Does anyone else still have their first camera ?

[steve_levine]

<p>My first camera was a 127 box type of unknown brand. It was given to me as gift as I left on a trip to Washington,DC in 1964 at age 10. My second camera was an Instamatic 104. My first real camera was a Petri FT (w/ 55F1.8) bought at a dept store for $129 in 1970. I still have it and it still works fine except the merc batts are no longer available. Stopped down the lens is quite good. In fact slides taken with this camera and my next camera (Nikkormat FTN w/50F2) were basically indistinguishable.</p><div></div>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>No, not the very first, which was a Koday 616 box camera, but I have my first "real" camera, a Ciro-Flex model F that I inherited when my father passed away. I still drag it out and use it from time to time, but since I have lost the touch for winding 120 film on stainless reels in the dark, it's an adventure to use it.<br>

<Chas><br /><br /></p>

[tony_lockerbie]

<p>My photographic cherry was a hand me down Kodak Instamatic 100 and I really loved it! Camera is long gone, but like JDM, I have replaced it from Ebay. My first "real" camera was a Praktica FX3, then a Pentax Spotmatic...also replaced on Ebay :)</p>

[Troll]

<p>No, but I have pictures from that first Rosewood 9x12 Gaumont & Cie folder with its coated 15cm Steinheil Unifokal lens in Press Compur.</p>

[rjm photo]

<p>Though my first camera was a Kodak Brownie in the mid fifties, and I did have briefly a Dacoramatic with 4 focus pushbuttons, my first "real" camera was a Nikon F which I purchased brand new in July 1967 (after graduation from high school). Still have it, still a beautiful camera, still remember the day the package came and taking the Nikon out of its gold box for the first time.....and the overwhelming feeling a seventeen year old could have - WOW!</p>

[james_elwing]

My first camera was a Kodak Cartridge Hawkeye, a cardboard box camera which takes 120 roll film, with only portrait

format from the viewfinder on top. My paternal grandmother died and it had been hers. I think it was made in the 1920's. I

still have it somewhere, but have put no film through it since around 1965. Lazy.

[don_gillette1]

<p>Yes but just a replacement for the original Argus C3, I saw one for bargain price and my will power was low. after that was a Werra 1, Petriflex 5, Leica 3c with nikkor lens, Zorki 1, then Leica M3,2,1 , then Leicaflex original which had the brightest view, then a large plethora of cameras, just couldn't decide. The Argus was simple, worked nicely but I had to devise system to remember if I had advanced film to next frame. Is there a group for us camera-holics?</p>

[richard_beisigl]

The first camera I owned, was Brownie Hawkeye flash model.

I also have Kodak 620 box camera that belonged to our late father.

I also have a Browne Holiday camera with flash.

The first 35 mm camera I owned that had interchangeable lenses, was Pentax screwmount.

Our late younger brother asked to borrow it, and I never saw it again.

 

.

[blumesan]

<p>I do, and therein lies a tale.</p>

<p>I became facinated by photography several years before I was able to purchase my first camera. Fortunately, during that time, I was able to borrow one camera or another from friends or relatives. During that period I studied every photo magazine I could find, to help me decide how to spend the dollars I was saving for my own first camera. I came to two conclusions. To get the best bang for the buck I should look in the 'previously owned' market. Second, in the 35mm format the best quality was found in German cameras and lenses; this in spite of the fact that we were, at the time, still at war with that country.</p>

<p>On a family trip to visit relatives in New York City I took my savings (paper route, lawn mowing) which, to the best of my recollection, amounted to about $20 - $25, and set out to make my purchase. The year was 1943. I headed straight to Willoughby's Camera Store whose ad's I had studied thousands of times in various magazines. I can still recollect how kindly I was treated by the salesman, and how patiently he explained the pros and cons of literally dozens of choices. Eventually he suggested one camera whose quality was much better than one would expect in my price range, but with a singular disadvantage that brought the price down. <em>I would have to load my own film.</em> The Agfa Karat uses a different cassette system with one-way travel from the unexposed film to the takeup cassette. Film in this format was no longer sold in this country. Fortunately he provided several empty cassettes with the camera. When I learned that 35mm film could be purchased in bulk at a substantial savings, lemons became lemonade.</p>

<p>This then was my first and only camera for the next ten years. In 1953 I blew a few months of Army pay on a Contax IIa at the PX in Korea. I still use that camera, but the Agfa has long since been retired to the display case.</p>

<p>The requisite camera porn, followed by a photo of my dad and one of me.<br>

　</p>

<div></div>

[blumesan]

<p>OK, still haven't mastered loading more than one photo at a time.<br>

Patience.</p>

[blumesan]

<p>Agfa Karat from the top:</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[blumesan]

<p>My dad with sister's new bike.<br>

I was gradually learning to develop the film to get decent contrast</p><div></div>

[blumesan]

<p>And a MUCH younger me (ca. 1948). 1/300 sec. does work.</p><div></div>

[blumesan]

<p>I should add: The negatives from the Karat were stored (and not under exactly archival conditions) for at least 50 years before they were scanned. Thank goodness for dust and scratch removal tools.</p>

[remco_jan_woldhuis1]

Unfortunately not. My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic which i gave to my grandfather's in return for his Agfa Silette

Rapid. No idea what happened with my Kodak after that :-(

[anthony_brookes5]

Nice story Mike. I had to save up for my Ikonta with rewards for errands and birthday money. You always appreciate things you have saved for rather than things you have been given.

[cj8281]

<p>Pentax K1000, bought it new when I was a Freshman in High School in 1982. Still have it, still shoot it. It is still my go to camera.</p>

[b_w10]

<p>I wish I did still have my first camera. It was a Pentax (Honeywell) Spotmatic F with, if I remember correctly, a 50mm f/1.4 Takumar lens. I remember that lens as being a really sharp one. The camera was given to me by a friend back around 1980. I was about sixteen years old.</p>

[bob_h]

<p>Yes! In 1956 I was the happy 6 year old recipient of a new Imperial 620 film plastic box camera. Still have some of the pictures that I took with it then. When I was in 5th grade, my dad passed his Kodak 35 rangefinder along to me when he bought a new Contaflex. It took me some time to understand why my 35mm pictures often were not as good as my 620 pictures were. Then I got an early Polaroid camera and later a Rollop 120 TLR. I liked them both better than 35.</p>

[chuck_foreman1]

No my first camera was stolen upon my return to the US after a six month sojourn in Europe. My story begins just like

Steve Levine. My cousins lent me an old 620 or 127 for a field trip to .... Washington DC. My brother got an 104

Instamtic for his Bday a year or so later and I of course had access to this too. My baptism into real photography came

ten years later with one time use of a Tower 55 /Rippa Yamato that my father let me use. What eventually launched me

was my own Yashica FX2 SLR that was stolen It had the great 1.7 Planar lens that was especially good. I marvel at the

photos still done back then!

[glen_h]

<p>My first was an Imperial 127, which I don't have but, as others, got one on eBay. ($1 plus shipping.) Second was a Yashica TLR which my parents might still have (my parents took my baby pictures with it). The next year, my dad bought a Canon Pellix and I started using his Canon Rangefinder, which I used until I bought my own FM (not long after they came out).<br>

I started developing my own film starting with the TLR when I was 9 years old. The next year, I inherited some darkroom equipment and cameras from my grandfather. I also got a Kodak folding 1A from my grandfather in 1968, put one roll through it, then another roll in 1976.<br /> I still have that one, and put a roll through it last year. (For my son's college graduation.)<br>

<br />I still have the FM, and also the Canon rangefinder, and have used them in the last year. I have negatives from my 5th grade class, more from 7th and 8th grade, when I did school yearbook photography. </p>

<p> </p>

[david_mcewan]

<p>Yes, I do. Back in early 1961 while on our honeymoon I dropped and broke my wife's Box Brownie.<br>

I knew nothing about photography at that time but also knew I had to replace it quickly! I walked into a local camera store to get advice and walked out with a mint 1958 Voigtlander Prominent with an Ultron 50mm f2 lens, a Turnit and a Gossen Sixon light meter.<br>

Three weeks later at a Victoria Police auction of unclaimed stolen goods I bought a 100mm Dynaron lens. I was told that it had spent two weeks in a bag at the bottom of a creek.<br>

From 1961 until 1992 the Prominent was my only camera and with it I took thousands of slides and prints recording my growing family. I then bought into the Canon EOS system and the Prominent was stored away.<br>

In 2009 Gabor Szabo had a thread showing photos taken with his Prominent and a Skoparon 35mm f3.5. That sparked my interest again and I bought a Skoparon.<br>

Every few months I run a roll or two of film through the Prominent. It is still in mint condition. I don't know whether it is sentimentality on my part and/or the obvious quality of the camera, but I get far greater pleasure using it than using any of my digital slrs.</p>

[b_w10]

<p>David, <br /> I have to ask.....how did that 100mm Dynaron lens work out for you after having spent two weeks at the bottom of the creek?<br /> Oh and I have an announcement. Because of this thread, I got to really missing my first camera, the Pentax, Honeywell Spotmatic F that I mentioned earlier. So much in fact that I blew money on eBay on what looks to be a nice, minty example of the camera. Now, of course, I'll have to find a nice example of the 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar lens that I had. Ugh....why do I do these things to myself?</p>

[arlindo_barlera]

<p>Answering the initial question: My fist camera was a inexpensive box tipe, made in Brazil e no longer known. After this I had a folding one for a short time, which was known as Penguin, but I don't know what it realy was. Then a spared some money of my salary to buy the veritable first camera, a 35mm Neoca, made in Japan. Time goes fast...it was about 50 years ago.</p>

[arlindo_barlera]

<p>Let me add the main answer: I do not have none of them.</p>