Which camera made you fall in love with photography?

[caila77]

Which camera made you fall in love with photography?

I have always been passionate about photography, since I was little I was the one who reminded mum and dad to bring the camera when we went for a Sunday trip, so much so that at the age of 8 they gave me a camera of my own: the Werlisa Club Color, which I still have. Only today, more than 40 years later, do I understand the effort and attention of my parents in that difficult period in which my father had suddenly lost his job, with a mortgage for the new house just started and, just as suddenly, we had lost my twin brother.
I remember how that camera was my companion on long afternoons in the garden, where I dreamed of being a photographer, taking photos without film. The Werlisa is still with me, and it is the only camera I have never parted with in many years. In addition to the Werlisa, the camera that sparked in me a true love for cameras and photography was the Exakta Varex IIA with the Pancolar which I was lucky enough to try sometimes with one of my uncles.
Remembering these facts today I imagine how many unique and interesting stories may have accompanied you. ... for those who want to share them.

 

[santino]

Easy: My father‘s Zorki 4.

 

[neal3k]

I got an Imperial Debonair for Christmas one year and used it to take pictures of family but, at age 15, I bought a cheap rangefinder from Sears with paper route money. The Tower 57-A was my start back in 1960.

My First Cameras by Neal Wellons, on Flickr

 

[lynnb]

The Olympus OM1, bought a few months after it was released. The viewfinder was amazing. Like a big bright window to the world. I was instantly hooked. Before this I had used the family’s old Kodak Box Brownie 620 and a Kodak Instamatic 126, as well as occasionally being allowed to use my father’s Yashica Lynx 1000.

 

[Timmyjoe]

My first "real" camera was a Canon TX, which was nice, but I always dreamed of a Canon F-1.



When I moved to NYC I found one and it opened the door to so many great photography experiences. I stupidly traded that camera in to B&H when I changed over to NIKON. A decision I regret. That camera had so many memories.



Best,
-Tim

 

[Dogman]

Nikon F. I knew I liked photography when I bought a Mamiya-Sekor SLR. With the Nikon F, it turned into a passion.

........................

 

[Alberti]

After a photography course I got a Leica M2. A secondary SLR I had the Canon-F1 that my wife loved.
My greatest love went to the M8.2. The colours. The ease. The fantastic pictures. Every shot a great shot. The haptic quality. And over a few years, 600 equivalent-rolls of Kodachrome in my hands.

 

[Shac]

Nikon F - bought new in 1967 - still have it

 

[ChrisPlatt]

My first camera did it. Mine looked just like this one.

Chris

 

[Darthfeeble]

A GAF L-CM, a rebranded Chinon. Match needle meter, screw mount lenses which had just gone out of style when I got the camera making lenses easy on the wallet. I took pictures of anything and every thing. A few were actually not too bad.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

A Nikon F. It was the mid to late 60's and with a summer job, I bought one at a local pawn shop.

 

[chuckroast]

Nikon F Apollo Photomic FtN in black. I think I bought it very early 1970s.

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

It probably was an SR-T 101 w/50 f1.4 lens that my neighbor came home from Vietnam with. I'd fooled around with a Kodak Retina some but it was scale focus so not every shot came out. The Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL I'd asked my neighbor to get me when he offered to buy a camera at the PX before getting out of the service, never really jelled with me. The Minolta kicked it's butt with the bayonet mount for quick lens changes and it was BLACK. Even though the roll of film I shot with the borrowed camera didn't turn out due to 'user error', I was hooked. The split image focusing was quick and much better than the scintillated screen of the M-S. It was quite some years after that 'borrowed' experience that I finally found myself an SR-T, albeit a chrome bodied one. Late last year I was able to snag the camera above off the Goodwill auction site and my buying film camera days are done, unless I just happen to find a black FM2 for cheap. I've always wanted a mechanical Nikon to go with my FE.

 

[JSteed#2]

Love this thread. My obsession started with the Exakta VXIIb (Pancolar) my father brought back from Europe. He left on the trip with his Retina, which was stolen on a train ride, and came back with the Exakta. Oh how i loved that camera. Oh how i cried when i jammed the shutter while trying to use the slow speed dial.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I fell into photography well before getting any camera. It was diagnosed by my cousin.
She told I look at people like photographing them.

I started to use parents FED-2. By coincidence it was camera I liked to use.
In 2011 or so I started to take pictures of people of whom I look like I photograph them.
I returned to FED-2 to get started with it.

In 2016 I returned to see my parents. It appears to be for the last time.
Mother gave me money to buy M-E 220...

Both have left me, with two cameras I like.... And money to buy more than two cameras...

 

[p.giannakis]

A Praktica BMS. Although I used my cousin's Zenit 122 before, I was never impressed by it. When I picked up the Praktica I was so impressed by its small size and weight and how much better the viewfinder looked compared to the Zenit. I have plenty of slides taken with it in my "slides from the 90s" thead.

(Pic taken from the internet)

 

[DownUnder]

My first 'serious' camera was a Yashica D TLR I bought in 1962. My dad was a door to door salesman for a mail order company in Montreal. They had a photo gear page which I devoured as a 14 year old. I was writing news stories for two newspapers in eastern Canada so I had money to spend (all of CDN $40 as I recall) on that TLR.

Back then 120 roll film was dirt cheap - Verichrome Pan at 50 cents a roll if I bought a brick from our local pharmacy. By the end of that year I had a darkroom and I was photographing weddings and news events, at the ripe old age of 15. In 1963 I earned more than my dad did, but I had the sense to keep my money in the bank and not boast at home about it.

Fast-forward a few years. In 1966 a Rolleiflex E2 came my way. I still have it but it now has a small egg-shaped separation in the Zeiss Planar 75/3.5 taking lens. It makes good images on the rare occasions I take it out.

Another fast-forward. By 1970 like everyone else I got into '35, first a Mamiya 500 DTL which was stolen during my first Asian trip and replaced with a Pentax K1000 and a Minolta SRT101 with the iconic 50/1.7. Then a few Takumars and aPentax> Minolta adapter, an odd combo but it worked.

In 1977 I got into Nikkormats - an FTN, an EL, eventually FT2s, three of which I still own, with Nikkors 24, 28, 35, 50, 85 and 135. Now into Nikon DSLRs so I rarely use those 'mats, but I'll keep them til the end.

Also two Contax G1s and four lenses, plus an assortment of odd-bod cameras acquired along the way, mostly 120 roll film folders and a Rolleicord kit, sadly almost never used.

For all my chopping and changing, my heart resides with my Nikorrmats. Sadly I've not used those 'mats for some year, but writing this post has motivated me to take them out of storage and again put them to use.

Like most of us I have enough film left in my fridge to see me thru to an age where I'll no longer want to carry a camera, film or digital. Or if I do, it will be something small and digital. As we know, time passes and everything changes...

 

[boojum]

The first camera I ever had, a Baby Brownie. I got it at 8 or 9 and at 10 was developing the film and printing it.

​

And while the little Vito II that is my meme was my camera at around 13 it was the Contax II that treally got my attention. I was gifted one by a kind fellow on this board and it is now with Oleg for a CLA along with its lens, both are from 1936. So it has come full circle.

L1000127 by West Phalia, on Flickr​

 

[wlewisiii]

Bought a Canon AE-1 with a 50/1.8 at the PX (on installments) in Illeshiem Germany in 1983 as a 19E tanker. I had used my mother's so I knew I liked it and it was cheaper than the Nikons they had there and I didn't know anything about Pentax at that time.

Learned a lot from that one.

Though if I could do it over, my MOS would have been 84B "Still Photographic Specialist" for 4 years & a $2500 enlistment bonus which would have bought a very nice Nikon F3 kit ... 😎

 

[Doug A]

I received a Kodak Brownie 127 made in England as a Christmas gift from my parents just before my 8th birthday. One photo on the first roll I shot was of an interesting old house in Marin County. Even at that age I recognized the little deckle edged print as a good photograph. I was hooked.