What was your first proper camera?

[ABERS]

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.

[minky_monkey]

Alan,

I looked on the web and found a picture of you in action.....

[Hybridphotog]

First proper camera? Does that include 127 roll film cameras? If so, then...
http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/family-addition/

If not, then...
http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/30-years/

[ABERS]

Alan,

I looked on the web and found a picture of you in action.....

Ah Happy Days Martin, I've still got that cap, I'll wear it to the next CC meet.

[spinner]

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.

[Jonathan]

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

[chris@seary.com]

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


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)

[Nemesis]

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 

[chris@seary.com]

Here they all are.

http://www.praktica-collector.de/157_Praktica_PL_nova_I.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenit_(camera)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_A-1


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorki_4k


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_350d


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_fm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_OM-1


http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?AgfaIsolette.html~mainFrame


Kodak Brownie 127 mk3


http://inbothworlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/30-years/

[alan1j]

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.
   

[Mick]

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. 

[Jonathan]

Here they all are.

Ooo no.  Definitely wasn't an Isolette.  The door opened to the side not the bottom

[ABERS]

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.

[jimthetrain]

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.

[Malcolm1938]

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.