Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: NigelC on November 25, 2008, 02:53:01 am
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Something got me musing on how this all started out nearly 50 years ago. My first 3 cameras were a Box Brownie, Ilford Sporti 4, followed by a Halina 35X. I think my first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex, although I lusted after a Pentax SV
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My first camera was an Olympus XA-2 which I still have.
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Sure, it was a Nikon FE2 which still works like a charm
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Diana. Collected a ton of bubble gum cards to redeem for that camera.
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Minolta X-570
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Brownie Holiday Flash. It had automatic focus and exposure but film and developing were expensive so I only shot about 5 or 6 rolls of B/W film. Of course, flash was even more expensive and I never bought any additional bulbs after using the ones that came with the camera. Wish I'd shot a hundred rolls!
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My dad had a Nikon something in 1974, with two or three lenses.
He showed me the camera.
He said, "If you touch it I'll break your arm."
Kind regards,
Derek
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An old 1940's something 35mm Argus with a collapsible lens. Lots of Bakelite methinks.
F-stops: 4.5, 6.3, 9, 12.7, 18.
To set exposures you peered through a sort of harmonica like extinction meter on the top of the camera while adjusting a three axis slide-rule thingy. In theory a sort of dirt-cheap, wide angle SEI style exposure meter. One quickly learned to go by the exposure recommendations on the Kodak data sheet.
Took a zillion pictures, printed very few because of cost. Have the camera, can't find the negs, bummer! Would love to have those old pics taken on the Union Pacific Challenger and Santa Fe Chief and El Capitan.
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Yashica-Mat, back in the mid 70s. Made individual 2x2-inch contact prints using a tiny device made for that purpose. My father had (still has) a Canon Ftb, which I was always trying, unsuccessfully, to borrow. Finally, when I got married, he bought me a Canon AE-1P with a 50/1.8 to take on my honeymoon. That rekindled my interest in photography, and led to a (so-far) 20+ year career.
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MY first camera was a brand-new Kodak Hawkeye II, with built in peanut flash. The kit came with one roll of Pan-X and a dozen flashbulbs. Got it for Christmas, so I'd keep my hands off the Father's Argus DLR.
I ran hundreds of rolls through that magic box, learned how to read light by eye, lusted after the abilities described in Adams' books. Then Dad got a Kodak Pony IV 35mm rangefinder, used it some but decided he liked the Argus better. Wow! Focus! Shutter speed! Aperture! I bought a ten-dollar light meter.
Does anybody but me remember the thrill of Anscochrome 400? Five whole stops faster than Kodachrome? And you could home-process? Six solutions, as I recall. Ah, those were the days. Shot football for the school paper (with Tri-x, not Anscochrome).
First camera I bought for myself was a Mamiya/Sekor 500DTL, from an Army PX in 1970. Utter heaven: Focal-plane shutter with built-in Aperture Priority metering and interchangeable lenses! Still the best metering system I've ever used, because it was both precise and easily controllable. I went hog-wild, but wished for the Nikon F or Olympus OM-1, because the lenses sorta snapped on, quickly, instead of the slow agony of the screw-mount. Never did get either, but used the Mamiya until it died on me. Next up was a Contax 139q and the magic of Zeiss lenses. Not over that addiction; instead I'm mainlining with a Hasselblad.
Have not yet gone digital. Spend 45 years learning film and p-f-f-t, they want me to trust my stuff to magnetic domains in bits? Yeah, guess I'll have to since they're taking my Kodachrome away, along with all the others, type by type. Besides, I ruined two rolls just last week. Forgot to zip up the changing bag before loading the processing drum... A-r-r-r-gh!
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Something got me musing on how this all started out nearly 50 years ago. My first 3 cameras were a Box Brownie, Ilford Sporti 4, followed by a Halina 35X. I think my first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex, although I lusted after a Pentax SV
Yep. I was able to convince the wife that we needed a decent camera to shoot the kids, and ended up buying a brand new Pentax SF-1, their first real autofocus SLR camera, circa 1989. It came with a thoroughly mediocre 35-70 zoom lens, but the ergonomics were great. Pretty soon I realized I needed a little more reach, and persuaded the wife to spring for a 70-210 zoom. And then a 300 f:4; and then a cosmetically crude but surprisingly sharp Sigma 500 f:4.5 manual focus lens. And a couple of years after that a colossal Pentax 600 f:4 lens that weighed about 20 lbs. all by itself.
Of course, by that point I was no longer able to convince my wife I needed that gigantic lens just to photograph the kids.
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Does anybody but me remember the thrill of Anscochrome 400? Five whole stops faster than Kodachrome? And you could home-process? Six solutions, as I recall. Ah, those were the days. Shot football for the school paper (with Tri-x, not Anscochrome).
Well in the 60's I used the Ansco chemistry (was it "AR-1"?) to process their slide duping film. Made the most incredible duplicate transparencies, hard to tell from the original Kodachromes. Problem was...after working weeks to put together a big, three screen slide projector presentation the dupes faded horribly after less than a day of cycling the show! Live & learn.
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Well, the first 35mm camera I used was my dad's Argus A5. I do have a Brownie Hawkeye somewhere around here, and went through a few Kodak X-15s and 110-pocket cameras in the 70s before getting a Pentax Spotmatic F.
Mike.
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Mine was purchased in 1976 and was a Practica LB2 with 50mm and 135mm lenses screw mount lenses. My mother still has it and used it up until 3 or 4 years ago. (first camera I used was probably my mom's Kodak Instamatic - 126 film I think)
(http://robertwatcher.com/rsw_public/12276782355215_practicaLB2.jpg)
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Those Prakticas were popular, affordable cameras for a long time. That's a late model with the highly advanced built in meter. I had a Praktina FX with a great 58mm Biotar, also from Zeiss Jena. Check out the "DDR" mark from the old East Germany. My high school photo teacher took a generally dim view of "commie cameras."
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Pentax ME Super with 180mmm APO lens. Wonderful piece of kit (or it would be if some [expletive] had not stolen it when I was travelling in Asia ini 1990).
Mike
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Those Prakticas were popular, affordable cameras for a long time. That's a late model with the highly advanced built in meter. I had a Praktina FX with a great 58mm Biotar, also from Zeiss Jena. Check out the "DDR" mark from the old East Germany. My high school photo teacher took a generally dim view of "commie cameras."
I very almost bought an MTL 5 the other day. But I have ended up with a broken Praktisix which came along with 3 other MF cameras for a price I couldn't refuse.
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My first camera was a present from my Dad while attending HiSchool in 1952: it was an Officine Galileo-Florence (IT) model Condor II^ VF single lens 50mm Esaog 1:2. I use to get better results than him with his Leica 2f with Elmar 3,5 collapsible lens. He was very upset about this! There were very few Leicas around in Italy at that time.
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I found an old french ad on Condor cameras.[attachment=9880:Condor_II.tiff]
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A 1965 Nikomat FS with a Nikkor 50f2 non-Ai
I got it when I was 10 in 1985. I still have both the body and lens. They both still work perfectly!
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Funny actually... I went hunting for my old photographs from when I was a kid. I found my first SLR... Canon AV-1 with the f/1.8 50mm prime.
Gave it a clean up and found the lens and view finder to be in perfect condition, and the battery still had charge and it worked! The best bit was I found an old film in it, that had a few exposures left, got it developed... Three (and a half) exposures of horses in a distant field at an obscure angle, plus one of the sofa I photographed to see if it worked. It was a good learning camera.
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For me, that would be a Nikon D50, which I retired only last week.
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AE-1!
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Something got me musing on how this all started out nearly 50 years ago. My first 3 cameras were a Box Brownie, Ilford Sporti 4, followed by a Halina 35X. I think my first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex, although I lusted after a Pentax SV
Vest Pocket Kodak. An old bellows camera taking 120 film. Did star trails with it mainly (circa 1960). Then Hanimex 35 mm, Exa with Angenieux 90mm lens, Pentax Spotmatic (superb), Minolta SRT-101, Canon A-1, Nikon D70, and finally back home to Canon!
John
Sackville, NB, Canada
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I had various cameras 'handed-down' to me from my dad including a Baldix fold-up (120 film size) camera and a Yashica LM Twin Lens. But the first SLR I purchased was a Canon Ftb. Great camera. I then moved to an AE-1, an EF (I really liked this camera), and then moved through a few F-1's and a T-90 (loved this one as well). I still have one of my original F-1's sitting on a Shelf of Honour in my den. When I turned pro, I had a Mamiya RZ67 for a while, then moved on to Hasselblads for most of my career until switching to Nikon for digital. Kinda wish I hung on to that D1 - to sit it beside my F1.
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Ahh, that was long ago, at my 12th birthday, an Olympus Trip 35 with a yellow filter, a couple of bw films and a Jobo drum for developing the films. The first SLR was a Canon AE-1.
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In 1973 I saved money from my part time job in High School to buy a Canon FTb with 1.8 50mm lens. It was awesome first camera. I've been a Canon shooter ever since, except for a stint photographing weddings with Mamiya C330 twin lens 6x6 cameras from '79 to 81.
My current DSLR bodies are a 1DsMkIII and 40D.
Bud James
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Argus C3.
Steve
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Leica IIIc sweet, a hand me down from my Dad. There was a quality to the film that I have never been able to reproduce in 35mm again.
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First 35mm film camera was a little Konica P&S when I was in Boy Scouts. First SLR was an SRT-101. First DSLR was the EOS 10D. Latest (but not only) camera is a Canon G10.
Paul
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Minolta 16 - looks like a Minox but slightly larger - $15 from a PX in 1967. Followed that with a used Minox III in 1968. Shot a lot of Agepe FF. Years later a Rollei 35, then Leica M4.
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I do not really remember the camera brand or anything. All I know it was a 35mm rangefinder-ish camera, I was 8 years old or less, and I had to use a hand-held light meter.
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Bought a second hand Nikon EM back in the late seventies. Although a bit beaten up after all those years, still works like a charm today
Mike
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My 1st was a ricoh kr5 for my 11th birthday.... then ( the ricoh did not last long ) was a contax 137 in high school.
me with my contax around 1983.... notice the sexy britanica jeans and the calculator watch?
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(http://www.witzke-studio.com/lhs015.jpg)
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Then bought a used hassy 2000fc in cambridge england.... with a 110mm f2 and a 50mm f2.8..... used this camera until about a year ago with a phaseone h25 back.
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Le Clic disc camera. The (tiny) negatives were mounted on a little flexible disc. I think the camera was supposed to b e a girls' camera, but i didn't care. It was exciting to snap the shutter and get a 4x6 print! I wish I could find some of those old negatives. It would be interesting to see my "virgin" photographer's eye at work!
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Something got me musing on how this all started out nearly 50 years ago. My first 3 cameras were a Box Brownie, Ilford Sporti 4, followed by a Halina 35X. I think my first SLR was a Miranda Sensorex, although I lusted after a Pentax SV
My first camera was my roommates Pentax Spotmatic with screw mount Takumar lenses. I looked through the viewfinder and it looked so beautiful. He asked me if I wanted to buy it from him. I did. That is what propelled me into being a photographer. Those Takumar lenses were the first multi-coated. Pentax makes beautiful lenses. Years later it's now the 5DII after 3 Pentax slrs and 1 Pentax 6x7, 1 Nikon 8008 , Canon 1n slr and now my 4th Canon dslr.
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This was my first camera, a Mamiya DSX1000. I bought it around 1974 I think. I still have it and it works like it did when I bought it.
but it's in fine photo taking shape...
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2042/2076195984_a6907e2eca_o.jpg)
And then I bought this off ebay for spare parts : seller had no idea if it worked or not...I got lucky...it's like freakin' new so I'm gonna use as is...cost, about 20 US dollars...
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2102975099_329153ac82_o.jpg)
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We've had quite a selection of old cameras, but what would be really interesting would be one or two photos from the original camera, especially if taken early on, like the first few days. If the photos aren't interesting, never mind. Sometimes an early photo is more interesting than many of the later ones.
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When I was in 12th grade, my dad took me to a mall camera shop and bought me a Minolta 5000i (way too much a camera for me), but we got cheapo Quantry lenses in a 'set'.
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Then bought a used hassy 2000fc in cambridge england.... with a 110mm f2 and a 50mm f2.8.....
From the camera exchange shop (Campkins, I think) on King's Parade? I used to lust after the kit I saw in their window, but it was way beyond my means.
My first cameras were my mother's Brownie and a Kodak Instamatic (grain like wood shavings!). I graduated to a Minolta XE-1 when I started messing around in the darkroom at school.
Jeremy
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We've had quite a selection of old cameras, but what would be really interesting would be one or two photos from the original camera, especially if taken early on, like the first few days. If the photos aren't interesting, never mind. Sometimes an early photo is more interesting than many of the later ones.
I totally agree,this thread needs photos taken in our early times
Maybe I can dig some out ...
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My first one was a Bilora Boy which was produced in the early 50's. It was given to me when I was four years old and I still have some of the negatives that I took in kindergarden around 1969 (attached is a picture of me shooting early landscapes . Great memories!
Cheers,
Andrew
(http://www.luxworkshops.com/galleries/boy/1969_boy.jpg)
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It all started with a East German Praktika reflex camera using screw mounted Asahi Pentax lenses. That must have been more than 20 years ago.
Cheers,
Bernard
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Here's a couple I took with my Minolta 16 (similar to Minox but much cheaper) in 1968. I haven't scanned any scenics, but given the graininess and general bad quality of these, it looks like I won't bother.
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Here's a couple I took with my Minolta 16 (similar to Minox but much cheaper) in 1968. I haven't scanned any scenics, but given the graininess and general bad quality of these, it looks like I won't bother.
There images definitely have a nice feel to them but, from a pixel peeping point of view, I suspect that my 2MP mobile phone might deliver better images in daylight conditions...
Cheers,
Bernard
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My first camera was an Olympus Trip 35, it took good photos, when the shutter didn't stick lol
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There images definitely have a nice feel to them but, from a pixel peeping point of view, I suspect that my 2MP mobile phone might deliver better images in daylight conditions...
Cheers,
Bernard
Then your 2mp cell phone is better than my 3mp HTC Touch Pro. Mine is a scam - the 3mp image has at best about 1/3 mp of content. BTW, the Minolta 16 camera couldn't have had a real lens at its price. By way of contrast, the Minox had a very good lens, but required document film to produce good detail.