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Author Topic: Your First Camera?  (Read 44439 times)

pixman63

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Your First Camera?
« on: January 23, 2005, 09:40:21 am »

A long-forgotten Kodak of some sort, back in the early 70s. The first serious camera I had wasn't until 1997 though, and was a Sigma SA-5. That lasted a bit over a year until I got frustrated by certain limitations it had (chiefly deadly slow AF response, though the meter was very decent), then a Nikon F5 came along!
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BryanHansel

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2005, 01:34:14 pm »

I used a number of cameras before I actually owned one of my own:  a Pentax something, a Nikon FM, some type of Minolta.

But my first camera was a Yashica FX-3.  I also used a Nikon FM2 in addition to the FX-3, and finally bought a FM3a when it first came out, then an N80 to see if I'd like auto-focus, and then a D70 to see if I'd like digital.  Somewhere a Lomo Compact Automatic fits in.
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Bryan Hansel
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DaveColem

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2005, 01:35:36 pm »

dlashier, LOL!  Actually, I think your hair might have been shorter than mine when we were kids, if you want to talk in mm's.
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2005, 11:40:36 pm »

Quote
I am slightly surprised to see Pentax mentioned more often than any other SLR brand.
Back in the "good old days", Pentax was a solid performer, though never as glamorous as a Nikon, for example.

In 1971 I carried two Pentaxes (one for color slides, one for B&W) on a two-week Sierra Club trip in Sequioa & Kings Canyons National Parks. Others on the trip had Nikons and other fancy gear. Every one of the "better" cameras jammed or froze or broke sometime during the trip, while my modest Pentaxes just kept on going, and going, and . . .

I loved all of my Pentaxes over the years, and it was with some reluctance that I deserted to Canon when I went digital. I suppose part of it was that I found it hard to take seriously a camera whose name nobody could pronounce.

Eric
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Jay Kaplan

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2005, 08:17:31 pm »

I had a Kodak Brownie box camera that my parents gave me when I went to summer camp back in 1957. I think it used 120 film.

The first camera that I bought was a Yashika J3 back in 1964.

The next camera was the one I still own and use, a Honeywell Spotmatic that I bought in 1968.
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jani

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2005, 08:58:07 pm »

I may have taken my first pictures with an Olympus SLR with a silvery body and manual everything, when I was a wee lad of 4 or 5 or 6.

Later, my parents sold it (my mother still regrets that) and bought a compact camera, it may have been a Konica.

And I got a Kodak camera that was Polaroid compatible.

At about the same time, I thought that multiple exposures on the same frame of film would be cool, but of course the compacts didn't support that.  I was left dreaming.

We got our second compact, a pretty advanced and expensive Pentax model.  It took good pictures for a compact.

And in 1987, someone broke into our home, stole silverware, weapons and the two compacts.  My parents decided on the brand new EOS 650 as a replacement for both cameras, the 620 was announced but not available yet.  Perceptive that I was, I noticed that the 620 sported a backlit panel and supported multiple exposures, and wasn't that cool.  Too late, though.

However, I soon had my triumph, as my grandfather helpfully donated his Eastman Kodak No. 2 Folding Cartridge Hawkeye Model B!  Yeah, 120 film was a bit more expensive, larger and impractical compared to 35mm, but who cares?  I could do multiple exposures, with a really cool camera!

Needless to say, those multi-exposure shots didn't turn out too well.  :)

Next off was a new compact 35mm camera, one of those models that companies used as gifts.  It was and is incredibly simple, but it did the trick for holiday pics.  Brand?  No idea, it's in a drawer somewhere.

That compact hasn't been used since 1999, when I bought my first digicam, after lots of research.  I really wanted a Minolta dImage, because that came out best in tests, but ended up with an Agfa ePhoto CL50, because that was available.  A huge blob of a "compact", couldn't fit into any shirt pocket I've ever seen, and 1.3 megapixels.  It produced adequate holiday pictures, and especially excellent for web.

An ill-advised choice lead me to sell that CL50 later the same year -- to my parents, who kept on using it instead of their EOS 650 until last year (which saw intermittent use during the nineties, by them and me both).  You see, I got bitten by the digital video camcorder bug.  That lasted a handful or more of tapes, and I sold that one, too.

Back to the stupid, forgotten compact in the drawer, and wait for something better to crop up.

And in 2002, I managed to buy the Canon PowerShot S40.  Now that was an excellent buy, and it actually got me started with photography on a hobby basis again.

During 2003, I realized that I wasn't really happy with the quality of compacts.  I lusted for better stuff.  The last half of 2003 and most of 2004 was spent deliberating and debating what to do.

So in late 2004, I called on my parents and asked to borrow the 650 again; they told me to just take it, had I called the day after, they'd have given it away already ...  I wanted to use it to make a decision on whether to use that camera, buy a digital SLR or a new digital compact camera.  I bought ISO 800 film for shooting indoor shots, and got the first roll scanned by professionals.

I compared those shots with what I got from the S40 from the same lighting conditions at the same place.

That killed film for me, and I nearly ran to the store to get my current 20D.

I'm now just worried that I've started down a path of even greater expenses than any other hobby I've had so far.  I see a 1D-series camera purchase looming on the horizon.  ;)
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jensputzier

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2005, 09:00:46 am »

First was a Kodak whatever 126 camera.

The first real camera for 35mm film was a Yashica Electro 35CC.

Then the Contax 139 quartz and Contax ever since.

Now I have a Canon EOS digital and some lenses to be able to shoot digital and use the Zeiss lenses with an adapter.
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paullantz

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2005, 09:18:26 pm »

My first and only, so far, 35mm is a Canon FTb upon which I spent 100% of my worldly wealth so I could have the 1.4 50mm lens.
Going to have to get it fixed or replaced since the mirror dampening foam etc is deteriorating. Part of me wants to get another one off ebay, another part wants to get a cheap film camera such as a Rebel G2 and part of me says to stick to digital.
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Murph

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2005, 10:17:41 pm »

My first was some sort of Kodak, but thats not the real "first Camera"

My first Camera was a Konica T-3 Autoreflex with 28mm, 50mm, and 135mm lenses.  A second body was added later.  All were stolen in Germany when I PCS'ed back to the states.

I then got a Minolta X-700 with an assortment of lenses, still have it.

Yashica- D TLR

4x5 monorail view camera

Kodak DX4900 digital- nice little "snapshot" camera, soon to go to my 6 year old as her "first" camera.

Kodak DX7590, decent snapshot camera, but suffers problems, the DX 4900 actually has a better focus.
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Peter McLennan

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2005, 10:49:18 am »

Pentax Spotmatic, mid-sixties.  First SLR with TTL metering.  An excellent tool.  I still have it.

Peter
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BJL

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2005, 01:12:45 pm »

I started with a 6x9cm roll film camera; a hand-me-down Brownie. (My father's old prints from that were contact prints, not enlargements!)

It has been all downhill since then: shrinking to 35mm format with a Pentax K-1000 (the first that I bought with my own money), successively getting lazy and thoughtless with first auto-exposure and then auto-focus models, and then shrinking format yet again with the Olympus E-1.
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ctgardener

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2005, 04:38:34 pm »

After a Kodak Instamatic (126 cartridge !) and a 110 camera, my first SLR was a Miranda, followed by a Yashica FX-3 and then a Pentax Program Plus.  I had the new-gear bug from an early age (12 years old ?)  The Yashica had a nice, sharp 50mm lens; the Pentax had a Sigma 28-70/2.8-4 that cost a whopping $69 and it took a while before I learned that some lenses are "better" than others

Traded the Pentax gear (for a decent price, actually) when the Minolta Maxxum 7xi came out, and have been a Maxxum guy ever since (now own the 7 & 9 and a bunch of excellent lenses).  Also added a Rolleiflex TLR somewhere along the way.

I actually never learned much about exposure until after I bought the AF gear ...

- Dennis
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BJL

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2005, 10:19:30 pm »

I am slightly surprised to see Pentax mentioned more often than any other SLR brand. (Not to mention all those Argus's, which I have hardly ever heard of before.)
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howard smith

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2005, 02:14:21 pm »

I think Pentax licensed multicoating from NASA.  NASA probably captured a license from the Germans in WWII.
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shaan

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2005, 01:45:26 pm »

My first camera was my dads well traveled Olympus OM-2, I used it non stop for a year or two and then i realized it didnt have a meter and it was stuck on bulb mode, so I read up on it and realized that i certainly could use that. Nevertheless i kept plugging away with it getting some interesting results. Finally I bought my next camera, a Nikon N80. The N80 served me well for a couple of years and when the D70 came out i upgraded to that, and that is my short camera history.

Shaan
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scott kirkpatrick

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #15 on: May 22, 2005, 08:46:09 pm »

Brownie Hawkeye, 620 (6x6 cm) film (age 6-14)

I remember the Argus well, saw lots of those in high school but never owned one.  I had a Miranda T SLR, purchased in Japan in mid-50's and used for about 15 years, kept until a few years ago.

Acquired used Nikon F, FTN and some nice manual lenses in the 1960s, plus Rolleicord, M2.  Placed all but the M2 on indefinite loan to a friend a few years ago.  Gave a nice darkroom to the San Francisco parks department about same time.   M2, four lenses (Elmar 50, 90, Canon 35/2 and 19/3.5 with its viewer), Sekonic meter, and lotsa film all fit in a surplus gas mask bag and can go anywhere on a moment's notice.  

First digital was Olympus C2020, purchased in 2000, given to brother-in-law for honeymoon trip, still in use.  Then Coolpix 5000 and 5700.  Sold 5700, still like 5000 for its handling and wide angle. Got E-1 in Nov 2003 and have been accumulating lenses since.
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Woodcorner

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #16 on: June 12, 2005, 07:13:32 am »

My first camera was a Bilora Boy, which was build between 1950 and 1952 in Germany. The export version for North America was called Tower Box. Film size was a 4 x 6.5 cm (127 roll film), lens f/11.

It was given to me when I was appr. 4 years old, in the late 60's. Attached is a picture of me (age 4) with this camera. Note the original Clark's shoes, still in fashion today...  :cool:



Later cameras include:
Kodak Instamatic (various flavours)
Praktica Super TL (around 1970)
Canon AE-1, A-1, F-1 (between 1977 and 1982)
Nikon F3HP (bought in 1982), FM2, FM3, F90
Rolleiflex
Leica M3, M6
Linhof Technikardan S, Mastertechnika

Now shooting:
Canon 1Ds-Mk2, 20D

Fun thread!

Cheers,

Andrew
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61Dynamic

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #17 on: January 22, 2005, 10:36:00 pm »

1. When I was young I had a Kodak tele-instamatic and shot one roll of film on it (never developed). It was the first time I tried to experement with images.

many years later...

2. Canon Rebel G (for photo class)

couple years more...

3. Canon G3 - got this a year and a half ago and really started to learn about exposure, photography and the art of it all
4. Canon 300D
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paulbk

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #18 on: January 23, 2005, 11:32:05 am »

Ashi Pentax K-1000, bought in the Guam base exchange (Navy 1972). Still a great camera. Shot mostly Kodachrome. Looking for some one to digitize them.
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paul b.k.
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Sabercat04

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Your First Camera?
« Reply #19 on: January 23, 2005, 09:34:30 pm »

My first camera was a cheap Argus (I think the C20; not the classic C3 which my Dad had). Then I got a Kodak Retinette. It was a great camera and taught me how to guess at exposure since it didn't have a light meter and I didn't own.
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