, the camera that rebooted my photography journey in 2005—before being replaced by the 5D II a few years later. I'm not sure if I'd still be shooting if it wasn't for the XT.
 
bensyverson said:
It's a pretty common answer, but after a few forgettable point and shoots, the Canon AE-1 was my first "real" camera, and the one that showed me what was possible.

That was my main camera through high school and art school, where I studied photography.

However, I have to begrudgingly give props to the Canon Rebel XT, the camera that rebooted my photography journey in 2005—before being replaced by the 5D II a few years later. I'm not sure if I'd still be shooting if it wasn't for the XT.
Click to expand...
The Canon 400D was my first DSLR, although technically it belonged to work. It gave me a taste for the speed and quality of DSLR photography, after which I got a 30D, and a 5D II a couple of years later. Fun times.
 
Archiver said:
The Canon 400D was my first DSLR, although technically it belonged to work. It gave me a taste for the speed and quality of DSLR photography, after which I got a 30D, and a 5D II a couple of years later. Fun times.
Click to expand...
The 400D was also my first DSLR that I bought with my first pay check from my student job in my first semester of Uni. I was so excited!
 
First cam was k1000, like many. I was curious but not hooked. Then an early Olympus digital point and shoot was all I could afford. Some Stylus variant. Made pictures I liked, but not enamored with the process.
Wanted to get into medium format, only could afford a Yashica 124G. I made the most of it, I think, but real love happened with the 500c/m.
Later I committed to the combo I like the most today, which is Leica M’s and Rollei TLRs.
These are all among the first pictures I made with the mentioned cameras.
Hoffman_20251031_1052-1.jpg
Hoffman_20251027_0591.jpg

Hoffman_nz_20040425_0004.jpg
 
A 35mm Zenit TTL with a 50mm lens. I gave it to my nephew, who is a professional photographer, and it now sits on a shelf in his office. It weighed a ton, and the viewfinder was so dark that you had to open up the aperture to focus before stopping it down again. It came with a leather case that smelled wonderful.. I loved it. I had a Zenit enlarger too.
 
I moved on to an AE1, a true classic, and then picked up an Olympus OM2 with those beautiful Zuiko lenses. They were never the obvious choice for black and white, but for colour they were glorious. The metering on the OM2 was ridiculous in the best possible way, almost unfairly accurate. After that I bounced around Canon and Nikon, depending entirely on whatever obsession I was chasing at the time.

Then a cameraman introduced me to a second hand Leica M in a small shop while we were shooting a series in Germany. I did not get it at first. I really did not. But the day I actually used an M6, something broke in my brain and never fully healed. I have never quite recovered, apart from falling hard for the Fuji X series as well, which somehow managed to steal my heart too. Yes, I know. Forgive me for being a peasant.

These days I shamelessly swing between the M6, the M11, and the Fuji. I have deliberately avoided medium format, because I know exactly what would happen and I would disappear down that hole forever. I should probably stop. In the end, it is the bloody picture you take that matters, not the camera you took it with. This is a fun thread!
 
Ko.Fe. said:
I fell into photography well before getting any camera. It was diagnosed by my cousin.
She told I look at people like photographing them.

I started to use parents FED-2. By coincidence it was camera I liked to use.
In 2011 or so I started to take pictures of people of whom I look like I photograph them.
I returned to FED-2 to get started with it.

In 2016 I returned to see my parents. It appears to be for the last time.
Mother gave me money to buy M-E 220...

Both have left me, with two cameras I like.... And money to buy more than two cameras...
Click to expand...
Very much this. I liked photography before I had a camera - the idea of pictures. My Mum gave me her Kodak Instamatic 126 camera, with flash cubes. Then, my grandfather taught me to develop black and white shot in a very very old folder that made 2 1/4 x 3 +a bit negs. Later, he bought me a Canon AE-1. When I eventually used a rangefinder the tool and my way of seeing came together, but that was much much later.
 
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