First camera you owned/learnt on?

[michaelchristensen]

Well, I have a handful of point-and-shoots that of course taught me nothing about photography because I used in them in program mode. I had a Kodak gray plastic boxy type camera that took flash bulbs and roll film (don't have it anymore .. wish I did). Then about a 20 year no camera period.

 

Then the Canon AE1 Program which I carried throughout Europe, later a Canon A1 .. and then the Canon F1 old with a handheld light meter; two more Canon F1N's with assorted attachments for wedding work; a Yashica T4 (which I still carry and use) then two Nikon F100's, an F5, a Contax G2, an RB67; a short affair with a Bronica ETRSi, and a Nikon D200 ..a Rollei TLR (so much fun) and I'm still learning. All of the cameras I have used produced pictures that had a wow factor .. and of course many more pictures that were relagated to the shoebox to keep me humble. During the process of shooting, I never felt like a photographer .. although some people labeled me as such .. and somewhere along the line I started getting better .. but I can't tell you where or when that was .. and while my good shot to bad shot ratio has increased .. I'm still humbled by others who seem to just do it .. irrespective of equipment .. I believe that an old film camera is an excellent learning tool and with its' limitations forces you to think in ways that today's automation discounts. Any time you think you're a great photographer, pick up your old camera and see if you can make it "sing" .. then you know you've learned something.

[colin carron]

When I was about 11 (early 1960's!) I was given a pre-war Foth Derby. It took 16 shots on 127 film, had a f3.5 anastigmat lens and a 1-500 focal plane shutter. It flded down neatly into a pocketable size. I developed and printed my own b&w film too.

[elmroc]

Mine was a Minolta XG-M.

 

Loved that camera, and along with a Vivitar Series 1 70-210, made some great photos. I was 12 years old when mom and dad bought it for me. I used paper route money for film and developing, and when i got to High school, learned how to develop, and tghen do my own.

 

It was probably about 10 years after that, that i got into Nikon systems, with an F3HP (which i ruined when i was fishing when i fell into the water with the camera around my neck. Since then, it';s been alkwasy Nikon.

[matt_needham]

Ricoh KR-5 35mm slr w/ 50mm f/2?

[lex_jenkins]

When I was 8 I used a Brownie and a couple other similar plastic box cameras. Got my first home darkroom kit and started making contact prints from those square negatives.

 

Between 9-12 I borrowed a succession of better cameras: a Yashica compact rangefinders (Lynx, mebbe); Yashica Mat 124 (pre-G version), Pentax Spotmatic.

 

At 13 I got my first then-new SLR, a Miranda Sensorex. Fickle little trollop. Light meter quit after the warranty expired, then Miranda went out of business. I learned to guesstimate exposures and push process. Taught me a lifetime of bad habits that I still enjoy.

[links16877]

my 1ST slr was a nikkormat and i have it siting right here on my desk. my 1st auto evey thing was a used F4 then i jumped in to a d200 i still use

[marc_bergman1]

My brother gave me an Argus C-3.

 

I bought my own Kodachrome. I had no light meter so I had to learn about proper exposure.

[vincent_peri]

My first camera was a Pentax ES-II in 1974. I got tired of the screw mount lenses, so I bounced around from Leica to Canon, back to Leica and then Canon again. In 1979, I changed to Nikon and never looked back. Today, I'm shooting with Nikon F3HP and F2A bodies.

[www.philwinterphotography.]

As a kid, my dad gave me a small folding camera, but photography didn't "take" with me even though my dad was a professional commercial photographer at the time. In college, photography finally "took hold," and my dad gave me an Ansco TLR that was left over from his studio which he closed years before. It was, of course, manual everything. I had to learn to advance the film and cock the shutter separately. Obviously, I got lots of unintentional multiple exposures. I still have the Ansco. It is built like a brick and still works.

 

I shot 2 1/4 Ektachrome with that camera, and I actually had a 2 1/4 slide projector. Compared to 35mm slides, it's like looking an Imax movie compared to a small TV set. Simply stunning.

 

Successive cameras include a Minolta SRT 101, Yashica TLR), a Fuji P&S, Pentax ME Super, Canon A2E, and Canon 10D. I still have all of those. I'm a photgraphic pack rat.

[josoiii]

Canon AE-1 in high school (77-78) bought a vivitar 70-210mm f/3.8 standard 50mm f/1.8, I added a autowinder.

[ken_jeanette1]

Mine was a Miranda RE II, and to turn the tables on this, I also bought one for my father, because i knew he always wanted the GOOD camera. I was about 25, and working my first REAL paying job. He and i learned together, and compared our shots. Great fun being able to do something for him for a change.

[a_s32]

Canon Powershot G3, Pentax P30t, and still learning on a Canon Rebel XTi.

[charedan]

Canon AE-1 when a was younger. Currently, I own and use an A-1, but mostly use Oly E-

500 and E-510. A friend also lends me his Bronica ETRSI.

[sknowles]

A circa-1969 Minolta SRT-101 w/ 58mm f1.2 lens, still in working condition. Ok, 2

refurbishes/calibrations later. I still love it's simplicity.

[garry edwards]

After saving up for many months I bought a 2 1/4 x 3/1/4 Kodak folder. That was over 50 years ago and I was 11 years old. Fully manual of course, scale focussing and a pretty useless viewfinder. That camera helped me to learn how to study light, calculate exposure and estimate distance, because both rangefinders and meters were well outside my budget.

 

And it taught me to think twice and press the button once too; I couldn't afford to waste film.

[Charles_Webster]

Ciro-flex model F Twin Lens Reflex with a Wollensak 85mm f3.5 lens in a flash-syncronized Rapax shutter. It was my first real camera and my only camera into my early college years.

 

I still have it, and I still use it from time to time.

 

<Chas>

[phyrpowr]

1976, just out of law school, promised myself I'd have a good camera, pistol, and stereo

 

Sold the S&W Mod 19 to a friend, who left it to his son who still has it; still shoots fine

 

One buddy has the Nikkormat FT3 with 50mm lens; ditto

 

Another friend has the BIC turntable, but, alas, the Pioneer receiver and Advent speakers bit the dust, after over ten years of truly extensive play by my then girlfriend's youngest

 

It does indeed pay to go ahead and get the good stuff

[SCL]

Not counting the Brownie, I used my father's Argus C3 until I could scrape up the money to buy an Agfa 35mm camera (I don't remember the model). It had no rangefinder but that was ok...I learned to count in 6 foot segments from my shooting position (tile squares were 12', etc.). Exposure was a little trickier, but the info inside the film box helped until I could memorize the sunny 16 rule.

[acbeddoe]

I had an Asahi Pentax but didn't learn a lot. After university I got a Canon FTb w/ 50mm f/1.4 lens - great camera, great lens. I learned about exposure and light and film with that camera.

[SteveH]

I started with a brownie Box camera. Then my dad let me use his little folder, a Kodak

Retina type 118. My own first 'real' camera was a graduation present, a Kodak Retina

IIIC (yep Big C). Still have them and they work just fine. All this makes me wonder why

I'm carrying 25-30 pounds of digital gear around now.

[atlatling]

Steve, that Retina IIIC was quite a camera. I remember it well. I started out in 1948 with an Agfa Isolette, a 120 folding camera, then graduated to a Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta B. I sent the agfa Isolette to my Mother who 40 years later returned it to me in a non-working condition. It's on a shelf full of old cameras down in my basement including my old Retina 1b. A much smaller and less efficient camera than the IIIC Steve mentioned, yet it did well enough for several years of traveling around. Finally, before that first overseas tour was completed (U.S. Air Force in Europe) I bought a beautiful 4X5 Linhof Technika. That was a camera......

 

Willie the Cropper

[trunfio]

Konica Autoreflex TC with 50mm/1.4 (circa late 1970s).

[vrankin]

Beginner: Brownie Starflash, circa 1960 - 127, B&W Verichrome Pan, M4 flashbulbs.

First more serious camera was a Voigtlander Vito C 35mm with a Weston handheld

Selenium cell meter, in 1968. Began with a basic darkroom in a fruit cellar with a ruby

bulb over an ironing board. Mainly Tri-X, Kodak chlorobromide double weight fiber

papers. The heated print dryer was really something to get used to.

[Ray House]

I'm another Argus C3 Brick user...1951! Seems like just yesterday!

[diy photography]

Like Ray and many others I learned on the Argus C3 Brick. I still have it to this day.

Following that camera i bought a used Pentax K1000 which many baby boomers owned

and learned on.

 

God's light and love to all,

 

Chris