Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

My first camera was a "Donald Duck" camera that I chose from the Sears catalogue at age 11. Because of lack of funds of an 11 year old, within three weeks I was developing my own film and making contact prints in our basement. I remember choosing it because I thought from the picture in the catalogue, that it had bellows. :-) That was 66 years ago!

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romanticf16 Loc: Commerce Twp, MI

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie with flash- when I was 7. It took 127 roll film. At 10 I learned how to use a borrowed Leica on a road trip to Florida with my parents- I took all the photos on Kodachrome. By 15 I had purchased a used Argus C44 rangefinder, with wide angle, normal and tele lenses. In High school we had a camera club, with B&W darkroom. We did the yearbook photography and photos for the JR Prom as a fundraiser.After graduation I purchased a Honeywell Pentax SLR- the model before the Spotmatic. In 1965 I borrowed a Nikon F Photomic along with the Pentax for a year of Folk Festivals. I and 2 friends made every festival except Monterey_CA was just too far to drive. We were in the press Pit at the '65 Newport Folk Festival when Bob Dylan was boo'd off stage for coming out with an electric guitar! Within a year I began buying Nikon myself. By 1968 I had 2 Photomic bodies, 200 f4, 105 f2.5, 35mm, 28mm bellows and slide copier, Nikormat projector. All stolen in 1971. It took a few years to recover- then I bought a used Bronica ETR with 3 lenses, then began adding back Nikon too with an FM2 and FA bodies and lots of lenses. I went digital with a Canon S50 (5MP RAW). Next I got a Nikon D300. Still have it and the lenses I bought with it-17-35mm f2.8 and 80-200 f2.8 Nikors. Still shooting Nikon, added an 24-85, 24-120 f4 and a FX body.

bnsf

My first camera was a Kodak 110. I was in the cub scouts and sold candy that l received camera ad a prize in 1965. I was about 10 at the time.

Got started taking photos of the Mississippi River flood in 1965. Dad took us to spots in St. Paul where l took photos. One spot was the lift bridge where the railroad had loaded coal cars stored on bridge so the water would nor damage bridge, and the Milwaukee Road yard aka St. Paul yard. The whole yard was totally under 3 feet or more of water.

Next camera was a Sony X700 film and used it to take railroad slides, then a Sony 100 digital until l finally purchased another Sony a77M2. I still take railroad photos. Will always enjoy this.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

My first camera was a Kodak, a Brownie 127 I think. My first SLR was a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL. From there I had a few Pentax bodies, including their first AF. Next was a Nikon F5 and many D cameras starting with the D1H to the D5, D810 and D500. My interest began right at the start of 8th grade and is now almost 50 years old.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

My first camera was that little black cube Kodak, called a brownie I think. The year was about 1938, or so. My next camera was an Argus C3 that I got used from a drug store for $5 in about 1944, or so.

digit-up Loc: Flushing, Michigan

My very first camera was a big surprize to me... Around christmas time in 1959 or so, I sneaked a peak in my mother's closet and saw a yellow box that said "Hawk-eye" on it. I figured that my mom had gotten me a "Cowboys & indians set-up. Boy, was I surprized that it was a HAWKEYE Camera from Kodak. It was quite a long time between that and my buying my own Good camera. While I was serving in vietnam 1968-1969, I bought many (for family) Pentax spotmatics. I thought that, at the time, they were just the best. I inherited a few canons, when my younger brother(a navy photographer) died in a helicopter crash. I've since gone back to PENTAX, in a very big way:: K-01, K-5, K-s2 and most recently MY favorite ever ..The PENTAX K-1. Needles to say, I love the PENTAX GLASS. Got lots.. RJM

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

OK, Ok, they got so noisy and raucous I had to let some of them come out to play. They're still excited, but a little more manageable now...

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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

My first exposure to photography (pun intended) came when I was very young, 2 or 3 years old, following my Dad around as he shot with these:


Dad gave me his Leicas about 10 years ago. My sister has the boxes full of thousands of slides that he shot with them (carefully organized and labelled by Mom), including family photos, travel photos all over the U.S., England and Europe, plus quite a few "work related" (Dad was a USAF pilot). We have talked about digitizing all those slides, but it's a pretty daunting task!

Didn't get a camera of my own until I was about 20 yo, when I bought a used Konica T3 with a couple lenses and took photography courses in college. It became sort of an unofficial minor (my major and degree are in journalism) and other cameras, lenses and accessories soon followed... more 35mm SLRs, medium and large format.... as well as a full darkroom setup handling up to 4x5 film. Primarily B&W, but some color too.

Although I wore out and eventually had to replace the two lenses bought with it, I still have that 1st Konica SLR and it's still working (the chrome one on the left):

irish17 Loc: Paris, Ontario, Canada

First serious camera was a SLR, Konica T3 in 1974.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

first camera was my father's kodak folder which i used to take pictures of Hurricane Carol along the Connecticut shoreline back in 1954.

father christmas Loc: Goodlettsville, Tennessee

Brownie Hawkeye. Loved that camera used it from the time I was 12 thru Highschool
Got a Konica Rangefinder when I graduated from HS
Got a Minolta SRT101 in Vietnam with multiple lenses.
Multiple point and shoot digital cameras
First DSLR was A Canon T5i.
First mirrorless was an Olympus OM-D 10 Mkii, with a Olympus E-PL5 as a backup body

Rich2236 Loc: E. Hampstead, New Hampshire

My first camera was a Voigtlander Vitesse T. Not thinking about anything in particular, it was a very heavy rain storm in the San Fernando Valley and one of my friends suggested we shoot him in full scuba gear swimming in the street. Well, i did and the photo wound up in the then Life Magazine and i got paid $200 for the picture. There was also a car in the middle of the road just at the moment i shot the picture. That started me off on photography.
Rich...

MCullen Loc: Encinitas, CA

I was 8 years old in 1963 and got a Kodak Brownie little film camera. Ironically, I had just pulled out my photo album from then a few days ago to prove to my husband (not that I needed to ) that I must have had photography genes way back then too. I've always been interested but really passionate in the past ten years or so now that I'm not raising young kids.

dfrodin Loc: Colorado Springs, CO

First camera was a Nikkormat Ftn with a 85 - 205mm lens purchased by mail from Japan in the early 70s. Film cost too much to use and I didn't really get back into photography until two years ago with a Nikon D5100. I have now graduated to a D500, which should be my last camera.

bickfor903

A Polaroid "Swinger" from the mid 60s. Really belonged to an older neighbor, but her brother and I adopted it as our own.
Didn't really get into photography until two decades later with a Yashica rangefinder.