It's interesting to see what people started out with and where they went.
My first camera was a Tower Snappy which gave way to my Dad's Rolleicord with Weston Master III selenium celled meter and finally on to my own first "real" camera - a Kodak Retina IIIC, which died in a fire in McKay's Camera Store in Monterey around 1968. From there it was on to SRT-101's which got me through high school yearbook and newspaper. Then there was a series of Nikons, Pentax 6X7, Brooks Veriwide, RZs, view cameras and on and on. Sold the Veriwide to help pay for my first semester at Art Center, and that's the camera that I miss the most, most of the time.