What was your very own first camera?

[Ade-oh]

A used Olympus OM-1 which cost me £95 in 1979 (I also got a new Zuiko 50mm/1.8 and the whole package came to £120). This represented about 20 weeks worth of working as a cashier for two nights a week after school - I was 15 at the time - plus various babysitting gigs. I still have the camera and lens and both are in perfect working order, although the camera is a bit of a mongrel, having had various parts changed in the course of repairs etc.

 

[drew.saunders]

All mine bought with my own money: Canon T-70 with some crappy Kalimar zoom lens in 1986 or so. Taught me many things: first, to hate zoom lenses, and second, to dislike program auto-exposure. I sold it after getting an F-1, which I also eventually sold. I did all my undergrad photo classes (except for the large format class) with that camera and some Canon prime lenses, starting with a 50/1.8, that I picked up after I realized how much the zoom sucked.

 

[hendriphile]

A Satellite 127 box camera, a 9th-birthday present (1959). So cool to see the film exposure numbers coming up in the little round red window in the back!

Took hundreds of pics with it including the 1964-65 World's Fair in NYC.

 

[samuco]

i bought my first camera when my grandfather died (1986), he left me some money and i wanted to buy something 'worthy', didn't need a long time to decide what it would be: a leica camera - from my other grandfather i already inherited an old rolleiflex (first batch), modified by himself for 'modern' rollfilm (he was a swiss instrument builder), so a leica would also be a worthy companion for the rolleiflex - i bought an big R3 and was almost immediately disappointed, i tried to get used to it for several months, but it didn't have the right feeling - so after a few months i sold it and bought an M4 - from this time on the M became my addiction - when my father died in 2007, i bought an M8 - my camera's are connected to the death of my beloved - a bit weird you could say, but i try to see it differently, they are instruments to capture what will be lost, to find what cannot be seen (anymore) with the naked eye, a reality that lives in our imagination...

sam

 

[oftheherd]

My first was a Yashica FX3, am I the first Yashica post on here? Sold it to get a Pentax MX though as the Yashica plastic creaked!

I think you are. My first serious camera that I bought for myself was a Yashica TL Super. When I bought my Contax 139Q and two 50mm f/1.4 T* lenses at bargain at a PX, I also bought a Yashica FX3 at bargain for a backup. The Contax died, the Yashica still seems to be working when I check the battery/meter. The meter agrees with my other cameras. I don't think I have put 2 rolls of film in it in some 25 years. It stays in the bag with my Contax 167mt as its backup.

 

[HuubL]

My very first own camera was a Petri V6 SLR. And, No I don't have it anymore, sold it a few years later to get a Canon EF, that was replaced by a A-1, etc.
But I bought them all again since they were virtually thrown away on eBay a couple of years ago. They're all in my Flickr below...

 

[pching]

I was about 11 when I got my own Kodak 110 Instamatic. Then when I started high school I threw out all my childhood stuff like the three Mike Schmidt rookie cards. The stupidity!

 

[jwnash1]

Pentax Spotmatic 1964. Camera gave up the ghost a couple of years ago but I still have the lens (50mm f1.4 Super Takumar).

 

[alfredian]

Minolta SRT-101, early type (milled shutter speed dial); Summer 1969 with money from a Summer job + babysitting. Sold it to my Sister to finance Nikkormat FTn. Five years ago her house was burgled before she could give it back. I now have several SRT's from the Bay. Amazing Rokkor glass from the Sixties, especially the 55/f1.7. Chase-needle meter is same as Leicaflex SL. Vastyl underappreciated "junior" member of the Big Four from the Sixties.

 

[nikon_sam]

I always thought myself weird because I still have my first real camera...Thanks to you guys I see that I'm somewhat more normal than I previous thought...

 

[smasher]

A K1000 was my first "real" camera; still have it.

My first camera as a kid was a Kodak Instamatic X15.

 

[bayusuputra]

the first camera that i bought from my own pocket money is the Nikon D70, but i sadly sold it away a few months back..
but the first camera that i used was my dad's L35AD2 and Canon T50 with 50mm f/1.8 and 35-70mm..
my first RF was Yashica MG-1, but now the only camera that i have is my little XA.. One more camera is on its way, that is the QL17 GIII.. 😛

 

[rodt16s]

I was given an MTL3 (Praktica) with 50mm lens for my birthday in the 70's. After I moved over to OM1's and Zuiko's I gave it to a friend for his kids to learn a manual camera (bad move).

 

[intense]

The first camera I bought was Canon A530. I really liked it except for one thing - really low res screen, that often fooled me. However, it's long gone now.

 

[G1DRP]

My first camera was a Zenit EM back in 1980, when I was a 13 year old lad. I learned a great deal about photography using that camera, with its uncoupled selenium exposure meter.

Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk

 

[sepiareverb]

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash. I shoot with it every now and again. My grandfather gave it to me when I was seven. The first camera I bought was a Polaroid SX-70 Model 2. I still shoot with that as well- only much more often.

 

[GMcD]

Cosmic 35 in 1970. Cost £5.50 new.

 

[DNG]

I was 15, my Dad and I went to Miami to a large camera shop and after looking at many used cameras, I got a Voigtlander Prominent W/ a 50m f/1.5 Nokton for $50.00. That was in 1969.

EDIT: 12-11-2012
Apparently, the version of Model 1 I had was a later version with a built in shoe on the left side of the top deck.
I am going to buy one, and use it. The prices have gone down a little. with the Nokton.

 

[damien.murphy]

Ooops, seem to have hit the Nikon button in the survey.

My first camera was a Kodak DX6340 little compact digital camera. Travelled around Europe with it, and it was the camera that convinced me to treat myself to a nicer, more 'serious' camera, when I got back.

 

[bigeye]

Ricoh 126C - it looked like Dad's 35mm and had a cool wind-up motordrive.

Later, I graduated to his Konica C35.

The first camera I bought for myself was a Minolta XD11, which I still have. At the time, we all desperately needed shutter-priority mode and the XD11 had both auto modes. (I don't believe that I've ever used shutter auto.) But, I liked its simple operation and smallish size.

It's probably more delicate than contemporary Nikons, but I did drag it all over the globe without any trouble. It's 32 years old and I replaced the seals last year (very easily accomplished).