My dad's first "real" camera was a Voigtländer. I've long had it in my head that it was a medium format Bessa, but there are no 120 negatives among the photos he took prior to getting his treasured Kodak Retina IIc (in 1957). There are 35mm b&w negs along with some mounted Anscochromes, though…maybe the Voigtländer was a Vito B. The timeline is right anyway. Dad said the Voigt was temperamental, which was in part why he switched to the Retina.
The first "real" camera I owned was a Canon AE-1, though the first such camera I was allowed to use was Dad's Leica M2 (which he tended not to use 'cuz it didn't fit inside a jacket pocket like the Retina did). The M2 was what I learned on.
-Dave-