What was your very first Camera ? Please post Pictures. This shall be interesting.

DPT_Studio

What Was your First Camera ?
Do You Still Own it ?
Is it Working ?

For Me it was Minolta AUTOCORD 6x6 cm Used AGFA Film Professional and Yes I still have it and it’s working.

pathfinder

Kodak Retinette 1A, first acquired about 1958 or so -- a totally manual controlled non-interchangeable lens camera that offered a fair lens and a fair shutter with manual guesstimate focusing. Great for learning how to set exposure and focus years ago. I shot a lot (100s of feet) of Tri-X with that camera, I wonder where it is now.

Many pictures of a Retinette 1A
https://www.google.com/search?q=kodak+retinette+1a+photos&sa=X&biw=1476&bih=1173&tbm=isch&source=iu&pf=m&ictx=1&fir=JdtYDJhmWii-mM%3A%2CD5Dvpa2J0i2ekM%2C_&usg=__xINZTy5HlS6CKUwjHLFF-L45Hw4=&ved=0ahUKEwjU9Jf_n8vXAhXF4CYKHV5fAF4Q9QEIPzAI#imgrc=DqiVeQJY6f1xdM:

A Review of a Retinette 1A
https://www.35mmc.com/28/05/2017/retinette-1a-review/

My first SLR was a Mamiya-Sekor 500 DTL - not what I wanted but what I could afford as a very poor college student. I was thrilled to have it. I even got a second lens a year or two later. Wow!

https://www.google.com/search?q=mamiya+sekor+500+dtl+photos&tbm=isch&source=iu&pf=m&ictx=1&fir=eHEizDBlcrIZaM%3A%2CzHTJ8P__vlVFLM%2C_&usg=__B4YqT3YPWEK_v7faDGpVxzcnZ7U=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjyhtLJpcvXAhVI4SYKHWtdBiMQ9QEIQTAJ&biw=1476&bih=1173#imgrc=eHEizDBlcrIZaM:

pathfinder

Along the line of this thread - I have a couple images of the cameras used by Vivian Meier from an early exhibit after she was discovered posthumously - they may not have been her very first cameras but they were interesting just the same

A Rollei

An Exacta

And a pre-war Leica

bfluegie

I started off with an old Kodak 126 instamatic--fixed focus, fixed everything. But, I did try to work on composition which was probably the only thing the photographer could change with one of those cameras other than adding an almost useless flashcube. I kept asking my father questions about his camera so he encouraged me to get an SLR when I was in college, the Konica TC. I thought that was a sweet camera. It was a step up from my father's match needle meter as it had shutter priority auto exposure. That was pretty much it as far as features go. The 50mm f/1.7 Hexanon lens was pretty good, though. I kept that camera for years, even after getting newer film cameras. I had actually decided to start using it again to try to get back in touch with some of the fundamentals when it was stolen. I bought a replacement on eBay, but that was right around the time that the digital sensors really started making it apparent that digital was the way to go. So I went that route instead. I still have the replacement TC, though and I can still get the meter to work using hearing aid batteries since you can't get the original mercury batteries anymore. Well, it's been a few years since I actually tried...

@pathfinder, I have several of my father's older cameras including his first SLR which was a Mamia Sekor 1000 DTL. He loved that camera and used it for years. He finally decided to get an auto exposure Olympus OM1 or OM2 (I can't remember which) but he never seemed as fond of the Olympus as he was of the Mamiya.

ziggy53

My first camera was a Kodak Bakelite Baby Brownie. I shot that thing until the shutter no longer worked. Later, I dissected the body and converted the shutter to open and shut with the shutter button; down button opened the shutter and up button closed the shutter. Fine for time exposures and some special effects. (After my father passed away, I acquired all of his cameras, including a working copy of a Kodak Bakelite Baby Brownie.)

My second camera was a Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic, which I also shot until it broke. I wound up throwing that one away.

After that I used my father's Kodak Signet (I think the model 35). I was allowed to use that only under his supervision, except for one school field trip. (Got a sucessful 6-second exposure on that trip to the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.)

For graduating the 8th grade, I got a Honeywell Pentax H1a, 135 format SLR, with a 50mm, f1.8 lens. I still have the body but the lens went on another body I gave to a friend for his daughter's first camera.

After that I bought a Hasselblad 500C, 6x6 medium format camera, plus a Hasselblad S-Planar C 120mm F 5.6 lens to start. Also got a Rollei E36RE flash, at the time the most powerful handle-bracket flash in the world.

Then a Mamiya C330 twin-lens medium format body and 80mm, f2.8 lens. No where near a sharp as the Hasselblad lenses, but a lot more affordable and good enough for weddings and events.

Awais Yaqub

2004 Sony CyberShot W1, it is still working. I don't use it anymore

LPC

Hanimex 110 TF. I wish I still had it.

puzzledpaul

Wasn't mine specifically - just something that arrived into the house when I was just into double figures ... some sort of 'brownie box' job.
First cam that I bought - to take with me when working overseas (Africa) in the early 70's Olympus 35 ECR.
First SLR ... Minolta SRT 101.
No survivors ...

pp

Cavalier

Mine is a Minolta XG7, circa 1981 (I, of course, was a toddler at the time ). I still have it. It works, but I don't use it anymore - it just sits lonely in the closet with its zoon lens, macro lenses and a roll of film still in the box.

sarasphotos

Interesting thread... I can tell that several of us are in the same age group. Like others, my first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 126, which got lost somewhere in Disneyland while on a college choir tour in the early 70's. Not too long thereafter I was able to get a Mamiya Sekor 500DTL which I used into the early 80's, at which point I acquired my beloved Pentax ME Super with the 50mm 1.7 lens. I had to have it repaired once or twice, but I used it until 2006 when I got my first digital camera. Last year I donated all of that gear to the props department of our theater.

Brett1000

@sarasphotos said:
Interesting thread... I can tell that several of us are in the same age group. Like others, my first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 126, which got lost somewhere in Disneyland while on a college choir tour in the early 70's. Not too long thereafter I was able to get a Mamiya Sekor 500DTL which I used into the early 80's, at which point I acquired my beloved Pentax ME Super with the 50mm 1.7 lens. I had to have it repaired once or twice, but I used it until 2006 when I got my first digital camera. Last year I donated all of that gear to the props department of our theater.

yes, the older generation's first camera was probably film ..... the younger set - digital phone or tablet

compasiune11

Pfff. experienced photographeres here. My first was a Canon 6D

GSPeP

First camera: Kodak Instamatic
First Analog DSLR: Canon AE-1 Program
First Digital: Sony Mavica FD97
First Digital DSLR: Canon 300D (Digital Rebel)

David_S85

Canon AT-1 in 1976 or 77. Looks nearly identical to the much more famous Canon AE-1, except it was full manual. Learned a lot with that one, especially guessing exposures because I had to figure it all out in my head first with what I wanted to prioritise. College photography class required a manual, in those days. Even if I hadn't taken the classes offered to me, I would have bought the AT-1 over the AE.

StueveShots

It was a Canon AE-1 and, yep, I still own it....now where did I put it?

denisegoldberg

Olympus OM-1, long time ago (sometime in the 70s I think).

cmason

Olympus OM-1n. 1980. Shot high school yearbook photos and built a darkroom at school to develop them. Best photography learning experience ever. Shoot manual and often.

AnnieBoww

wow, you guys have such old school cameras, I think it's very cool but hard to take pictures, in all their manual settings. My first camera was Nikon d3100 and I really love it, it is the simplest of its lineup very convenient for a beginner, then I changed the lens, but the body left the same.

Geordie Boy

Hi, My first real camera was a Miranda FM with a 50mm f1.8 lens, about 1966. Trashed it photographing trains - the lens dropped off, eventually! Progressed to Pentax 6X7s in time, then a range of Nikon Digital
cameras ... Coolpix 500, D70, D300s, D800 and now D500. Mostly use my Coolpix P7800 and i-Phone SE now - my basic tenet being the image not the camera - all cameras take pictures!

JBAdams

A Wirgin Edixa bought for a few dollars at a garage sale. My first SLR was a Fujica ST605 received for Christmas 1977. Two years later I bought my first Nikon F2. I still shoot film regularly.

Justiceiro

The first camera that I bought myself was the Praktica L, as pictured above, but with a Lydith 30mm. I no longer have it, as my house got robbed back when I lived in Jersey, and they walked off with probably about $30 worth of eastern European cameras (A Zenit, a Flexaret, etc.)

I replaced it with a Praktica LTL, which I still use for 35mm film on occasion. I like to shoot film every 6 months or so on these old Eastern Beasts because they make good quality pictures, but they force you to pay attention to the basics (no autofocus, manual only exposure, all prime lenses) and I feel that keeps me from getting lazy. I also roll with a new flexaret, and sometimes a Pentacon 6. But mostly I just mount the lenses on my Canon with an adapter. (The Zeiss Jena glass is really, really good. )

Lornce

My Mom let me use her Kodak Instamatic until I accidentally dropped it off a stone ledge while hiking with friends. Short time later a buddy in highschool loaned me his Zenit for a week or so and I was hooked. Bought a Yashica TL-Electro soon after in the spring of 1978. It was basically Yashica's answer to the Pentax Spotmatic, only less expensive.

About a year later I found a twin lens reflex Yashica 2-1/4 in a pawn shop for $45. Still have that camera.

WildernessExclusives

Who else started shooting on 110 film!?

Jrtconceptual

My first camera was a Brownie Star Flash I found half buried in our local sand dunes when I was about 7 years old. By the time I was a teen I had graduated up to a Minolta SRT. I'm just now returning to film and love it.

sara505

1. Brownie Starflash, at age 8, 1958.
2. Retina II a, circa 1970.
3. Pentax Spotmatic F, 1975
4. Canon film camera, 1990s
5. Canon digital slr, early 2000s
   Since then have owned several Canons: 40d, 5dmkii; G12, also GoPro, and Olympus TG4. Now shooting with EOS R

RalphMoon

The first camera I remember was a "Graphic 35" that belonged to my parents.

Image copied from eBay

The first cameras I owned were a pre-Spotmatic, screw mount Asahi Pentax, ordered straight from Japan ...

Image by Bilby - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15714982

... and a Mamiya C33 TLR.

Image copied from eBay

I no longer have these cameras, having sold them (and my enlarger) decades ago to buy an expensive bicycle. I'm now back making pictures, and the bicycle is with someone young enough to make good use of it.

Ralph
Smugmug site: https://ralphmoon.com

willard3

My first camera my father gave me in 1960 or thereabouts. Completely manual.
A Tower from Sears. My father purchased everything from Sears.
I was the photog for the school yearbook with this.
It's still around but I can't find it.

katsee

The real camera I have is the one I use. Its a Nikon D3400. I'm realizing I got the best camera that I thought I did!! As I have begun to work with the camera become more comfortable since 2019. It’s mine and I’m happy with it.