Show me a picture of your first camera.

[uberprutser]

I took some pictures of some old camera's I have laying around and among them was my first camera.
It's an old Rolleimatic 35mm film camera that my mother bought me secondhand when I was about 15.
It is a very interesting camera, especially in the way in advances the film.




http://elekm.net/pages/cameras/spotlight_rolleimatic.htm

Anyway that's mine now show me yours.

[Attila]

Nice start! Mine was a Pentacon Six sold 25 yrs before.

[Orio]

[mo]

My first camera

Yashica Minister D



My 2nd camera but first digital P&S

Olympus SP510UZ

[miran]

My very first camera was an uninspiring digital P&S. Here's the only photo of this camera I ever made:



My first non-digital camera I think was a FED 3 which was actually my father's but he hadn't used it in at least 20 years. The camera works very well but sadly fungus ate the coating on the lens and I don't have any other lenses for it.

[kansalliskala]

Not this one but just like it.

Actually it is my mother's camera. My first own camera was a 4x4 plastic TLR, a toy but fuctional one.

[Jesito]

This was my first cam and I did shot a lot of pictures with it:



Currently, bakelite is a bit degraded in the edges, otherwise well conserved.

The cam was a present of my grandad to my dad when he was 14. My dad kept it and when I was 9, he gave it to me.
In the same floor where my parents lived there was a photographer (Mr. Franquesa) to whom I owe a lot of my interest in photography.

When he noticed me wearing the cam, he kindly offered me to develop the film and to print copies for me, "at a reasonable price". Now I know he was asking for a little fraction of the real cost, knowing that a child of my age was not able to gather much money.
We kept a very professional relationship, he developed quickly my pictures and give me some comments and advice.
Unfortunately he passed away quite young (when I was 14 or so), but I keep a very nice memory of him.

I loved to go to his flat to pick the developed films, and to smell the chemicals.

I also keep my first rolls and my first prints. One of these days, I have to scan and publish them, probably to learn that in so many years I've progressed very little and I've lost the freshness and ingenuity of the childhood. My early pictures were much better than the current ones

And I plan also to put a roll in and to go to the same spots to shot the same scenes (I recall a few of those places) 52 years after.
It can be an interesting exercise but I'll have to refurbish it a little, to cover the light leaks it has.

Jes.

[Nesster]

My first was an instamatic of some sort... don't have a picture, or even an ad of it. But my first camera that I could focus and set shutter and aperture on:

Olympus Pen FT 1969 by Nesster, on Flickr

[Katastrofo]

I was given a Kodak Brownie Starmite, one of my birthday presents when I turned 11 (1961).

Took 127 film, from the web:

[Attila]

That is an interesting one Bill! How do you remember to it ? Good one ?

[Katastrofo]

Attila, remember it well, the next year I visited relatives in San Francisco, took lots of photos of Chinatown,
Fleishhacker Zoo (was its name in '62) and other places. I have an album full of prints somewhere at my
mother's unless it was thrown out long ago. The prints were 4"x 4" if I remember correctly. Going way back
in the mists of time.

I remember when we first crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, the song 'Telstar' by the Tornados was playing on the
car radio.

[Katastrofo]

As to the quality of the pictures from the Starmite, well, I was thrilled with them when I
was 11 and 12 years old.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I can't remember my first camera, I had some compacts, both 35mm and 110, but the first proper camera was a Praktica Nova, a hand-me-down from my dad when he bought an MTL5B.

[std]

My parents had old Smena like this and it was the first camera i have used - i think i was 8 years old - going on a school trip with my class and making B/W pictures with ORWO film.


Picture is from Wikipedia



I liked this plastic knob on the top a lot

[SonicScot]

I was given a compact 110 when I joined the army and soon realised it was woefully bad.
So I saved up and bought a Minolta XG1 as my first 'proper' camera.
It served me well despite the abuse it suffered when it was attached to my web belt on exercises and tours.
I still have it somewhere, couldn't throw it out when it died, sentimental reasons I guess.

[Minolfan]

After some trying with my fathers Wirgin 6x9 folder I purchased my first camera, a Ricoh S3 rangefinder camera.
I got the money by working in the horticultural industry (tomatoes and cucumbers) in the highschool holidays.
Hot days in greenhouses delivered the finances!

[david_b]

My first camera (my father used it for pictures of me since day one). Now in my living room on the bookshelf. Fully operational. Without film for last 15 years. Lens sometimes used on digital. The brown leather case is also included. Like new. Still with those "russian leather" smell.

[Bogie]

My first camera was a Agfamatic 200 Sensor. It was given to me by my parents when I was 11 years old. I took quite a lot of pictures with it and I still have some of the negatives. At the age of 13 my father allowed me to use one of his Zenit E's. Here a picture of the Agfamatic 200 Sensor (not mine, because I was not able to find it).

[NewStuff]

My first camera was a Zenit. I was given it for my 17th birthday. I have zero idea what it was, and at that point, I had *no* intrest in photography. I ran a couple of rolls through it, but had a good shot for the "Most Boots Quality Control stickers in a pack" title.

My real interest in cameras started when I got a job at an independent camera shop (repairing PC's). Another Zenit (XP12, Helios 44), and I was off. This time, I was actually taught what an Aperture was, how it affected other things, you know, the important things to know when using a Manual camera. I won't show You a picture, as I doubt there is a single person on this Forum that *doesn't* know what one looks like.

[philslizzy]

My first was this Halina 6-4, my mum bought it in 1960 and all our childhood memories were taken on it. I took it one year to Prestatyn with school and took about a hundred photos with it, never winding the film on once. Mum never showed me how to do that!



here it is complete:



The camera took 120 film, had a mask inside so you could take 12 or 16 photos. The mask made it 6x4cm but the chemist always printed square photos. There were 2 viewfinders, one for each format.



The mask



A couple of photos taken with this camera, the first in 1960 the second in 1967. Mum gave me the camera when I left school and could afford to get the films developed myself.

Bridlington, I was 3. The thing in my hand is a toy camera containing views of Bridlington printed onto 8mm cine film. My first actual 'camera' I think.



Me and sister in the back yard after dismantling a barrel. I'm aged about 9 or 10

[GeorgeSalt]

My first camera was a Halina 110, long since scrapped.. my second was a Konica z-up 80 which I still have.

[Esox lucius]

First camera I ran a roll of film through belonged to my grandfather, now the camera belongs to me



I borrowed plenty of point and shoots from friends and family when I was about 9-10 years old but I think the first camera I "owned" was a Nikon FM2n. The camera wasn't technically mine, but over the years it became mine as the owner (a photographer whose studio I liked to hang around at) told me he liked what I created with it and later gave it as a present. (Not the best photo of an FM2n but at least the image is mine, just like the previous photo of the 524/16)

[LucisPictor]

Great idea for a thread. I'll try to take some new photos of my old cams tomorrow.

[inombrable]

My first camera was a Canon AE1 left by one of my uncles in my parents house (I was 19), camera had problems with film advance and i only used two rolls on it, never fixed it and i have no idea where it ended. Next one was a pentax espio from my mom that one broke too but is still in my room. No pictures of them though!!!!