First camera you bought?

Nikkorex 35 Zoom in 1964.

An Agfa Isomat Rapid.

 

I used to take slides to document projects that I was working on. I was using an 80s or early 90s Pentax that I'd inherited from my father for this (can't remember the model, a "P" something...) but needed something that could take exposures longer than 1 second and had an entry for a cable release. Enter the Nikon FE which i bought used sometime in the 90s. Gave up using it when I moved countries and could no longer find a place to process film. It sat unused and with a roll of exposed film inside while I waited for the moment when I would buy a "good digital camera". That moment never arrived but I did eventually find a photo lab (the only one left in the city). This FE is responsible for getting me excited about film photography (again). The photo following it too, which is a photo of my wife that had been sitting in the camera for over 10 years.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2018 by Xícara de Café

Great story.

That little FE served as a time capsule.

My taking up film again story was very similar to yours.

Using my first “real” camera again, a Pentax ME, that I had bought shortly after High School was a treat.

I think I answered this in one or the other instance,.. I bought a used Yashica FX2 in installments.-- the seller was very kind. I learned a lot ... I paid 3 x 25,00 in 1982/3 dollars. MY father taught me about Sunny F16,... it took a while to sink in.. but that's what it was.. I started almost immediately into developing my own film.. which was actually very instructive too. I was shooting primarily Plus X. I got very consistent results using the basic D76 instructions. I was hooked!!

A Zenit-B, with the standard Helios 44-2 58mm f2 lens, bought on a whim in a charity shop. Considering the total lack of metering and zero experience, I'm astonished that I actually got some identifiable (I hesitate to use the word 'printable') photos from my first rolls of film. A few weeks later, I joined the university photo society and discovered the joy of black and white photography and the darkroom. Many, many Zenits, Zorkis, Kievs followed, along with some Konicas, a bunch of TLRs and anything else that took my fancy.

 

The Zenit-1 is perhaps my favourite SLR, and I can't choose between my Zorki-3m and my Kiev-4a, the Zorki for the handling and the Keiv for the wonderful lenses and accuracy.

 

Hopefully this year I'll build my darkroom.

I had various box cameras then the first quality one was a Rollei 3.5F.

Bought an Argus C-3 sometime after Christmas in 1957. Still have it, have taken it out each of the last dozen or so years for Argus Day. I have done a few maintenance/CLA type items over that interval.

 

It was a big upgrade from the Kodak Brownie Target Six-20 my parents gave me somewhere around 1950!

First camera I bought with my own money I believe was either a Nikon FM2, minox 35 or a Contessa Nettel presscamera... that was long time ago so not sure in which order that was.

My very first self bought was a Kodak Disc 2000 (<- very embarrassing!). - It was followed by a family heirloom Super Isolette and a Pentax Super A as the confirmation gift a while later. - I think the first serious CMC I bought might have been my used C330, followed by an also used K1000 (the 3 Pentaxes I got before don't count; they were automated).

a Univex (not the Mercury model). It cost 19 cents at the local Recall pharmacy. It had a flip up wire frame viewfinder and used size 00 Gavaert film, maybe unsprocketed 35mm. Soon replaced for a Kodak Bullet.

As a buck private fresh out of basic (Ft. Ord, Calif.) I was lucky to find a Minolta 16 at the Ft. Devens, Mass. PX for $15. . complete with a K-2 filter & 2 rolls of film. That camera carried me over to Germany a year later, where the Nikon craze took off. Keep the 16 & later got several Kiev30s. All lost in the 2015 fire. Aloha, Bill

Olympus OM1 MD (motor drive)+ 50mm f1.8. I still have it...on the shelve. Ligtmeter inaccurrate brought me to buy a black version of Olympus OM2MD + 55mm f1.2 + Motor. Very well designed, accurate, light weighted....I love it and intend to use it again next week.

 

Nostalgia...

The first one I bought was a Canon Canonet QL-17 G-III in 1974. Really fine grabshot camera. The first one I had was a Kodak Brownie Starflash my Dad gave me when I was about 10 years old.

Jochen, don't be embarrassed! The first camera I actually bought with my own money was also a Kodak Disc camera. It was a fun gadget to play with, but the pictures were truly awful! The first camera I actually had was a Kodak X-15 Instamatic that my mom got me for my 13th birthday way before the disc camera. I took that one on many family vacations. Many years later, my now-brother-in-law gave me his Pentax ME Super to use (and never wanted it back!), which was my first real foray into 35mm SLR photography. The next camera that I bought with my own money was an Olympus InfinityZoom 90, which went everywhere with me and allowed me to take some great pictures. I still have all of the aforementioned cameras except for the disc camera. I found one at a consignment shop though for $1.00 which I bought to remind me that when I get frustrated with my gear, it could certainly be worse!

When Kodak lost the patent suit from Polaroid, they were planning to offer disk cameras to owners of Kodak instant cameras.

I got a Kodak instant camera from a garage sale, and was going to use to get a disk camera, but then someone sued,

and they had a different offer. The new offer was better, so I really can't complain.

 

I finally got a disk camera a few years ago from a thrift store, and also have some (outdated) disks.

I haven't tried them yet, though.

First camera was a Kodak X-15 from my parents and I discoveredb&w film. First one I bought was a Minolta Hi Matic 5. First sorry was a Mamiya Sekor 528TL. One dark cloudy day though I saw a Nikon F2 with an MD-2 and it remains my favorite camera ever.

 

Rick H.

Several 620 and 127 Boxes followed by first 35mm, an early Paxette.

The first camera I tried to buy was an Argus C3 at a neighbors garage sale when I very a young boy. My neighbor would not let me pay for it, he wanted to give it to me as a gift. That camera started my fascination with photography.

 

My first camera purchase was a few years later when I saved all summer mowing lawns to purchase an Olympus OM-1. I miss that camera.

A Minolta XG-7. The circuits fizzled in three years. For years thereafter, I stuck to mechanical cameras.

w

First few years I used borrowed cameras. In 1942 I had saved enough to look for a used camera. While visiting NYC I found this Agfa Karat at a very affordable price because it would not take standard 35mm cassettes. Fortunately it came with 4 or 5 empty Agfa cassettes which I loaded with film bought in bulk (another great economy). It remained my only camera for 10 years. 1 Still own the camera but it is unusable because all lubricants have turned to glue.

Purchased: a used Minolta 7000 Maxxum with Minolta 28-85

 

Borrowed (prior to purchasing a camera): a Kodak Instamatic for a photography course while in primary school, and my father’s Canon FX

A Ricoh Singlex TLS with the mighty 50mm f1.7 Auto Rikenon . . .

An Ensign Ful-Vue, possibly the best-selling British camera ever made, and this is it. I looked at it in the pharmacist's shop window for months before I'd saved enough pocket money to buy it. It took 6x6cm images on 120 film, and had the biggest, brightest viewfinder imaginable. The results didn't quite live up the promise of the viewfinder...

 

Ensign Ful-Vue

 

The first camera was an olympus OM-10 a very nice camera that you could grow into with the manual adapter