conrad_poulin Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 What was your first camera and would it be a classic today? An earlier Contaflex thread made me think of mine. It was a very basic Contaflex nothing special, no meter or interchangeable lenses. I got it from my dad in 1970. I used it for year book photos, and later my wife used it for a photo class. I still have it but it is in disrepair from hanging heavy supplimental lenses of the front via an adaptor. However my wife claims the sharpest photos of our family growing up are from that camera equiped wit an old lentar light meter and a honeywell potatomasher flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael erlich Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 A circa 1956 Brownie Holiday box camera. Plastic lens, took 127 film. I was so excited I snapped at least a dozen shots without advancing the film. I doubt it has any real value today. A link to a page at the George Eastman House: http://www.geh.org/fm/brownie/htmlsrc/mE13000045_ful.html#topoftext Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
back_alley_. Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 i still own and occasionally use my first 'good' camera, an olympus 35 rc. it's a great little camera and the lens is very good. i'd say it's a classic. joe<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_elek Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I was thinking of asking a similar question. That is, what was your first camera? Is it the camera you really wanted? And would it be a classic today?<p> My absolute first was my Spartus:<p> <img src=http://pages.prodigy.net/mm-elek/cameras/spartus-500.jpg border=0 align=none><P> Took 127 film with a simple frame finder. Two shutter speeds: T and probably about 1/25. Two apertures: fully open and a flap that covered half of the meniscus lens. Classic? Yeah, I guess so.<P> When I really wanted a camera (an SLR), I got a Keystone 126 Instamatic the next year. Somewhat disappointing, but it's what my parents could afford at the time, so I didn't complain. Classic? I don't think so.<p> The first camera I bought: a Cosmorex SE (a rebadged Zenit E, I think). I can't recall what I really wanted. Possibly a Pentax or an Olympus. A classic? Could be.<p> By the way, it's ironic I would change the question and then not be able to answer it myself.<p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_drummond1 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first camera was a Yasyka 35mm (spelling is wrong, have no idea) that I bought off the PX trailer in Viet Nam just out of the DMZ in 1968. It had a fixed 50mm (?) lense and manual everything and a little light that went from orange (?) to green when the light was 'okay' to shoot. Focusing was by a matt/circle that was split focus. Used it until 1998 when I gave it to a friends daughter for photography class - she still has it. I used it off/on all those years usually shooing landscape shots in the Coast Range (real name) here in Oregon Been shooting digital since 1998 and now using a Olympus c-4000 for the last two years. After 7 years of digital I'm finally learning how to shoot manual (again?) and when I feel I understand I'll get a Nikon M10 (any other basic camera as good?) and go back to shooting landscape (beer budget) this time in the Cascade. Your question was quite a suprise. Only decide to go back to 35mm film after talking to the ower of Focal Point Photography. His advice was learn to use full manual on the Oly, and then decide if I really wanted to go back to 35mm and a light table. Tks, suprised to find the first forum/question the same as what I've been thinking about, 37 years later. Bill D. Salem, Oregon...... Doesn't rain all the time, just every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex_jenkins Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Brownie, early or mid-1960s, followed by a few other cheap rollfilm cameras I made contact prints from. Nothing special. The first really cool pre-'70s camera I used was a Yashica Electro-something. The next really cool classic I got to use was one of those Kodak 126 SLRs (made in Germany). Way too much camera for that film format but what the heck. The first really cool maybe-classic camera I *owned* was a sexy but unfaithful Miranda Sensorex. The trollop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_poulin Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 Bill, your response is interesting because I wanted to join the service and photograph war. My dad who owned a studio wanted me to photograph weddings and portraits. He won. He either saved my life or deprived me. Later my wife worked for him, and I became a pipefitter. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_m Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 First camera I used was a Brownie 127, it was my parents. It had a very poor lens but at that age, I knew no better. My first real camera was a Halina Paulette Electric. It went all over Europe and took some great shots. Unfortunately, I dropped it and destroyed the lens.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew in Austin Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 A Yashica D. It was a TLR hand me down, which at the time seemed old fashioned. I bought a Yashica Electro 35 GT a year later in 1972. It was much more modern and the first in a series of range finder cameras that I've owned. Best Regards - Andrew in Austin, TX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_poulin Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 Yashica D is a great camera! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_evans4 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 <p>A <a href="http://user.itl.net/~kypfer/828/b-csnap3.htm" title=="Not my website! Somebody else's">Kodak Bantam Colorsnap 3</a>, which was capable of surprisingly good Kodachromes. Yup, Kodachrome came in 828 back in those days, and the slides would even come back mounted in cards of the same external dimensions as those for 35mm, so you'd just pop them in whatever projector you were using for 35mm. But I don't have much of a feeling of nostalgia for the camera, and I certainly don't think it's worth the trouble of buying or re-creating 828 film.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
conrad_poulin Posted February 11, 2005 Author Share Posted February 11, 2005 David: Its great you still have your Selina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jorge_jimenez1 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first camera was a Yashica MAT 124G. Great camera, My parents had some box cameras, but the 124 was MY first camera (Well I am not counting the SX70 that drove me to buy the 124 due to the poor quality of the Polaroid film then). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Farrell Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first camera was an Agfa Isomat Rapid. Not quite a classic?? My first real camera, a year later, was a Zenit 3M, with the f2 Helios lens. A minor classic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_bedell Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Canon S10. Digital point-and-shoot. Not classic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jorn ake Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Kodak Duoflex II was my first. My second was a Kodak Ektra that my grandfather gave me. I promptly dropped it out a second floor window. That was replaced by a Kodak 35. My grandfather, who was a surgeon on a hospital ship in the South Pacific during WWII, would not buy any Japanese cameras. He was also a gadget hound, and thus the flow of Kodaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_leonard Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My very first camera was given to me by my father back in the mid 70's. It was a Kodak Vest Pocket folding camera, patent date 1917, takes 127 film. I still have it and it was working fine when I used it last in 1979. Shutter still seems to work. I think it would be considered a classic. ;) My first serious camera was a "baby" Speed Graphic with a Kodak Anastigmat lens (uncoated.) Loved that camera! I replaced it with a 2 x 3 Pacemaker Speed Graphic with 101 Ektar (coated) lens and a pair of rapid wind 6 x 7 roll film holders. Actually shot a wedding with this in early 80's. Wish I still had that one. It was my all time favorite, even more then the Century Graphic I have now. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikecat Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Olympus Pen EE - half frame 35mm. It was a gift from my father. Great little camera. Although at the time what I liked most about it was getting 72!! shots out of a roll of Tri-X. I still have it. About a year ago I dug it out of a box where it had been sitting for the last 20 years ... and it had a roll of Tri-X in it! I had it developed, just for fun, but unfortunately time had taken it's toll on the roll and there as nothing to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean_williams Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first camera was a classic when I got it in the sixties. A <a href="http://home.rmci.net/deanw/Kodak_Vigilant_Jr.html">Vigilant Jr 620</a> that many here have probably already seen. First "real" camera was an Argus C4. Still have the Vigilant. C4 has gone missing, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summitar Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first camera was a Kodak box camera, constructed of black cardboard, with two viewfinders depending on whether you wanted portrait or landscape mode. I doubt if it is a classic. The camera I really wanted was a Leica IIIc, which was, of course, far out of reach, but I loved reading the Leica Manual, which I checked out of the library. The first real camera I owned was a Konica Auto S2, purchased in Viet Nam in 1966 for about $35. I still own and use it and definately consider it to be a classic. BTW, I now own two Leica IIIf's and one IIIF, as well as a copy of the Leica manual that I poured over 50 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
summitar Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 In previous posting I meant to say two IIIc's and one IIIf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j._bradley_deal Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 The first slides I ever shot were with my father's Argus C-4. He bought it in Hiawaii at the PX in 1957. I have salvaged most all the Kodachromes, Ansachromes and Ektachromes from the life time of the camera. The shutter died in 1983 but I still have the "ashes" in a noble spot on the mantle. I am still amazed at how sharp that little camera was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_spencer3 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I bought my first camera in Okinawa in 1965. It was my first mission for the Military Airlift Command. An older and wiser crew mate told me not to go wild buying stuff in the Far East -- "you will just end up with a garage full of miscellaneous junk!". He told me to pick one thing and only buy stuff for that one thing. "Like photography?", I asked. "Yeah, thats good", he said. After a long pause, I asked "What's a good camera?". "Nikon. Nikon makes a good camera" was the answer. So when we landed, I went off the to PX and bought my first camera ... a Nikon Ftn, with a 50mm 1.4 lens and the really cool leather case. I spent the next two years flying all over the far east and bought just about everything that Nikon made between 1965 and 1967. I even have a microscope attachment! I never regretted buying any of it and the camera is still with me. I took it on my vacation last fall to the smokey mountains; works as good today as it did 40 years ago. Here's a picture of the young me taken with the Nikon F in about 1967. The camera itself in August of last year is in the next frame.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_spencer3 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 and here's the Nikon F in 2004 ....<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_wheeler1 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 My first "real" camera was a Contaflex IV bought from by thesis advisor in the 1960s. Excellent images and very durable. It went to a Peace Corp volunteer in the late 1960s. My latest Contaflex IV came from E-Bay and is still a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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