What was your very own first camera?

[besk]

My first camera was a Kodak Pony II. I had to have a 35mm camera but didn't
much at all about cameras then. Still have the photos and most of the negatives from 1957 to around 1966.

And I still have it.

My dad once told me that photography was "an expensive hobby." In my case he was correct.

 

[G Dogg]

Also a fabulous brand new Nikkormat FTn with a 50mm 1.8 lens (Christmas... 17th birthday). I thought nothing could every get better than that. To this day, hundreds of years later, it is one of the most fondly remembered cameras I have ever had the privilege of using. Learning about F Stops from Dad, depth of field, inverse square law (he gave me his old Leitz strobe)….just a special time….

 

[sevo]

Why isn't Kodak listed? I'd guess most of us born before 1970 started with Kodak.

Or Ilford, Agfa, Ferrania or whatever the local dominant film factory was. Kodak was not quite as important globally as in the US, until they managed to elevate E6 and C41 to industry standards by the late 70s.

 

[lxmike]

a kodak x177, (126 format) back in the mid to late 1970's

 

[markus_h_photography]

Agfa Autostar 126 which I was given to me when I was about 7. First camera I bought for myself was an Olympus OM40.

 

[someonenameddavid]

Praktica Nova 1b, but my brother bought a black Nikkormat FtN and it was all over... had to buy one....
A friend bought an OM1 and I was impressed with the smallness, but the Nikkormat felt so robust. Then the Canon AE1 happened but the Nikkormat felt so robust, then I held a Leica M3.....

 

[johnf04]

Agfa Isomat Rapid. I gave it to my girlfriend after a few months, and bought a Zenit 3M

 

[thechanster69]

My dad's Minolta x-370s in black! The best part was having a 55mm and 28mm prime lens with it.

 

[bmattock]

My first camera was a Diana.

Second camera was a Canon FX.

Third was a Yashica 635.

Still have the last two.

 

[Abbazz]

Mine was a "square" model Voigtländer Vitoret like the one pictured below (picture credit: http://tunnel13.com/cameras/vitoret.htm) that I got for my minth birthday.

It must be somewhere in a cardboard box in my parent's house basement. I took some great pictures with its 50/2.8 Color Lanthar triplet lens. Because the Vitoret (mine was the entrey-level model) had no rangefinder or lightmeter, it was also a great tool for training the eye to acurately evaluate distances and light levels...

The second one was a Lubitel 6x6 TLR and the first "serious" camera that I bought with my own money was a Pentax MX with three lenses (Pentax-M 50/1.7, Pentax-M 80-200/4.5, Makinon 28/2.8).

And then came many, many others...

Cheers!

Abbazz

 

[jack_to]

Olympus Pen "S" half-frame. Stolen a few years later. But I bought another one a few years ago. Still a nice camera!

 

[kuuan]

impressed that Kodak is leading!
and actually my first one also was a Kodak, a Pocket Instamatic 100. Had forgotten all about it, and had voted 'other', for the Minolta XG1 with MD 1.4/50 lens that I bought new when I was 17.

found it! actually it's a Kodak Instamatic 230


Kodak Instamatic 230 by andreas, on Flickr

it still got a film cassette loaded, Kodacolor II, 20 exp. at counter 4. It says C-41, still, how best to get it developed?

 

[mpaniagua]

My very first camera was a Lubitel-2. My dad gave it to me about 30yrs ago 🙂. Second one was a Olympus OM2n.

 

[madNbad]

Minolta SRT 101 with a 50mm 1.8 Rokkor! Paid for by pumping a lot of 35¢ a gallon gasoline.

 

[______]

First camera was my dad's Exakta VX. Second camera was a Pentax SP500. Traded both for an Olympus OM1, which I still have.

 

[AZPhotog]

"My first" camera was when I was 11 years old in 1962, dad got me a generic 127 box camera to take to my first summer camp. The first thing I did after getting the camera out of the box was to pull open an entire roll of film, wondering "what that thing was all about." Dad was not pleased. Well heck, what did I know about cameras.

A few years later was dad's Kodak Pony 135 for High School Photography class.

Since then my large collection would be too annoying to list here.

 

[Tim Murphy]

Dear Board,

My first camera of my own was a Polaroid Swinger that I won in a subscription sales contest when I was a paperboy for the Philadelphia Bulletin in 1972.

When I was about 16 I got a Canonet 28 and the matching Canolite-D flash for Christmas. When I graduated HS I bought a neighbor's Canon F1 as a present to myself.

I sort of gravitated to Canon after buying the F1. I no longer have any of my first cameras but I do have my Grandfather's Nikon F s/n 644xxxx that is so old it had to be sent back to Nikon in the mid-to late 1960's to have the body converted to accept the "new" FTN finder. I had it refurbished about 15 years ago and I still use it on occasion but I have hopes of using it more.

Neat thread!

Regards,
Tim Murphy
Harrisburg, PA

 

[thawkins]

Miranda Sensorex with a 55/1.8.

A Miranda was my first SLR. It supplimented a Kodak Retina 1a. The Miranda was problematic and a few years later i traded it for a Yashica TLR which was later joined by a Minolta SRT 101. Fifty years later I still use the Minolta and Retina.

 

[Dogman]

First actual camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. Parents gave it to me as a Christmas present when I was a kid.

First serious camera was a Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL with a 50mm f/2 lens. That was about 43 years ago. Lots of cameras, film and megapixels flowed under the bridge since then.

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

My first camera was a Olympus 35RC. I still have it and love it 🙂 Got it in the late 80s. Second camera was used Nikon F2. It bit the dust in the late 90s. But Olympus keeps on going 🙂