Mine was this:
(http://www.praktica-collector.de/images/Cameras/157_Praktica_PL_nova_I/P_nova_I_front.jpg)
http://www.praktica-collector.de/157_Praktica_PL_nova_I.htm
Huge, and built like a tank. Got it second hand while I was at school, it was quite a few years old. No poncey built in light meter - you used a hand held meter or estimated. It kind of looked like a Soviet tower block - you could just picture red drapes hanging down it, and tanks driving past.
Look at the angle of that shutter release!
It had an automatic diaphragm. That's not auto exposure, it's simply the fact that the aperture stayed open until the shutter was released.
No hot shoe. It had a 50mm 2.8 lens.
To change lenses, you had to screw the thing on and unscrew it (42mm screw thread was the most popular lens mount at the time!).
Had a great time using it, and learnt loads about close up photography (all I could afford was extension tubes and a cheap Boots flashgun).
What about you lot? I hope there's a hefty limit on the length of each post, otherwsie OldBoy will have some issues....
;)
Can you try to add a picture of your cameras when you post?
Oldboy is banned from this thread
Be fair even OB can only have had one first camera - anyone mentioning more than one should be edited....
He did a bulk buy of cameras and lenses after his first bank job though
sorry OB but we only have 20000gb space left so your kit list would not fit
when you say proper, does that mean polaroids dont count ? that was what got me into taking photos :legit:
My 'first' ever camera was one of those pocket jobbies that took 110 film cartridges.
When it failed to capture anything decent from a train trip through the Pyrenees i got a Praktica with a 28-200 'Super Zoom' as it was called at the time.
A few months into ownership these got dropped from a loco cab and smashed and the resulting insurance payout allowed my to get a Canon A1 which i had until the late 90's
My Praktica was 'state of the art' compared to Chris's but none the less its basic build was great for learning and were it not for the accident i would have been pleased to carry on with it for who knows how long...
Zenit B
Mine was a Zenit too - cannot remember the model.
My first proper camera was a Canon A1 - bought by my parents for my 21st birthday. Still have it. Must take it out of the cupboard and use it again!
My first 'serious' camera was a Zorki 4K rangefinder - a fairly blatant Leica clone.
Canon 350D, which I`ve just sold.
Nikon FM. Bought it with money earned mowing lawns. It took a lot of lawns to earn the money.
Then some really nice person stole it in the early '90s.
H.
Olympus OM1. Bought when I was a student and used until a few years ago, when I got a D70. A great little camera which is sitting on my shelf looking a bit forlorn as I write this.
First real camera was an Agfa Isolette, bought on the 'drip' when I was doing my National Service in Sylt in Germany back in 1956.
A medium format with a bellows front took a 120 film. Even then you purchased those little extras to go with it. A rangefinder that allowed you to get the focus right and some sort of basic exposure meter on which you turned a knob until you could see a number clearly in the eyepiece of it.
I never got it back to the UK. Her Majesty's Excise and Customs confiscated it at Harwich because I didn't have any money to pay the duty. (Heavy night out in Hamburg two nights previous had used up all my cash).
Still got some pictures I took with it somewhere.
Alan,
I looked on the web and found a picture of you in action.....
(http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2007/09/george_eastman_580x.jpg)
:2funny: :tup: ;)
First proper camera? Does that include 127 roll film cameras? If so, then...
http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/family-addition/ (http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/family-addition/)
If not, then...
http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/30-years/ (http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/30-years/)
Quote from: minky_monkey on November 15, 2009, 12:12:55 PM
Alan,
I looked on the web and found a picture of you in action.....
(http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2007/09/george_eastman_580x.jpg)
:2funny: :tup: ;)
Ah Happy Days Martin, I've still got that cap, I'll wear it to the next CC meet. :tup:
Yashica Rangefinder. Hand me down from my older brother. Still have it. Unfortunately the Film advance lever is busted and the remaining metal is extremely sharp, have a nice scar on my thumb as proof. If I can ever find a replacement lever I'll give the camera another go.
Not sure what it actually was (though Clacton Dave once posted a picture that looked remarkably similar to it). It was a folding bellows camera that looked a bit like an Agfa Record (but wasn't).
I got 8 frames per roll of film with manual everything (pretty sure there was no light meter and certainly no flash). A roll would last me all summer and I don't recall ever having an out of focus or badly exposed shot. Must have been magic.
My dad had a couple of half frame Olympus Pens and I used one of those a couple of times. Which make me feel all nostalgic every time I see the E-P1 :)
I kind of expected a lot more Zenit cameras to be owned by those of my generation.
Found this site:
http://www.zenit-camera.com/zenit_cameras.htm
According to wiki, Zenit cameras were still being produced until 2005.
This is the maddest of the lot
(http://www.zenit-camera.com/images/bzenit412ls.jpg)
Even though I never helped the Soviets by buying a Zenit, I still managed to economically support a different totalitarian military dictatorship (East Germany) by buying the Praktica. Makes me proud! :)
Surprised also to see no mention of the following:
-Pentax K1000
-Olympus OM10 (at the time, the best selling SLR in the world)
Quote from: chris@seary.com on November 16, 2009, 02:17:25 PM
Surprised also to see no mention of the following:
-Pentax K1000
-Olympus OM10 (at the time, the best selling SLR in the world)
My first 35mm SLR was a Pentax K1000, though I eventually PX-d it for a Praktica BX20 twin-lens and flashgun kit. Over 12 or so years they were my only 35mm SLRs - curious to think that we are now expected to upgrade kit every year :legit:
Here they all are.
(http://www.praktica-collector.de/images/Cameras/157_Praktica_PL_nova_I/P_nova_I_front.jpg)
http://www.praktica-collector.de/157_Praktica_PL_nova_I.htm
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Zenit12.jpg/180px-Zenit12.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenit_(camera)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/Canon-a1-top-web.jpg/288px-Canon-a1-top-web.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_A-1
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Zorki4.jpg/288px-Zorki4.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorki_4k
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Canon_EOS_Rebel_XT.JPG/250px-Canon_EOS_Rebel_XT.JPG)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_350d
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Nikon_FM.jpg/288px-Nikon_FM.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_fm
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Olympus_OM-1.jpg/200px-Olympus_OM-1.jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_OM-1
(http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/images/AgfaAnsco/AgfaIsolette-3.jpg)
http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?AgfaIsolette.html~mainFrame
(http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/files/2007/05/b127mk3.thumbnail.jpg)
Kodak Brownie 127 mk3
(http://inbothworlds.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/zenit-e.thumbnail.jpg)
http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/30-years/
My first proper camera was a Film camera, Minolta 5000 autofocus with a siggy 35/70mm zoom lens. A christmas pressy from the wife way back in the mid 80s. Still have the lens but the camera was replaced a couple of years later for a Minolta 7000i Dynax which I still use now and then.
My first was a Zenit, can't remember the model though. :-[ Built like a tank. :)
2nd was a Praktica MTL-5
3rd was a Canon EOS 600
Then went digital. :tup:
Quote from: chris@seary.com on November 16, 2009, 11:30:22 PM
Here they all are.
Ooo no. Definitely wasn't an Isolette. The door opened to the side not the bottom ;)
http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0
Been trying for some time to get the picture to appear here, no luck or no know how :-[
Just four examples of Agfa Isolette images. Deckle edged contact prints, development and printing the same worked out at about 6 shillings, 30p in decimal, very expensive at the time if you were only on about £2.20 a week, it ate into your beer money, Carlsberg strong at 7 old pence per 75cl bottle!
I've been looking for that Donkey that sh8ts money ever since I took the picture in Flensburg. One for Dave Bracher the Meteors on the apron, and the other two of yours truly spending my youth defending the realm against the communists hordes threatening from the East!
P.S. Jonathon all taken in landscape format. ;)
(http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_Isolette%20pics001.jpg) (http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/albums/userpics/Isolette%20pics001.jpg)
I had a brown bakolite camera first. Almost oval in shape but not 35mm.
This was my first proper 35mm camera. Made in Korea and had a built in light meter and provision to put filters on the lens but it was a fixed focal length. Seiko 40mm f2.8. ASA was altered on the underside of the lens aswell. Been in the garage for years and the leather case was rotten but the camera seems to work ok. Just oiled the mechanics of it but needs a battery for the light meter.
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:4R3sbZb4oJE6GM:http://elekm.net/zeiss-ikon/art/tenax_ii-242.jpg)
Tenax II
This was my first real camera - before this I had a pre war box camera with a home made wire frame viewfinder.
The Tenax II used 35mm film with 50 1 inch square negatives per roll. It had a superb 40mm f2 Sonnar lens and a very clear coupled rangefinder.
I wish I still had it - today they make well over £1000 in good condition....
I have used many others on my way to digital and although it was always great fun I like it better now as it is more instantanious....
Sorry the picture is so small - I found it in Google Images and asked permission to use it.
Agfa Isolette 2. Apotar 85mm Lens, f4.5 Max shutter 300. 120 Film. I purchased this in 1952 from a friendly pharmacy, who allowed me paying him weekly, credit facilities were very rare in those days.
My first proper camera was a Cosmorex 500 SE (which was a rebadged Zenit -- not sure which model).
It was big, heavy and clunky, but it was mine. I bought it after Christmas with money that I had saved from delivering newspapers.
(http://elekm.net/pages/images/cosmorex.jpg)
I took it with me to many, many places as a young man. It replaced an old Spartus folding camera (127 film) and a Kodak Instamatic that my parents had given me.
I got this camera 2nd hand in about 1958, and soon afterwards had a photo I took with it published in the local paper. I've kept it ever since, and last year I put a roll of 120 film through it and all 8 exposures were quite reasonable. The viewfinders are a nightmare though....
(http://cameracraniums.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_my%20old%20box%20camera.jpg)
My first camera - I was aged about 8
Simon,
I like that camera. It looks more advanced than most box cameras.