First Camera

konomaniac

I hope this is the right place for this thread - didn't see any other sutable locations.

Something I saw in one of the other posts got me thinking (always a dangerous thing). What was the camera(s??) that really got you hooked on the art of photography??

My 1st camera was an AGFA with a fixed focus lens that my dad bought when he was in the service. You learn really quick about F-Stops and shutterspeed using something like that. From there, I progressed to a Pentax K-1000 - nothing automagic, just a matchstick light meter. Now I'm waiting for Christmas for my next big step (Pentax K-x)

Your turn

Grainbelt

I started taking snapshots while traveling using an old point and shoot. One the advice of people on this forum I bought a Canon S5 IS, an advanced digital camera that allows manual control. I had fun with it, and quickly learned its limitations. About a year later I bought a Pentax K200D, and the madness started.

Congrats on the K-x, btw, and keep the lenses from your K1000 - they'll work nicely on the K-x.

CG806

The first time I got back a set of prints from a roll of film I shot on a Kodak Star 735 P&S, I knew I found something I could enjoy.

But my dad's Canon AE-1 was the first SLR camera I ever used, and it got me addicted to the sound and feeling of an SLR. Point and shoots never were as satisfying after I spent a day with the AE-1.

swintonphoto

Hassy 501CM. Still have it. I may be buried with it.

billseye

Had a Minolta SRT-101 and a really cool darkroom in the garage when I was in high school. That was the start of it all for me!

I recently considered buying a used one just like it that I found on Craigslist. It was a little too beat up and overpriced. Still wondering if I missed a good purchase, though.

ThatCanonGuy

I started with an HP M425 P&S. I knew absolutely zero about photography back then, but taking snapshots was fun. One day I went into a camera store and held a DSLR. I knew right away what I was going to save up for. I didn't even turn that thing on, just looked through the viewfinder and was hooked. I got it, a K100D Super (Pentax) and took, oh, this is a guess, but somewhere around, oh, 30,000? Probably between 20K and 30K. I quickly learned photography, teaching myself mostly and also reading stuff online. I fell in love with sports photography, and there I learned the K100D Super's limitations. About 3 fps for 5 shots, then it slows down. That was my main thing. I procured lenses along the way, nothing high-end or special. Finally, I grew too tired of its limitations. I had always liked Canon better than Nikon, probably because I knew their system better and the older high(er)-end Canon bodies (1D, 1Ds, 1D2, 5D, 10D, 20D, etc.) were better than Nikon's. I sold my Pentax and went for a used 1DII. Still have that. Hopefully it'll last pretty long, I'm just concerned with the shutter... But, back to the point, I think the 1DII really helped me take better photos. Yes, I got good ones with the Pentax, and yes, it's not the camera, it's the photographer. But, the 1DII and like cameras give the photographer tools that other cameras don't have. That allows the photographer to control the photograph, not the camera's limitations preventing the photograph from taking place.
That said, the turning point for me was the K100D Super. It was my first SLR, and it taught me photography. It made me want to get better, pay more attention, take better photos. That was the key.

Congratulations on the K-x. I'm sure it's a great camera. There are tons of AF lenses out there on the used market, making Pentax a good choice. Lemme guess, you got the:
White body
Blue grip
Yellow prism area
Green back
Red lens.

Am I right? ;~)

karlabbott

My grandfather gave me his old Minolta SRT-101 many years ago. I love that camera and shot my first and last roll of kodachrome on it between October 2009 and April 2010.

That said, the camera that resparked my love for photography was the Canon Powershot SD1100. With that, I learned that I was capable of taking good images and that got me looking at DSLRs in the early spring (northern hemisphere) of 2009. I found a good deal on Craigslist for a Rebel Xsi and that has done me well for quite some time. I recently bought a used 5d and am really enjoying that

Still -- going back and using that old Minolta SRT-101 is awesome -- an excellent camera with some great glass!

konomaniac

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

Congratulations on the K-x. I'm sure it's a great camera. There are tons of AF lenses out there on the used market, making Pentax a good choice. Lemme guess, you got the:
White body
Blue grip
Yellow prism area
Green back
Red lens.

Am I right? ;~)

Sorry - went with the orange. I still live in the town I grew up in. My DD teaches in town and coaches the high school softball team. School colors are orange and black

fionalornephotography

I had a pretty standard, very basic point-and-shoot film camera when I was a kid, which was upgraded to the brick Kodak 1-megapixel something or other (which I still have, though it doesn't get used!). Took some amazing photos with it while I was in Italy in 2005. Upgraded that to a Nikon Coolpix at the end of 2006, kept shooting... Got my first DSLR in April of 2008 (Nikon D60). I built the basis for my business off that camera! Finally, on the 3rd of this month, I upgraded to the Nikon D7000.

I've always loved photography, from way back when I was shooting point-and-shoot film up through my point-and-shoot digis, but it was getting the D60 (and its autofocus limitations, honestly) that really pushed me into learning about my camera and taking better and better pictures. Still learning, as we all are, but I'm so in love with the D7000.

Photogbiker

You never forget your first....
At about 8 years old my dad (also an amateur photog with a darkroom in the garage) gave me an Argus point and shoot with 126 drop in plastic cartridges. He wanted to see how I handled it and if I liked taking pics.

Passing that test my first real camera was his Minolta SR-1, great-grandfather to the SRT-101's that some of you have mentioned. This is the most basic SLR you can imagine. No battery needed--no metering. One dial for shutter to 1/500, thumb advance, and shutter release. Didn't need a depth of field preview since the lenses were all pre-set. 60th sync speed, but no hot shoe just a pc connection.

For those that have never had the pleasure, a pre-set is a lens that does not automatically stop down when you shoot. Modern lenses are wide open while you are focusing to give you a bright viewfinder. As you push the shutter the lens stops down to your shooting aperture, say f11, takes picture, and then opens back up all within the blackout of the mirror flip. A pre-set has two f-stop rings, one is for shooting and one for opening up the aperture to focus. You set the shooting ring to f11 if you determine that is the exposure. You then use the other ring to open up the lens to its widest aperture (maybe f3.5) to get enough light to focus. Then turn the ring down until it stops at the "pre-set" f11, shoot, wind, and open back up for next shot. This gets pretty exciting in sports! No auto focus and a pre-set lens teach you hand eye coordination very quickly.

No nostalgia here though, fun to pull out the old cameras once in a while and slow things down but in general give me the newest and fastest I can afford. Still have my Mamiya TLR, Super Graphic 4x5, Bronica 645 and others. Sold off the darkroom but saved the film developing reels, tanks and 4x5 tubes just in case. Cameras are worth more to me as a display than what they sell for these days so just keeping them around.

sara505

In 1971 I was given a used Retina IIa. Loved that camera. Everything I know now about photography, and especially how to read light, has its foundation in what I learned from that sweet little range-finder with its whisper-smooth shutter. No light meter, got exposure info off the Tri-x box.

Bruce I

Actually the only camera I can remember what was for me was the old 35mm Pentax 1000 ... when I first got married . Then I went years without upgrading and actually just sticking to P & S camera's for a long time ..... till a trip to Alaska 3 years ago ...daughter had the Nikon D40 that I found easy to use so I went out thinking the D60 has to be a upgrade ....bought it for the trip ... and now I have the D90 cause I like to see my settings outdoors ....

NikonsandVstroms

Nikon FE....and I still use it!

catspaw

my dad's old Pentax Spot-o-matic awesome and he had lenses to choose from plus extenders and everything else. I never cared at all that it was manual focus or manual exposure. just so much fun!

sara505

catspaw wrote: »

my dad's old Pentax Spot-o-matic awesome and he had lenses to choose from plus extenders and everything else. I never cared at all that it was manual focus or manual exposure. just so much fun!

My subsequent camera after the Retina IIa was the Spotmatic F - LOVED that thing! I knew the metering like the back of my hand, and that prism that resolved when in focus - wow! - still makes my heart flutter. I miss that prism like crazy.

hgernhardtjr

I've always loved photography since as far back as I can remember, and still have photos taken with my Brownie Holiday Flash, given to me by my dad back in 1953, if I remember rightly.

Of course, that doesn't count my dad's Ziess Ikon Contax two years previously in Alexandria, VA — he had just cleaned it and left the jeweler's screwdrivers out; two hours later when he stepped back inside I had it all apart. He never did find all the screws, but that event created a hunger for all things camera and photographic and mechanical. Surprisingly, although I was only two and a half, I can remember the incident vividly ... as well as the yelling at me that — eventually — turned into laughter. But those were different, bygone times ...

By the age of 10 it was a Rolleiflex TLR (it was Dad's but he let me use it all the time) and by the early 60s a Calypso I earned the money for, followed by a complete Nikonos system I used extensively for two years in the waters surrounding Okinawa (I was a State Department "brat" and Kubasaki HS graduate!), and on into the early 70's when I went the "pro" camera path.

richmoffitt

Nice thread idea. This was my first camera:



That's a Fisher Price / Kodak 110 from 1984.

I was four years old. A couple years later my parents allowed me to try out their Canon AE-1, which I used since then up through college and still use on occasion (it has taken quite the beating). Wow, I hadn't thought about that until just now.

catspaw

I HAD ONE OF THOSE!!! durable little sucker, I think I hve 3-4 albums of those strange square photos somewhere I didn't even remember it until you posted here thanks!!

richmoffitt wrote: »

Nice thread idea. This was my first camera:



That's a Fisher Price / Kodak 110 from 1984.

I was four years old. A couple years later my parents allowed me to try out their Canon AE-1, which I used since then up through college and still use on occasion (it has taken quite the beating). Wow, I hadn't thought about that until just now.

rpcrowe

My first real camera...
My first "real" camera (other than the KODAK Brownie model box cameras) was a Mercury II 35mm 1/2 frame model. I "could" call it a rangefinder, but that would not be accurate since it had absolutely no rangefinder built in. I simply "guesstimated" the distance, looked at the DOF chart and set the focus manually. However, this was not unusual with the cameras of the early 1950's.



The Mercury did have some features usually only found on the top-line cameras of that era. It had a fast f/2.5 lens and a 1/1,000 second shutter speed.

The fact that it was half frame provided 72 exposures on a 36 exposure of film and 40 exposures on a 20 exposure roll (35mm film was sold in those days in 36 exp and 20 exp rolls, not today's 24 exposure rolls). That made it expensive for a kid who didn't have a darkroom to get the film processed. One roll would shoot my weeks allowance.

Valder

I remember my parents yelling at me every time I ran off with the polaroid SX-70 or Instamatic 104 to take a picture.

I really started taking photos when my Mom came home in the 80s with a Maxxum 5 and the 35-70/4 (which I still have)
but it was later in the 90s when my wife said I could use her Minolta X700 her dad bought for her and she never used. I have that
one as well and use it every summer.

CodyBoxer

First camera...
I used my parents' Brownie Hawkeye during the '60s until I saw an Instamatic. Saved my money for that one. It used flash cubes rather than bulbs. I lost those cameras in a house fire, so I have copies of them now. While in the military, I bought a Minolta Hi-Matic 7S rangefinder. I didn't even know what an SLR was. In fact, I laughed the first time I heard the ca-chunk of an SLR.
My first SLR was a Minolta SRT-202, followed by an XD-11. Marriage and kids pushed the expense of film and developing out of reach.
In 2000, my wife gave me an HP Photosmart 618 and that got me going again. Used that for a few years and then got a Minolta A1, followed by a Canon S3, an Olympus E-510, and finally my D90. I guess I'm a gear hound, but there is a logical progression in the quality and capabilities of the digitals.

Kalamata

first camera
During WW2 my mother was a news paper person (either Santa Cruz or San Jose)using a speed graphice 4x5, I first used it mid fiftes in high school shooting sports etc. by then it had a 120 back on it. As it turned out i used more as a printer then a camera, my first new camera was 1956 Minolta autocord.
ed

Art Scott

It all started with my Dads Kodak Brownie and an argus of the same type (around age 5 or so)......then I graduated to a plethora of instamatics, including 110's,126's, disk cams and Polaroids....my first 35 was a Miranda sensor- somthing...then came the Fuji AX3 and Yashica Mat 124Gold.......Gawd i shot a ton of Weddings and entertainers with that Y 124 mat.......and the Fuji also....then I bought a Minolta SRT 101 for $40 brand new in box with a 50mm...that lens was gone quickly and was replaced with a Vivatar 70-210 f2.8-4 (made by Sigma) and that was the beginning of my love affair with Sigma and zoom lenses..........