What was your very own first camera?

[The Meaness]

Nikon F2 with 55/3.5 "micro"

 

[clachnacuddin]

Zenith 11 with a Helios 58mm, built like a tank but long since been passed on! It still got me through a SCOTVEC photography course though!

 

[raid]

Agfa Rapid (when I was a teenager) .... followed by a Zeiss Contina with a Pantar 45mm lens. I have lost both by now.

 

[wblynch]

I got given my Mums Box Brownie when I was little maybe 10 years old or so and I still have it of course, she still sometimes asks me if I have her camera but she never wants it back. I took photos with it until 10 years ago and I would like to take some more sometime ... after rolling the 120 onto the 620 spools of course.

Maybe you can get it out and take some pictures of your Mum at the next family holiday? She'd probably get a kick out of it. Maybe recreate some of the old photos?

Get a hold of some real flash bulbs too.

My Brownie Hawkeye can use 120 film on the supply side but it needs a 620 take up spool.

 

[I Love Film]

Kodak Starflash and Ansco Shur-shot.

 

[Mlehrman]

An Argus C3, a gift from an uncle. I wish I still had it, for sentimental reasons only.

 

[jmarcus]

Mine was some kind of Ricoh point and shoot. It didn't advance the film or was horrible at loading it. I cried when none of my Stonehenge photos came out because the film wasn't advancing. Actually I think stopped me from taking photos for a very long time.

 

[jippiejee]

My first camera was a Praktika slr, can't remember the name of it. The first camera that I bought myself, and that I still own, is the Olympus XA. Sweet small pocketable camera, but it is having issues now and I am not sure it's worth paying for a full cla now with so many available used.

 

[travlpix]

Mine was a 35mm rangefinder, sold by Montgomery Wards but built by Konica. Auto exposure, with the meter built around the lens -- one of those light-sensitive ones used back in the 1960s, no battery, whose name I forget. I have a Rolleiflex today with the same kind of meter, and it still works. My Wards RF lasted for a long time, but finally succumbed to adventure travel; I replaced it with a Canon FTb, another great camera.

 

[healyzh]

Prior to joining the Navy, I'd always use one of my Mom's cameras. My grandparents were award winning photographers and shot with Nikon's. They helped me to pick out a nice used Nikon FM2 (practically new) with a Nikkor Series E 50mm f/1.8 lens. They also had an old Nikkor 135mm f/2.8 they had converted to AI so I could use it on the FM2 and gave it to me. I still have it, and I still use it on occasion, though since I started shooting Leica's not much.

The first camera I shot with was a Yashica 44LM of my Mom's, I have that as well. I've been meaning to put a roll of 127 through it and see if it works, as I'd like to get some photo's of my kids with it.

 

[ZivcoPhoto]

...a Brownie, later a Dakora 4D....then a year later a brand new Nikon F...still have the Nikon F...after 44 years

 

[mnmleung]

1987 Nikon FM2n, which I still have, and plan to send for CLA. The LED meter sometimes gets unreliable.

The first lens, a 35-70mm AF, was given to a friend. Much happier with 50mm f/1.4 AIS, until I picked up an F2 Photomic a few years later. The F2 got the 50mm, and the FM2n went with an MD-12 and 135mm f/2.8 AIS.

 

[dabick42]

...a Nikon F Photomic, purchased new in Singapore in 1963.
Still have it, still use it, still love it - along with another 4 just like it.
A truly classic, iconic 35mm camera, together with the Leica M3.
In a world infatuated with plastic electronic pap, we'll never see such memorable mechanical jewellery being made again...

 

[Corto]

My grandmother gave me her Agfa Isolette II.

 

[Spicy]

Sony Cybershot DSC-W1 5.1mpx zoom

i remember manually adjusting the aperture between 2.8 and 5.6. with the big number, the picture on the screen was darker, so that's what i used when it was really sunny.

ohh, the good ol' days when life was simple...

 

[tedwhite]

When I complained of being bored (at age 11) my father came home the next day with a Kodax box camera clad in leatherette and a home developing kit. After supper at night I would retire to the service porch, hang black cloths over the two windows, and develop the film. Negs were large and oblong. I would make contact prints by placing the neg over a piece of enlarging paper (the same size) and then cover them with a piece of glass. All this on top of the washing machine. Then I would reach for the chain dangling from the overhead light and turn on the light for a split second. Of course the first few tries resulted in an all black print. Finally I kept reducing the wattage of the bulbs until I got a properly exposed print.

When I showed my pictures to my class at school, the teacher refused to believe I'd made them myself.

 

[Vincent.G]

Nikon F80.

I still have it. I need to use it. 🙂

 

[ChrisPlatt]

I'll bet more than a few who voted otherwise here have forgotten or
are ashamed to admit they started with a "no brand" camera like me.

My very first camera was an inexpensive 126 Instamatic knockoff, the best
my divorced mom could afford on her $80 a week paycheck in the early 1970's.

Imperial 900

IIRC mine may have been the all-black professional model though. 😉

It's long gone, but if 126 film was still available I might get another for old times sake.

My mom was always the photographer in our family.
I heard she had been something of an enthusiast in her youth,
though like most then always with rather rudimentary gear.

Thank you mom, for the gift of photography. :angel:

Chris

 

[dleyva2]

Mine was a nikon 6006 which I still have and use. It has a super meter and is noisy as a mother, but when discretion is not a factor, it still rocks.

 

[brainwood]

My first 'proper' camera was a Pentax MX my dad bought for me when I started at Art college. I had already been using his anyway. My first camera of my own was a Cosmic symbol through which I shot alot of film as a kid. Dad would buy a bulk roll and encouraged me to just shoot the stuff. The Cosmic Symbol was great, I still think of the cloud based exposure scale - cloudy bright etc. Not sure what happened to that one. I had the Pentax until a few months ago when I sold it along with the remainder of the Dads pentax stuff to fund... er..an M2

Can't see me an the M2 parting ways anytime soon. it works nicely for me

Chris