What was your first SLR?

My first SLR was a cheap Pentax MZ60 QD with 28-80 lens kit, received as a present in Nov. 2002.

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My actual desktop background is a scannered picture taken in 2004 with it.
I never expected it to be perfect just to recall the sight from my home in Liguria.

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My first film camera in which i became serious about photographing was a Nikon FA. The Leica MP is my current favorite, with Nikon F3 in second.
 
Once hooked on photography by my father's old Kodak Retinette, I remember quite clearly going to a camera shop and holding/comparing a Nikon EM and a Pentax ME. The Nikon with cushy leatherette covering felt hollow/cheap compared to the solid little ME. Within a year of the ME purchase, and getting more serious with photography, I added an MX.

Once graduated from university a few years later, and while teaching English in Japan, I bought/switched to Nikon with an FE2.
 
First used: Tie - Pentax H1a and Kodak Retina Reflex III. Both were "staff" cameras at my high school and I began using them near the beginning of my freshman year (Fall '65) along with the staff Rolleiflex T.

First owned: Miranda G w/ 50mm f/1.9 bought new the spring of '66 with money made mowing lawns and such. I'd used various of my father's and grandfather's hand-me-downs and loaners (35mm RF and roll film folders) since elementary school but this was the first camera that I actually bought for myself. It served me well through the rest of HS and four years of college.
 
Just the other way round....

Just the other way round....

CK Dexter Haven said:
Minolta XG-M, for my 14th birthday. But, i was very attracted to the Nikon FG in the ad i clipped from Popular Photography magazine. Never did get the FG, although i thought about buying one recently, for 'sentimental reasons....'
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After learning the handling on my brothers Zenith EM I got the FG instead of the Minolta X 700. I had it all planned, handled it a lot in the shops, but the owner of the shop my father used to go had him mesmerized to buy the more expensive camera that needed more expensive glass.
Strange isn't it when A child complains that it wanted to have the cheaper camera?
I also think from time to time to buy an X 700 for sentimental reasons....
 
It's pretty amazing how in the 1960's you could take teenagers, stick a beat up meterless rangefinder, SLR, or TLR in their hand, often with no seperate meter and a single lonely non-zoom lens, and they managed to get some pretty decent photos and produced school newspapers, yearbooks, and supplied photos to their local newspaper. They developed their own film, made their own prints in the school darkroom, and often bulk loaded film to save money. They didn't complain about the difficulty of loading stainless steel reels, "because that's what the pros use". Some schools made them mix their own chemicals from the basic components, and they learned that too, as well as a bit about chemistry at the same time.

Today we're dealing with a bunch of mostly middle aged men who expect the camera to do it all and can't understand why a $10,000 camera/lens combo with auto this and auto that takes such crappy pictures...and OMG! the finish might get scratched!

When I met my now ex-wife (the most recent one) in 1983 she had a Minolta X-700 and still does. She knows how to change the 50mm with the telephoto zoom I got for her because she likes to photograph birds in the back yard. Every few weeks she invites me over for home made pastry and coffee, I play with her dogs, and I put a fresh roll of film in her camera. Her bird photos are pretty good too.
 
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I too have a Minolta x700... it was given to me by my father.. but never really got to use it.. by the time I finally wanted to use it, it broke... i bought myself a Nikon FM2n.. this is my first slr.. and my current workhorse... Im planning to buy another body like the F2 or the F3, but like spider67, i also think from time to time to buy the x700, for the same reason... its my father's cam...
 
i bought my first slr ten years ago. It was a big mistake as I didn't enjoy it a single moment being too bulky and scaring my subjects. It was a EOS 5 with the 50mm F1.8 and 100mm F2. Good lens though.
 
I'm with Al...

I'm with Al...

The first SLR, for me, was the Kodak Retina Reflex III with the 50mm f/1.9 Xenon. I purchased this by working in a Rexall drugstore as the "Camera Clerk". I used the beautiful beast on many a field trip and in school photo projects for the yearbook. Many of them are to be found in the Livermore H/S annual of 1963. Second SLR was an ALPA 6c with Kern-Macro Switar 50/f1.8. Still have both models and use them occasionally.
 
My first was a Canon AE-1 w/ 50/1.8 purchased at the PX in 1983. Learned a heck of a lot from that camera. Sold it to pay bills later and didn't get serious about photography until 2002.

OTOH, about that same time frame (early '80s) my mother had gotten an AE-1 as well. I still have that one. Don't use it, but will never part with it.

William
 
I "graduated" from a Ricoh 500G 35mm RF camera to a used Canon AE-1. It served me well
until I traded it in. I missed the little Ricoh and eventually replaced it, but not the Canons.

My first Nikon was a used '70 FTn. I loved that brick and occasionally think about replacing it.

My first Pentax was a used KX which I foolishly sold. I came to my senses and replaced it.
I still use Pentax, and will continue to do so. The KX is my all-time favorite SLR body.

Chris
 
Al Kaplan said:
It's pretty amazing how in the 1960's you could take teenagers, stick a beat up meterless rangefinder, SLR, or TLR in their hand, often with no seperate meter and a single lonely non-zoom lens, and they managed to get some pretty decent photos and produced school newspapers, yearbooks, and supplied photos to their local newspaper. They developed their own film, made their own prints in the school darkroom, and often bulk loaded film to save money. They didn't complain about the difficulty of loading stainless steel reels, "because that's what the pros use". Some schools made them mix their own chemicals from the basic components, and they learned that too, as well as a bit about chemistry at the same time.

Today we're dealing with a bunch of mostly middle aged men who expect the camera to do it all and can't understand why a $10,000 camera/lens combo with auto this and auto that takes such crappy pictures...and OMG! the finish might get scratched!
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This is one of the nicest and truest passages I've read since quite a lot of time ! :D :D :D
I guess it's the same also for other things, just think at ultra-endowed mobile phones vs the only home phone we all had not so many years ago...
 
My first SLR was a Ricoh Singlex TLS, though I lusted after a Nikon F2. More than thirty years later, I finally got one (obviously used). Then I took it out to play in a snow storm . . .
 

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Contax 139 with a Zeiss 50/1.7, Still one of the best looking SLRs, in my opinion. I remember the leatherette disintegrated after a week and I had to send the thing back - painful!

I was spoilt by my parents for my 20th birthday. At the time I was a little disapointed - I had my eyes on a Minolta 505 with AF and a zoom lens. Thank goodness I got given what I needed not what I wanted! I learnt the ropes photographing friends in dodgy light, wide open with ISO400 colour print film. If I'd have got the minolta setup it would have been flash or no pic.
 
Exakta Varex IIb with the 50/2.8 Tessar and the 135/4 Sonnar. Later I added an Exakta VX1000 body. I still have those, but not used any more.
 
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