What was your very own first camera?

[OddE]

My first camera was a Pentax MG - still have it, the Pentax-A 50mm f/2 that came along with it and a veee-eery cheap 3rd party 80-210 push/pull zoom lens.

My parents bought the MG+50mm used for my 15th birthday (My father had probably grown tired of me borrowing his Pentax SPII all the time) and I took it just about everywhere I went for a couple of years, before growing tired of being stuck in aperture priority. (The MG had aperture priority, flash sync (1/100 IIRC) and bulb - that's it.)

Built like a tank, though - and there wasn't that much which could fail, anyway.

I still remember how expensive I thought the 3rd party zoom lens was at the time - I paid the equivalent of $100 for it back in 1994 or thereabouts - a major expense at the time!

Heck, I think I'll bring out the MG tonight and shoot a roll or two of Delta 400 with it, for old times' sake.

 

[damien.murphy]

Kodak DX6340 with a whole three megapixels. Pretty much just another gadget for me at the time, until two years later when it had been around Europe with me and became the camera that ignited my desire to take pictures. Don't have it anymore though, as it was passed onto a friend so it could continue to be used

 

[L David Tomei]

I not only remember my very first camera, a Brownie Six-20,but I also have the very first photograph I took with it when 5 years old (which I'd post here if it were possible). At 8 I received a Kodak developing kit complete with the a contact printer. By then I had advanced to a Brownie Hawkeye. My first Leica (IIIf) arrived when I was just 54 years old... ahhh, the wait was worth it though.

 

[sevo]

Depending on what you consider "camera" to start with, a Agfa Clack box at around age 5, some Agfa 110 pocket within a year or two after the former, and a Exakta kit (VX500 and a few Exas, plus lenses) around ten.

 

[Nokton48]

Polaroid Big Shot. Took #108 Color Film, and High Power Flashcubes, which required battery power in the camera to ignite.
And, it had a fixed -rangefinder- for accurate focusing.

 

[gm13]

About age 10 I saved for a Kodak 110; shortly after I "stepped up" to 35mm with one of Time Magazines promo pos cameras.

 

[racoll]

My very first camera was a Kodak Instamatic X-15. In 1975, when I was 13 years old, my family took a summer vacation to Europe for 3 weeks. I had my Instamatic, two packs of flash-cubes, and a total of three 126-film cartridges. I felt like I had enough "gear" and film to travel around the world! I did bring back some nice pictures though, many of which I still have.

Andy

 

[Alberti]

My first realy own camera was a Nikon F. With one lens: 105 mm. Learned me to focus! My Leica came several years later (after the Nikon broke down and a brief affair with a Minolta).

 

[horibilis]

My first camera

My first camera

A nice new Bolsey B2 which I took to Mexico & Guatemala on a Summer of 1951 AYH bicycle trip. Shot 12 rolls of Kodachrome 12 mostly 1/50 @ f 8. Still have the camera but the shutter jammed a few years ago.

 

[mike rosenlof]

Argus C3. It was my dad's and I found it in a box after a move when I was 9. I used the little sunny/cloudy bright/open shade/etc from the film instructions. My parents gave me a Minolta 126 camera for my next birthday. It was never as sharp as the Argus, which I took apart when I got the Minolta.

 

[iamzip]

My grandmother gave me her Kodak Instamatic X-15:

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Kodak_Instamatic_X-15

Happy to say I still have it, and the box it came in! I thought it lost for many years, then one day suddenly remembered where it was - And it was still there! Sitting right out in the open on a rarely used bookshelf.

 

[Robert Lai]

Nikon F3. I sacrificed a lot to save up for this camera and lens in 1983. I still have it! It looks nearly new still, and it's had a recent CLA.

The first camera that I took pictures with was a Kodak Instamatic.

 

[Peter^]

My Parents gave me a Konica C 35 in about 1975. I still use it occasionally.

 

[ully]

Lynx 5000

Lynx 5000

Yasica rangefinder.

 

[ka1axy]

The first camera I used was my Mom's Franka 120 folder, which my brother still has. When I was 8 or 9 my folks bought me a Brownie Starlet (no flash) which I kept for several years until I bought a Mamiya-Sekor 528TL SLR in high school. I gave this to my brother when I entered college, and a merchant seaman friend brought me a Nikomat FTn back from Japan. I still have it (though it needs new foam).

During the past few years, I've had a little bit of GAS, and have picked up a few of the cameras I lusted after as a kid and which are now dirt cheap: an F2 and an F3. A few lenses to go with them and an D700 for when I feel like living in the current century.

 

[D.O'K.]

An Olympus OM10 in 1982.

It started a (continuing) love affair with the OM system which over 30 years has spawned five bodies, numerous lenses and probably several thousand pictures.

I still have the OM10, and after years of neglect ran a film through it last year--it worked perfectly!

Regards,
D.

 

[Godfrey]

Kodak Brownie Starmite

Long lost in the mists of time.

 

[hdale]

First camera was some kind of Kodak

First camera was some kind of Kodak

I think. Until recently I had forgotten that I had a camera when I was young - late 1950s-early 1960s. Then I was browsing around on the web and I came across a picture that looked very familiar. It reminded me that I had, indeed, had a camera . However, the camera I think of as my first camera was given to me by my wife around 1978. It was a Minolta Hi-matic 7sii - hence my interest in rangefinders. I still have this camera and it still works as I remember it did.

Since then I've gone through SLRs (mostly Canon), Digital Point and Shoots (mostly Panasonic and Canon, DSLRs (Konica Minolta and Sony) and most recently back to rangefinders (Fed, Zorki, Kiev, Leicas, Contax etc). I'm now mostly enjoying film and old rangefinder cameras. I've been "lurking" on this forum for some time and have now decided that I will try to become more active. I recently went to a New York meet up with some of the members. They were all very welcoming (even if as a newbie the group as a whole was a bit intimidating). They've inspired me to be a more active participant.

 

[Colin G.]

First camera I bought for myself was a Nikon D40. I miss it...

 

[Teuthida]

A Mamiya fixed lens SLR, circa 1971.