Throwback Thursday: Our first cameras

My first SLR? A Canon TLb in about '73 1/500th and match needle, the camera featured the FD lens mount and came with a 50mm F1.8
I later upgraded to a Canon A1 with the 50mm F1.4, and bought a 135 F2.8 Vivitar at a hock shop.

But before THAT? Argus C3 which I earned for a summers yard work.

But FIRST? I think it was a Kodak 120 'horizontal feed'. I learned some darkroom and the negs were large enough to make useful contact prints. Looking thru some images of Kodak of the era? I think it was a Brownie Starflash.....

My first camera was a Retina iiic. It was grade 5 and I took slide pictures of a school trip. Still have the photos somewhere. Some actually turned out. Amazingly, I still have not only that iiic, but most of its family... IIIC, with lenses, the reflex systems as well. They need no batteries and have the potential to keep working for another 50 years. The DKL mount lenses are actually pretty sharp.

My first camera was a film camera my parents got me by saving the tokens printed on boxes of soap powder. Wish I could remember what the camera was. My second which I still have - a Practica Nova. No metering, auto-focus or anything much else but I loved it.

My fisrt camera was a Canon Powershot A480 back in 2009, at age 23. I bought it as I visited my brother in the US and wanted to document the trip. I upgraded to a S110 a few years later.

A blue Diana. It had a strange aroma about it, like one step down from Evo-Stik. Does anyone else who owned this camera think the same? It got cracked and then it let the light in. I got mine in 1963 for my birthday. I live in the u.k. It cost eight shillings and sixpence, 8/6 that's 42.5 Pence in decimal.
This was followed by a Yashica Electro 35 that my elder brother gave me in 1968.

My first camera was a Yashica Minister which I used with black & white film. My friend had the original Olympus Trip. That was back in the early seventies so the Yashica was already becoming vintage.

Diana Blue was my 1st ever camera ... pity lost or trashed it later ... it could be worth hundreds of cents right now that Lomography's so popular with some people! ;-)

Wow.. my first was a Kodak Retina IIIs with a Schneider 1.9 Xenon. nice old rangefinder. My first SLR was a Petri FT.. but I was able to use my father's Minolta Srt-101 or older Miranda G. others including Nikon F's, Nikkormat's, and finally I broke down and bought a Leica M4 with a 35 and 50 and an MR Meter. That was my mainstay for years. I also dabbled in medium format with a Kowa Six and a Minolta Autocord
My first digital... the Epson PhotoPC. The Original one! later one other Epsons like the 600, 700, and the 750zoom. That led to the Epson 850 Zoom which U used for a while.. before getting my real love the Olympus C8080Wide Zoom.. Love the lens on there!! and I still use it. (picked up a Leica Digilux 1, Canon A580is, and the Sony DSC QX10)

i am the lucky owner of a Olympus Camedia D600L or C1400 L, she s fresh like mint,
and found out possibilities to oversize good exposered pictures up to 140 %
its a really top class build quality lasting forever. one reason i dont like walking with her its recording very slowly

My first camera was a Box Brownie bought at a jumble sale when I was 8 years old in 1959. Got the bug and went on to get a Zenit-3M with F2 Helios lens which was followed by a Practica LTL with f2.8 Tessar lens. However photography died when I went to University and lost access to my darkroom.

On taking up digital in 2003 I started with a Minolta Dimage Z1 and have now got an Olympus OMD EM5 and a whole bag of olympus lenses -11 in total

My very first camera was gifted to me when I was around 10, and that was one of the Kodak Instamatics that used 110 film cartridges. They also used flash cubes, which I learned you could carefully disassemble and then throw the flashbulbs down hard on most any surface, and trigger the flash - fantastic for Halloween! I bought my first SLR, the Yashica Electro 35, when I turned 16. Soon after, I acquired a Pentax MV with a 40MM 'pancake' lens (LOVED that lens) and a 135MM short telephoto. Then, in my mid 20's, I hit the jackpot when my then brand new father-in-law gave me his Canon A1 and full lens suite!

My first camera was a "Revue 10" (that was a Zorki 10) and I was very proud of it.
The next one was a Minolta XE-5 I own still today. Great camera!

My first was my Mum's Olympus Trip 35, a 35mm film camera. It worked well, although metering was a bit basic. I moved on from that to a Nikon F601.

- Richard

First 35mm camera was a Konica auto S2 bought in a PX in Vietnam for $35. Still works, great camera. First digital was Fuji 6900Z bought for trip to Spain in 2002, $750.00. Not bad for that era. Unfortunately, used smart media cards.

Fisher Price 810 (made by Kodak, mid to late 80s).... I bought one recently on eBay in a brand new sealed box.

My first "real" camera was a Pentax H3V, purchased at the local Ritz Camera store in Washington DC, when I was 14 or 15 (in the mid 60s?). I loved the camera, but came to find out I HATED screw mount lenses--'cause I never new exactly when it was going to come off. I had the 50mm f1.8 and eventually a 200. I can't remember if I had a wide angel.

My first digital camera was an Olympus Camedia--I think--something 10. It was small, with a postage-stamp-sized display and a 10x zoom. When I eventually switched seriously to digital, around 2005, I did a lot of research, talked to a lot of folks and (after being a Nikon user for 35+ years) purchased a Canon 20D, which served me well for at least 2-3 years before I started moving up. I'm currently shooting with my first new camera in 8 years, a Canon 5d4.

My first camera (55 years ago) was a Kodak SLR Retina Reflex III, with 2 interchangable lenses, a 50mm and a 28mm, don't remember the wide opened aperture value for these.
There were already tha automatic light measure and a clever coupling between speed and aperture, both rings were coupled and the speed was adapted if you changed the apertue value, the same if you changed the speed. It was great and I regret I sold it when a few years later when I bought my first Nikon, the Nikon FTn III.
It was a "great" adventure !

My first was a Brownie Hawkeye. I don't remember who gave it to me or where it came from but I loved that camera. I was just 12 or so at the time and would walk down the street and take pictures of horses. I wish I still had it. After that came a Kodak that had flash cubes, a Polaroid, and then my first slr - a Canon AT-1... wish I still had that one too.

Kodak Box Brownie when I was around age 6 or 7. Later, my first 'proper' camera was a Zenit B (though realized afterwards, I probably should have gone for the 'E'). At the same time, my younger brother bought himself a Zorki 4. After that, I went through a series of Pentax, Olympus and Canon SLR's. Been with Canon since the early 90's.

My first camera was a two-eyed Lubitel (nowadays still sold as the Lomo Lubitel 166+).
Learning to shoot with expensive roll film pushed me to really think of a shot before I actually take it (I was 11 years old at the time). After that I had several slr's (Zenith, Praktica, Minolta) before I entered the digital world. I still cherish my non-automatic start as a photographer.

My first camera was a screw mount (Asahi non-spotmatic) Pentax and a Sekonic light meter inherited from my grandfather at age 11 - at the same time my father had (and still has) a Nikkormat FT, I wanted his Nikkormat b/c of the built in light meter but saved my $$ and bought an OM1n instead, which I still have. I have not idea where the Pentax is now, but would love to find it! I still use the Sekonic light meter, it is off by 1/4 stop, which is not bad considering it is 60 years old.

I do have 2 things in common with barney, as i said into the Forums time ago:

1st, the "mighty" Pentax MX, i don't have my Copy since some 11+ years, traded it into in exchange for a Yashica Lens, but 2-3 K-Mount Lenses and a Samsung GX-10 (K10D Clone) instead. Does somehow have a tip how-to clean my Icarex 35s Viewfinder?

2nd, my EOS 10D is still into great condition, and still working nicely & smooth.
It was besides the Nikon D100 the real APS-C thing, earlier iterations (D30, D60...D1..) have been just being way too expensive.

My Mother used to use a Kodak Instamatic 100, and later a Olympus XA, with the AddOn detachable Flash, which my sister still own.

My 1st camera was a JC Penney branded 110 instamatic; it lasted perhaps two years before breakage. 1st film SLR was a Yashica FR-II (still have it, still works). My first digital purchase (not use..first use was an Olympus C-2020); Kyocera S5. First digital SLR, a Pentax istDL.

The first camera i bought was a pentax mx after i crashed the camera of my dad, a minolta 7000. a skateboard smashed the lens and gravity broke the body. my dad was beside himself with rage. off this moment he stopped permitting to use his equipment so i had to buy my own camera and it was a second-hand ware. i still own the pentax mx and it is still working.

At the age of 13 I got as gift from a relative a really small and strange looking 35 mm Agfa Karat 36 - the export version. Tiny, metal, pop out bellows,fixed 50 mm focal distance, really heavy, full manual, lens full open at f 6.3... Art Deco style... scoring the "Karat" 12 images, spool-less canisters. Pretty soon after I started shooting I build my own B&W darkroom. At the time that Agfa camera was already over 45 years old. I fully enjoy it for few years. It has been trashed long time ago, but i still have the original knurled aluminium winding knob that I saved to use for an sound amplifier knob. The second one was a Russian (USSR) Bakelite Smena 8, pretty good sturdy 35 mm basic camera... still have it. First SLR: Praktica MTL 5, first digital was a Sony Mavica (floppy disc), first DSLR Canon 20D. As now I have a collection of over 100 film camera, and yes, 4 are various version of the Agfa Karat 36.

My first camera was a Vivitar 110 LF at about age 8 (1981). At the time I really wanted one of the yellow Minolta 110 weathermatics. A few of years later my parents bought weathermatic 35, and bought themselves an Olympus OM10 with 50mm lens. When my sister borrowed my camera for a school trip, and gave it back a week later with salt water inside, I took over may parents' OM10. When the OM10 solenoid gave out in 1991, I got an OM1, followed by an OM2sp another couple of years later (by then I was carrying multiple bodies so I could shoot transparency and B&W). Finally went digital in 2007 when getting quality processing for transparency film was becoming ridiculously expensive and the only decent local lab was only doing one run per week.

My first camera was an Agfa ISO-PAK.

My first camera was an Olympus OM-2. My dad had the OM-1, and was superjelly that my mom bought it for me for Christmas ;). I used it through high school for all of my photography courses and my "serious" bass fishing years. The Sony DSC-P30 was my first digital camera, and I quickly upgraded to the delicious Sony DSC-V3. I still have it, and the DSC-F828. The rest, was just gear acquisition syndrome history.

Kodak Instamatic 50, got it as a birthday present when I turned 10, still have it. It was followed after some years by a Minolta SRT 101. That later was stolen.

A wartime box Brownie, blue, in mint condition given to me by an aged uncle who had nursed and cared for it for 20+ years. It took 8 square format exposures on 620 film - yes, 620. No controls apart from the shutter; but I was only 5 or 6 at the time and I loved it. That was followed by a Russian Cosmic 35. Fully manual 35mm - a half decent camera at 125th f/8 on a sunny day!

My first camera was a Canon T-90. That was followed by a Canon F1N, Olympic Edition. Good times.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, sold as a kit with a screw-on flash unit. It took 620 roll film, and I used Verichrome, I think, or Plus X when I could afford it. The flash took C cells and either number 5 or number 25 flash bulbs from GE or Sylvania. Aperture and shutter speed were fixed, but there was a lever you could pull up to allow time exposures.

First camera was a Franka (1965).
Then came the Canon fTb (1976)

The russian Zenith E

My first camera was a Brownie 2, that took 120 roll film, found in the basement of a house my parents moved in to circa 1962, cost of film and developing was a major concern. Later I started using my Dad's Minolta SRT-101, which I basically "borrowed" from him for long periods of time. That was the camera I really learned on and probably used the most. Wish I had kept more of those adorable aluminum film cans. First useable digital camera was a Nikon D-70. Current camera - Nikon D750. It now dawns on me I started out with a format that still probably has higher resolution than the camera I know own.

My first camera was a little Ilford Sprite. One of these:

http://www.photomemorabilia.co.uk/Ilford/Sprite_127.html

I then moved onto a Kodak instamatic that took 126 cartridges.

My first "proper" camera was a Yashica FR, manual everything but had an electronically timed shutter. Very nice camera. That was stolen on a Geology field trip when I was at University.

I bought an Olympus OM2 to replace it with funds from a summer job. Ended up with an OM4 and stuck with that until I bought my first digital camera, a Minolta A1. Eventually moved to a Sony A100 and currently an A77.

Kodak Brownie.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, a black box camera with two magnifier viewers on the long and short side for portrait or landscape shots that you shot like a Hasselblad and 2-1/4 wind film. I never really appreciated that camera's great simple qualities and excellent pictures. Next was Kodak Disk - the worst. Then Kodak cassette - next worst with those horrible flash cubes. Both turned me off Kodak forever as camera maker. Next Pentax Spotmatic F, new from 1975 to 2010. Since my Pentax's built-in light meter broke almost from day one, I bought a manual meter and learned all about exposures using that. Phased that out with my first new digital 3MB Canon A410 and amazingly good 8x10 enlargements. Would I go back to film? No, that is romantic nonsense. There are lots of excellent digitals though if I was starting digital over I would not have done with Nikon but maybe Fuji, my X100 I consider the best of the lot for most kind of shots I take.

I should add that my first digital was a Canon. The A90 (95), I forget. And apart from the Kodak Bridge Camera I had for a few years afterwards, all my cameras since have been Canon.

Showing my age here with a Kodak Brownie Holiday camera, followed many years later with a Konica Auto S2. The KM25 slides from that camera were as good or better than my parent's Leica, and those slides still look as good as the day they were shot.

Not everybody starts with a top camera : I spent many years with a 23x36 Konica Pop (if anyone remembers). It was bright red, awesome :-)
But the camera I really started enjoying photography with was an Olympus IS-100: that was a hell of a good camera to start with!!

I had various point and shoot cameras, My first digital camera was a Olympus point and shoot, I then had a Fuji s5000 ( I think). I loved that camera. My first DSLR was a nikon d40.

Another Canon AE-1 here

Thank you to the DPReview team for sharing your first camera stories.

My first film camera was a Kodak Brownie 110 cassette model, with a big yellow shutter button. There was also an Agfa 110 cassette camera along the way.

As an early teenager, I used a Kodak disc camera, and still have the discs of film and prints I took. Then followed an ashamedly vacant period of years, and it wasn't until 2002 that I got a Canon Powershot S45 with a whopping 4mp. The images hold up surprisingly well, even now.

This began a long photographic odyssey which has taken me through a multitude of compacts from Canon, Casio, Fuji, Sigma and Ricoh; DSLR's from Canon; the Leica M9 and a boatload of lenses, an assortment of film cameras including my Dad's Pentax ME, and a Leica M7, and now four m43 bodies from Olympus and Panasonic.

Canon AE-1!