What was your very own first camera?

What was your very own first camera?

  • Leica

    Votes: 25 2.2%

  • Kodak

    Votes: 228 20.2%

  • Canon

    Votes: 156 13.8%

  • Nikon

    Votes: 132 11.7%

  • Agfa

    Votes: 24 2.1%

  • Pentax

    Votes: 97 8.6%

  • Olympus

    Votes: 66 5.9%

  • Contax

    Votes: 8 0.7%

  • Another - too many to list all so please tell us

    Votes: 392 34.8%
  • Total voters
    1,128
My very first camera was a Kiev 4A (it is still in the family, but far away from me now.) OK, that was actually my father's, but I was able to use it 100% of the time, so that's as good as my own. Here's one photo I took with it in 1978.

The first one I bought with my own money (not that I needed a lot of it, LOL) was a Smena 8M. It's no longer in existence, but it wasn't a bad camera at all. It was really really cheap, can't remember how much though.

Not surprisingly, I preferred to use the Kiev, a much more "serious" camera, giving discernibly better results (though the Smena wasn't anything to sneeze at.)

The first one that I bought that actually required me to save a bit was a Praktica VLC2, in the early 1980s. Some say that my better photos were taken with that camera, and perhaps they're right (though it most certainly is not due to camera, but other reasons, like lots more time to work on photography, and the fact that I self-developed everything in those days). This camera is still with me, but I'm not using it any more.
 
Mine was a Nikkormat FT2 (I believe its a 2) with a 50/2 Nikkor. I also got a 200mm Vivitar for my sports shooting... I was probably around 12.

Still have the camera, works like a charm except for a slightly spastic metering needle. Still my fav thing about that camera was the top deck mounted meter display, very handy at times. I wish that was still available on modern SLRs.
 
A Graphic 35. A rangefinder. Soon traded in for a Pentax H3v, then Nikormat and Nikon F and many years later back to rangefinders with a Leica M3. Joe
 
Canon FT, around 1968. My dad got it as a high school graduation present. I had my mind set on a Miranda Sensorex, which was getting good reviews at the time. But the salesman at the camera store steered him to the Canon. I'm sure glad he did. The FT was a fine camera, which I wish I still had, but it was stolen.
 
At 9 I got a Kodak Brownie Holiday (127 film)
At 12 a Kodak Hawkeye (620 film) 'cause it had a "B" setting and I wanted to do night photography.

I am in my studio now and can see them both sitting on a shelf, flanking a black Nikon F (no meter) which was my first 35mm camera.
 
First camera I really got to use was a Rolleiflex SL35 35mm SLR. My father passed it down to me when he purchased his Nikon F4s.

I remember playing with a Polaroid as well but the Rollei was my first real camera.
 
Brownie 127. Don't know where it went, but a couple of years ago I went scouring the bay for one, and ended up buying a Vito CLR - my first RF.

Since then it's been downhill all the way - my piggy-bank now holds my M9 fund (all donations welcome!)
 
Retina II type 142 which I bought from Wallace Heaton in Oxford street London in December 1952. I had used many borrowed cameras but this was my first real camera. It cost £35 which was a ransome in those days, I could only buy it because I had some credits from my service pay. It was a good camera with the Ektar lens, it went the way of most of my photo gear in an upgrade to a Semflex reflex.

Best,

normclarke.
 
Dacora 66 http://lippisches-kameramuseum.de/Dacora/Dacora_66.htm

It had a superfast lens (f8) :D, 2 shutter speeds 1/50 and 1/100 and (if I remember right) even 3 apertures (8, 11, 16)!

I got it when I was 9 or so and used it for about 5 years. Later I took it apart. Very few pics still exist. Here is a sample: My father fumbling with his camera (an Agfa Optima) and my mother assisting (and apparently knowing better). Picture was taken in 1965
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/data/4903/M0013-2.jpg
 
The Konica-Minolta Dimage Z3 was the first camera I ever owned, started out with a cellphone camera when they were first released, but quickly grew out of the low resolution... I remember the christmas morning when I got the Minolta, I don't think I've ever gotten a better present. The camera itself was, as I remember it a very competent shooter, the stabilizer was a really great feature.

gallerimage.asp
 
I had an old Kodak 110 camera when I was 7 or 8. It was a gift from a friend of my mothers. I only remember pictures from christmas from it. My mother never bothered to get the film developed or buy more once I had it. It sat around for years.

When I was 16 I had a Sony Digital Mavica FD-81. A whopping .8 megapixels and it wrote to 3.5" floppy disks. It took a lot of begging to my dad but it was worth it. In the end I didn't really use it all that much. I remember selling it on ebay for like $60 some time ago. The buyer said he wanted it for his mother because it was easy to use with the floppies.

Two years later I bought myself an Olympus D-460. Nice upgrade to 1.3 megapixels and a much smaller camera by comparison. This camera I actually used often and would carry it with me just photographing things I stumbled upon. One summer I ran into like 4 cars on fire and would drive by and snap a photo. This is way before I even knew what street photography or photojournalism or any of that stuff was. It wasn't my first camera, but it was the first camera I actually used and enjoyed.
 
Mine was a Kodak Brownie Box that I think used 127 film but all I remember about the camera is that it was a very small box camera and had a plastic white shutter button. I was about 8 and at about 14 I bought with my own money - a Baby Yashica 44 in grey and that was a fun camera. At 16 I got a Practiflex FX 35mm which just thrilled me!
 
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