Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

Now you're really causing me to 'go WAY back'! It was about 1945 when my father (he was a grocer), ordered 25 cases of Van Camp's Pork & Beans, and the 'gift' for doing so was a camera! Don't know if I ever knew the name but it used 127 film, TWO shots to a frame, yielding 16 pictures instead of 8. The negative size was close to that of 35mm. Aside from the lens distortion and an occasional light-leak, I treasured that little jewel. Later I saved to buy a 'real' camera, which was an Ansco Sure Shot Jr. BOX camera - no flash - no adjustments, but it's the first 'real' camera I did serious shoting with. (I even won a local contest shooting a 'park size' replica of the Statue of Liberty!) It's been a fun ride ever since.

cjbarnett

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye with a flash (flash bulbs) and used 127 roll film. I got it for Christmas around 1950 at age 8. I became interested in experimenting with the camera and went beyond taking pictures of people to night photography and pictures of the moon. All these low light experiments failed primarily because I did not know what a a light meter and was literally shooting in the dark. Later, being a curious boy, I reasoned that if the camera were light tight that it should also be water tight. So I immersed it in water and that was the end of my camera and picture taking for a long time. After I got out of school my brother was in the national guard and told me how he could get really good prices on 35 mm slr cameras at the PX on his base. To I got him to buy me a Minolta SRT101 with a 58 mm f1.4 lens. I learned a lot about photography from using that camera with b&w film. The lens was very sharp, leading me to believe that all lenses were sharp. I got a Minolta 105 mm f2.5 and it was equally sharp and reliable. But made a wrong turn to less expensive and slower zooms such as the Vivitar 90-230 mm that was bulky and hard to shoot with, as I remember. I started buying Nikons in the late 70s and have been using them since then. The only mistake I made with Nikons was the Coolpix 5700. The low resolution and relatively low lens quality drove me crazy after years of triX other b&w films and Kodachrome slide film. I currently have a Nikon D300 and recently bought a D810 that I have had a very good time with.

Nosaj Loc: Sarasota, Florida

1st camera: Brownie Starlet
Interest started in high school when taking pictures of hockey games for the student magazine.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Tower was a Sears "house" brand used on cameras and other "gear". Somewhere I have a "Tower" typewriter! From the looks of it, I'm gonna assume that the "Snappy" used 127 roll film. Cool looking retro piece!

srherrmann Loc: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

First camera was a Kodak Duaflex II I "inherited" from my father which I still have. First SLR was a Minolta SRT 101 which I bought at the Canadian PX in Germany in 1970. I later sold it for a Nikon Phototomic FTN. First DSLR is a Nikon D600.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

It looks like a Kodak "35" (non-rangefinder model.) They were made from 1938 through WW2 (Kodak produced military versions also). I believe it was Kodaks first US made 35mm. (original Retinas were German made.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

My first camera was Chinese made (forgot the name) TLR camera that used 220 film. The shutter was on the side of the lens.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

First Camera: Kodak Brownie Hawkeye (and later a DuoFlex) both hand me downs.

First 35mm : Argus C3

First SLR: Pentax K-1000 (Stayed with Pentax,generally since, Multiple Pentax DSLRs)

First Digital : Sony Mavica FD-95 (still have)

Jules Karney Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada

Brownie Hawkeye

JohnFrim Loc: Somewhere in the Great White North.

I had a friend who owned an old Exacta (I believe) 35 mm camera that had an interesting feature -- a built-in film cutter. There was a small knurled nut at the bottom on the take-up side of the camera that you unscrewed, and then you pulled it down. Inside, attached to the pulldown rod, was a hooked blade that cut the film. I suspect it allowed you to take out the exposed bit of film for processing without having to "waste" the rest of the roll, just in case you captured a time-sensitive photo on the first part of your "long 36-sxposure" roll. Maybe it was intended for press photographers or folks who might have done their own bulk loading of cassettes with longer strips of film and didn't want to expose the entire roll before processing.

Paul J. Svetlik Loc: Colorado

My first camera was a pre-war model of Kodak Junior 620 taking 120 size film (6x9) but only on metal spools and causing problems because the 120 size film on metal spools was not available any more. The drug store employees had to rewind the purchased film from the wood spools to metal spools. Quite a deal those days! Ten years after I was able to purchase my first SLR Praktica with Tessar 50 mm, F 2.8 lens.

Hound_Dog

Used to take pictures of Kathy Madole in 5 th grade from a hundered yards away with an Eastman Kodak box camera with 612 film. In eighth grade cica 1958 I received for Christmas a complete B&W Photo developing kit enlarger and all. My farther in closed the shower in the basement for a Dark room and I saved up $50 for a Yashika 35mm camera. That's my story and I'm stick'en to it.

raferrelljr Loc: CHARLOTTE, NC

Mine was a Mamiya-Sekor DTL 100.
Then Nikkormat FT; FE-2; F1; F100; D70; D200; D300S; D800.
Next D500; D810.

Aeneas Loc: Somers, NY

My first film camera was a Kodak Brownie Flash 620.
My first 35 mm camera was a Welti, manufactured in Germany. Fully manual.
My first digital camera was a Canon 10D.

Cape Codder Loc: Cape Cod

My first was the Sears Roebuck equivalent of the Brownie starlight(?), an Ansco.. when I was off for my first trip to Europe, my parents gave me an Instamatic. Still have some of the slides I took with it. My second year of teaching, a fellow teacher convinced me to get a camera with adjustable shutter speed/aperture. It was a Yashica rangefinder. this was the 60's.

A few years later moved up to Minolta slr (SRT 101, I think). Bought some lenses. In 2006 bought my first digital, a Nikon with a lens which moved on the side. Wish I still had it, but left the batteries in too long without using it.

Finally moved up to a DSLR in 2010. It was a Canon Rebel. Now have the Canon t3i and it does what I need. Also have a Panasonic Lumix ZS-60 for when I am out in the woods. I love them both and love being able to mess around with the pictures afterwards.