What was your first real camera?

[doug grosjean]

<p>Olympus XA, followed shortly after by a Minolta XD-11. Around 1982 or so.</p>

[marc_rochkind]

Nikon D700. All the previous ones were pretenders.

 

OK, just kidding. My first real camera was an Argus A:

 

http://basepath.com/Photography/ArgusA.php

 

--Marc

[User_4525289]

<p>Smena 8M does not count as "real" since it is "unreal" . Then Lubitel 166B which was "surreal" should not be counted either. Third was Zenit ET, it was real since it really broke down and I could not afford to get another Zenit 122 for another 5 years. In that gap between really broken Zenit ET and plastiky Zenit 122 I have used old Zorki 2C which turned to be very much real.</p>

[vrankin]

<p>Kodak Brownie Starflash and VP127</p>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>I had always intended to get into SLR photography since my teen years, having grown up with my dad shooting with a Minolta SRT-101, a close family friend who had a Canon AE-1, and a younger brother who had a Yashica in his teens. But I didn't actually take the plunge till I was into my forties, when I picked up a near mint AE-1 with a panoply of FD lenses and accessories.</p>

<p>And, fifteen bodies and almost seventy lenses later, I haven't looked back...</p>

[luke_kaven]

<p>In 1974 I bought a Nikon F with straight prism from Wall Street Camera, and fell in love with it. </p>

[john_robison3]

<p>Minolta Hi-matic 9. My first SLR was a Miranda G, and the first accessories I purchased for the Miranda were a waist level finder and a plain matte focusing screen.</p>

[Matthew Currie]

<p>First camera was a Beau Brownie, followed by some garish plastic thing with a flash, an Imperial, I think (Gene M probably has a few of those), that my parents got free for opening a bank account.</p>

<p>First "real" camera was a Sawyer's Mark IV, a 127 film TLR, which a great aunt gave me just before I went to the 1960 Boy Scout Jamboree. It was stolen a few years later. It was a nice performer, with a good bright viewfinder and a multicoated Topcor lens.</p>

[dave_reichert1]

<p>A Polaroid Swinger.</p>

[jim kerr]

<p>When I was 25 (Christmas 1975) I got a Kowa SET. Shutter 1-1/500, 50mm 1.8, I liked it for starters...........Jim</p>

[david_mcewan]

<p>Back in 1961, dropped my wife's Box Brownie on our honeymoon and smashed it. I replace it with a 1958 Voigtlander Prominent with an Ultron 50mm f2 lens.<br>

I still have the Prominent. It took thousands of slides up until I retired it in 1992 when I went to the EOS system.<br>

I took it out recently and shot a couple of rolls and marvelled again at just how good it looks an feels.<br>

The shots have a look of their own, quite different from my Canon lens used on film or digital.</p>

[NetR]

<p>Practika Super TL with a 1.8 CZJ lens. Never had a moment's trouble with it over two years.</p>

<p> </p>

[robert_mounier]

<p>A Zeiss Ikon Contessamat</p>

[User_4136860]

<p>A Zeiss Contax with 5cm 1.5 sonnar my father gave me in 1953 he bought it in Lubeck in north Germany in 1945 when he was in the army, although my father died many years ago I still have it, and still use it regularly.</p>

[steven_p]

<p>My mother gave me an original Diana in the 60's. She wouldn't let me go near her Argoflex. My dad, later upgraded me to a Polaroid Swinger.</p>

[Troll]

<p>A 9x12 cm GAUMONT & CIE.<br>

It was a really beautiful thing, all polished brass, red leather bellows, and exotic polished wood (possibly rosewood), which had been "liberated" by my best friend's brother in WW2. Probably what we would call today a "Tropical" model -- certainly the top of the line!<br>

Unfortunately, someone had also "liberated" its interchangable Zeiss 135mm Tessar from the camera, and it was some time before I was able to get a "new" coated 15 cm Steinheil Unifokal in Press Compur shutter (I've never seen another one for sale).<br>

Eventually I sent it to Haber and Fink, NYC, to have a coupled Hugo Meyer rangefinder installed (lots of them cheap on the war surplus market in those days)<br>

I used it for about two years, until I got an after school job clerking in the local camera store, and unfortunately traded it for a new Tower (Sears, Roebuck) copy of the Leica III (with a 50mm Nikkor f:2.0 lens), which was constantly broken.<br>

I eventually traded it toward a Leica IIIf RDST and continued to use the Nikkor lens for many years until the whole thing was stolen. I soon replaced the Leica with its twin, which I still have and use (or at least fondle often).</p>

[bsharpe411]

<p>I'm starting to feel really old when so many have mentioned Kodak Instamatics, along with various Minoltas, Pentaxes, Canons, Nikons, etc. from the 70's. My definition of a "real" camera is one that allows the user to control aperture, shutter, and focus...not just point, shoot, pray.</p>

<p>With that said, my first was a Kodak Pony IV...bought in 1958. Aperture and shutter controls were limited, but at least controllable. No rangefinder - so focus was my best estimate of distance. The Pony also introduced me to the wonderful world of 35mm Kodachrome (RIP) and the need to get the exposure right, considering the film's narrow latitude. I didn't even have a hand-held meter, so I had to trust my eyes and brain to determine exposure. Kodak provided little plastic 'cheat sheets' which were placed in the film holder on the back door. Open Shade...Overcast...Cloudy Bright...Sun...Sun w/Sand or Snow...those were the options. I have plenty of mistakes...but many really good shots which still show well after 50 years of storage.</p>

[SCL]

<p>As a kid I got to occasionally use my mother's Rolleicord and father's Argus C3. I bought an Agfa Stilette in high school (no rangefinder, just guesstimate focus distance). After a year I had saved enough money to buy a Ricoh 500 (no...not the 500G...the original 500 model with the trigger wind like the Leicas), which I kept until finished college in 1966. I used it with a Metrawatt shoe mounted/handheld meter or the Sunny 16 rule. In 1966 I got my first SLR, an Olympus Pen. When I joined the military the opportunities to purchase cameras exploded with the cheap prices available thru the overseas military exchanges and shipboard manufacturer's vendors (that's how I got my first Leica).</p>

[keith selmes]

<p>Praktica LTL, very used, with a Zeiss Jena 50/2.8</p>

[jmg1911]

<p>A Ciroflex E (I think) no sync with paper route money. Not sure what year, but it was the day the "F" appeared on the back cover of PopPhoto with full MFX sync. Story of my life</p>

[pat trent]

<p>Canon AE-1 with a 50mm f/1.4 SSC FD lens, which at the time was sheer joy. Many years--and cameras--later, I still get nostalgic at the sight of the AE-1.</p>

[vfg]

<p><!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --><br>

Stuart it seems the Konica wasn't so popular with these good people, but like you my first was also a Konica Auto S2. 1968 Vietnam, the PX carried the Konica, cost around $35, and like you I still have it. In fact it went out last year for a CLA before I put it back in storage.<br>

Funny thing is I moved to Canon in the early 70's the first being the F1n. That was just the beginning, over time I acquired the A1 w/motor drive, then an EF along with a basket full of Canon FD lenses. My most recent Canon is the T90, witch I'm quite fond of.<br>

A couple of years ago I bought a high end Nikon scanner and everything changed. When scanning the better Canon images I was able to compare them to my very old kodachromes made with my Konica. There was no comparison, the Konica with its Hexanon made better images by some margin. I don't mean to knock Canon, I've got a couple of thousand Canon images that prove Canon has great quality, but when held up next to what was shot through the Hexanon, the difference is noticeable. That said my motivation now is collecting Konica's and AR Hexanon lenses. Not counting the range finders I've collected I have the T3, FC w/moterdrive, FC1 and the FT1 ( a little to much plastic for my taste ), and 8 Hexanon primes along with 2 Hexanon Zooms. I've put my Canon gear in storage and I've been using Konica's for all my 35mm work, ( I have 4 complete Mamiya medium format kits that get used quite a bit, 2 645's a 6X7 and a 6X9 ).<br>

The bottom line for me is the end product, and Konica Hexanon makes it easy, 16X20 prints are very close to the quality I get using 120 film and Mamiya gear.</p>

<p > </p>

[gabor_szabo3]

<p><strong>Contessa Nettel Piccolette</strong> folder : first real camera , the one my László Baci taight me what apertures and shutter speeds do.<br>

<strong>Зенит TTL</strong> - first real camera to shoot 35mm b&w film with and process myself. Mail-ordered this beast from Cambridge Camera ( of all places !) in late 80s. Once I had my mitts on this , I was hooked. I would take the bus into Manhattan as a young teen and, by dropping a few choice words in Hungarian, the kindly clerks at Cambridge would let me have some Praktica or Spiratone lenses and a GAF body for nothing; guess they needed the shelf space that badly ..... Ahhh, innocent times they were, indeed.<br>

<strong>Pentax Spotmatic</strong> - nearly same time as getting the Zenit ; borrowed from my Uncle Don who purchased it in 'Nam, late 60s. Wonderfully warm 50/1.4 Tak and NYC in Kodachrome.... if I can only find these slides !</p>

[alex macphee]

<p>My first "real" camera? Oh golly!</p>

<p>I saw it in the window of an old photographic pharmacy, and it was second-hand even then. It was a black folding camera with a wire frame viewfinder, shiny black bellows, and a lens with a super-fast f/6.3 Agnar lens and Vario shutter. The shutter had three speeds, 25, 50 and 200, as well as B. The shutter release was a black-painted metal rod which ran from the body to the shutter assembly and pressed on a little lever on the shutter assembly. The price was GBP 4, and he agreed to let me pay for it weekly, and it would sit in the shop until fully paid for. So each week, I took ten shillings, and two months later, it was mine. </p>

<p>It was an Agfa Billy. It took eight pictures on 120 film, 6x9cm, and I used to develop the film in an open dish at the dead of night, under the bed, then next day, I'd cut up the film and make contact prints using Velox paper loaded into a contact printing frame. I'd no idea at the time what a phenomenal amount I was learning. I remember using Selochrome Pan, and developing it in Ilford Monophen, a combined developer/fixer solution. </p>

<p>I only had it a couple of years before it was stolen. Then I embarked on a series of 35mm cameras of varying though generally increasing sophistication, until I arrived at Contax. </p>

<p>Not very long ago, whilst browsing eBay, I saw an Agfa Billy. It appeared to be in good condition, and had an f/6.3 Agnar lens, in a Vario shutter speeded 25, 50, 200 & B. I bid GBP 4, and got it for that. Forty years later, I had an Agfa Billy again. </p>

<p>They say 'never look back', and 'nostalgia's not what it used to be'. I was half afraid I'd be puncturing pleasant and now very old memories with a harsh reality. When it came, it was with a rush of fabulous memories, and when I put a film in it, it was every bit as much fun as it had been four decades ago. I love it. </p>

<p>There are some things I can't get back, like Selochrome, or the picture I took of a girl of sixteen I was head over heels in love with at the time. But I'm glad to have my second love back again. </p>

[Troll]

<p>Vaughn, Konica used to advertise that "The Lens Alone is Worth the Price," and it wasn't just advertising BS! Every bit as good as my best Leica glass.<br>

The finest street film camera I've ever owned is a Konica S3 (I bought three more of them when they were discontinued) and if I hadn't switched to digital would still be using them today. Fantastic cameras!</p>