kayaker Loc: Supply, NC

My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic. I became interested in photography while in Boy Scouts. Early on I had a yearning to "capture" an event or an image in time; to preserve it somehow.

dochal

In 1954 I entered the service and had enough money to buy a camera.I was reading camera mags and had decided on an Arbus C3. When I went to the photo shop (in Fairbanks Alaska) I was talked into an Exacta and was very happy with the decision.

Kingman

My first camera was a the Kodak Box Brownie in late 50's as an 8 year old
My first SLR was a Pentax Spotmatic in 1968
My most recent DSLR is the Pentax K1

Photo Girl Loc: SE Pasco County, FL

The first camera I ever used was my parents' box camera and I still have it. I bought my first camera when I was about 16. It was a Kodak with flash bulbs (expensive). When I was 18 I bough an Argus SLR (cheap) and after one bump, the mirror dislodged; and immediately bought my 1967 Nikon F which I used extensively and still have. It is my favorite camera. With its metering system, and f stop preview, it was just about impossible to mess up a picture, plus all its lenses had depth of field markings. It's too bad film and developing are not as available as before digital.

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

I guess I was born into photography. My dad was a newspaper photographer in Washington DC, working the city and also was a White House Press Photographer. My first camera was a Speed Graphic 4X5(very well used), then a 2 1/4X 3 1/4 Speed Graphic(still have it). Nikon "F"(still have also) was next. I was working photo gigs at 15 doing local award ceremonies at various organizations. A series of Nikons over the years.
Retired now but still keep my hand in with a Nikon D5300 picking up an occasional gig.

gmulberry

My first was a new Kodak Pony 35 mm in 1953, for $35. Second was a used Universal half frame, got 72 pic on 36 exposure 35mm film. I picked it up for $10 in a pawn shop in Monterrey CA while stationed at FT. Ord when the old Kodak quit working. Still have it today though have not used it since 1959.

billwassmann Loc: Emerson, NJ

When I was 13 a friend showed me his makeshift darkroom and I saw a piece of white paper become a photo. I was hooked. That was 74 years ago. An older friend loaned me a German folder and later his Leica. The first camera I bought was a miniature Speed Graphic, 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. That was in 1946. I still have it.

wmurnahan Loc: Bloomington IN

Plastic Kodak Brownie with flash attachment, late 60's. Bought first 35 in 1975.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

My first camera was a Kodak Autographic. No. I'm not yet 90. My mother let me use it in 1950 to join the high school camera club. (My parents bought it when they got married in 192?. My second camera was a Rollieflex that my photo teacher in high school brought back from his service as part of the Occupation in Germany. I saved up and bought my third, an Argus C3.

alliebess Loc: suburban Philadelphia

First camera I used was my father's Ansco, a folding camera that used 116 film; he sent it with me to school once a year in elementary school so that I could photograph my classmates, 1940s. I received a Kodak box camera as a Christmas gift in elementary school at a time when kids didn't usually own cameras. In senior year of high school I bought a Kodak Signet 35mm camera. Later cameras, a Pentax K1000, a Nikon 35mm, then moved into digital with a Kodak 5 mp. Interest was initiated by my father allowing me to use his camera and by reading (looking at the photographs) National Geographic.

elwynn Loc: Near Atlanta, GA

Some kind of Kodak box camera that used 116 film. This was in the 1940's. First good camera was a Minolta Autocord twin lens reflex. Loved that one.

Skykomish2

Back in the 50's you could order stuff from cereal boxes. My first camera, at 6 years old, was a box camera and it cost 25-cents and 2 Frosted Flakes box tops. Amazing enough, it took great pictures. Fortunately, my mom saved those pics. I took that camera apart to see how it worked. I have had many film cameras since that sit on shelves. Had a hard time moving to digital, but now embrace that technology.

gary northrop

My first camera was a Kodak Pony 135 when I joined the Navy in 1954. I still have it, along with its leather case with the fang punctures from a black bear that ransacked our camp while firefighting in the back country. My buddy had an Argus C3. They both took excellent pictures.

Ron SS Loc: Silver Spring, MD

My very first camera was a cheap plastic unit I got for a couple bucks and box tops. As a chemistry graduate student with lab equipment, I was able to jerry rig contact wires set off by the shutter release lever to add flashbulb flash. My first real camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye lent me by my girlfriend around 1967. My second was an Ikoflex TLR, a Rolleiflex twin lens knockoff - 120 and 220 roll film. I then got serious taking advantage of Minor White occupying the Visiting Professor of Photography Chair at MIT. My thesis advisor was a photographer and we had a group darkroom. I then bought a Nikkormat Ftn with its Copal -S shutter, giving me an extra stop of sync speed to play games with mixed lighting. All in the 1960s.
Photography continued in the early 1970s working at US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, where I purchased (for work) a Nikon F2 and Olympus XA 35mm cameras, and also used several Polaroid bellows cameras. This included 10,000 ASA B&W film packs for low light work, and several other emulsions, including infrared. One very different camera I used was a 16mm movie film setup for stop motion movies. But instead of a quick shot and long time interval between exposures, I photographed very low light experiments by using high speed color movie film, push processed, with shutter open times of 30 seconds, close briefly, and take next 30 second exposure. The combustion experiments had two flames of very different intensity. So I then rewound the film in camera, registered, and shot a second series at approximately a quarter second, superimposed on the first shoot series. Film made a big hit at my first international combustion conference presentation.
Polaroid movie cameras came later, as did a progression of personal Nikon SLRs.

Ron SS Loc: Silver Spring, MD

My very first camera was a cheap plastic unit I got for a couple bucks and box tops. As a chemistry graduate student with lab equipment, I was able to jerry rig contact wires set off by the shutter release lever to add flashbulb flash. My first real camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye lent me by my girlfriend around 1967. My second was an Ikoflex TLR, a Rolleiflex twin lens knockoff - 120 and 220 roll film. I then got serious taking advantage of Minor White occupying the Visiting Professor of Photography Chair at MIT. My thesis advisor was a photographer and we had a group darkroom. I then bought a Nikkormat Ftn with its Copal -S shutter, giving me an extra stop of sync speed to play games with mixed lighting. All in the 1960s.
Photography continued in the early 1970s working at US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, where I purchased (for work) a Nikon F2 and Olympus XA 35mm cameras, and also used several Polaroid bellows cameras. This included 10,000 ASA B&W film packs for low light work, and several other emulsions, including infrared. One very different camera I used was a 16mm movie film setup for stop motion movies. But instead of a quick shot and long time interval between exposures, I photographed very low light experiments by using high speed color movie film, push processed, with shutter open times of 30 seconds, close briefly, and take next 30 second exposure. The combustion experiments had two flames of very different intensity. So I then rewound the film in camera, registered, and shot a second series at approximately a quarter second, superimposed on the first shoot series. Film made a big hit at my first international combustion conference presentation.
Polaroid movie cameras came later, as did a progression of personal Nikon SLRs.