bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I must have been around 11-12 when I'd use my folks old Brownie with its 620 film. I remember cranking the knob to advance the film and looking through the little red lensed port on the back to line up the next exposure number. I raised chickens and sold eggs and used egg money to buy a black and white Swinger Polaroid when I was 13 (1969). Still got that thing, talk about cheaply built! I can't remember how much I gave for it though, would $40 sound right? That was a dandy, squeeze the shutter knob, line up the exposure marker, take the photo, pull it out, wait for however long you thought it needed to develop (temperature sensitive), peel it apart and if it was ok, you'd smear that gel goo on it with the applicator to fix it. And the picture quality was...well I won't go into that. But it was high tech, at least for me.

After that I'd sometimes play with my dad's Zeiss Ikon 35mm with quality that made the Swinger look pretty sorry. After I bought my first motorcycle, I took the old Brownie on a trip to New Orleans and decided I needed something better. I bought a camera (can't remember the name) that used 120 (or was it 126) film which was decent, but within a year (1976) I bought a Vivitar 220SL 35mm. Good camera and hauled it all over the US and parts of Canada and Mexico on the bike until it started leaking light in 2007. Shortly before happened that I liberated an old and unused Honeywell Pentax SP500 (think that's the number) from work. Older than the Vivitar but smoother and quieter operating. By that time I also had a Kodak 2.2 mp digital fixed focus camera I'd tote along on trips. It got soaked in a Texas torrential downpour and the screen went black, but setting overnight on the air conditioner dried things out enough to work again.

After the Vivitar sprung a leak, I bought a used Fuji 5100 4mp digital, still carry it along on bike trips for on the fly shots. My kids got me the Nikon D40 DSLR for Christmas 2008. For functionality, features and bike trip use, it has been the most versatile camera I've owned with the best quality (and most fun to use).

Cameras are objects that are like a pair of shoes; some are adequate and functional, but that's it. You never really get attached to them while others just seem to feel right, do whatever you need of them and you are just comfortable with. When it's shoes, you polish them up, get them resoled and keep on chugging. I guess that's why you see people stil using those ancient Leicas, they just feel right.

bobsac Loc: Port Charlotte, Florida

I started with my dad's Kodak Medalist , 120 film. I was around 10 yrs old(1961). He taught me to develop the film and use the enlarger and develop the prints. Now I'm old and use a D300 LOL. all the best-bob

snowbear

I had an old Brownie when I was about 10 c. 1968. After a couple of years, I bought a Kodak 126 Instamatic with allowance, money from found soda bottles, and some help from mom & dad.

My first "real" camera was a Minolta Hi-Matic 7s rangefinder that was a birthday present - about 1975. I still shoot a roll with it once in a while. I bought a Minolta SRT-201 around 1977 or 1978, and finally let it go a couple of years ago. I got the D40 in 2007 and bought a N90s for class in 2008.

KTVasser Loc: Los Altos, California

I started with a brownie camera - those flash cubes were cool. My first real camera was a Pentax that my big brother gave me - he bought it in Viet Nam, or somewhere in Asia. I loved, loved that camera. It got stolen while I was camping in Big Sur. Bought another Pentax me Super - loved that camera too - still have it. Saved all the lenses. Went the way of Panasonic for digital for 12 years or so ... then just bought the Pentax K-5 which again, I love! I can use my old lenses on it which is great. I guess the early memories of my first real camera kept me loyal to Pentax out of nostalgia - but it's a great camera.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

I started out with a Kodak 4000 disk camera.. I actually still have it, you just can't find film/disk for it anymore. lmao

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

I started with a Kodak Instamatic at about 6 years of age. Graduated next to Pentax film cameras, then to the pro stuff, Nikon (film cameras,) in high school. By college, I had Nikon, Hasselblad and Sinar View Camera systems, and an ever growing lighting collection. Started in digital with a Fuji FinePix Pro SLR with Nikon mount, and then moved to the pro stuff again, with Nikon D2xs. Next the D800 for the uncompressed video it offers, and the Black Magic Cinema Camera.

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

I started out with a generic camera that used 127 film. It was ordered off the back of a cereal box. I was around 10 years old.

My dad later handed down to me a Balda Baldessa 35mm camera when he got his Mamiya-Sekor 500-TL SLR camera.

Stef C Loc: Conshohocken (near philly) PA

A nikon d3100, 25 years old about 6 months ago. Before that it was just camera phone pictures.

myts10 Loc: SE Ohio

Wow I've used do many I don't remember them all. There was that old Argus with that split ring focus. The Polaroid Swinger was a lot of fun. I used the Polaroid 600 to take a lot of evidence photos. I never did get interested enough to get an SLR.
My first digital camera was a $19.95 shirt pocket pen type. I was amazed at the quality of the photos from such a device. I carried a shirt pocket digital for over 10 years (Panasonic SV-AS10) and it still works with the original battery. My current camera is a P&S Lumix TS10. Now I am interested enough to wish for a DSLR.

gstaylor Loc: Twin Cities, MN

When I was 11, I had a Diana camera. It took mostly bad pics. It was 88 cents from a local 5 and dime store. For Christmas that year I got a Kodak 126 camera. Remember flash cubes and 126 film cartridges? I used that one a lot. My first SLR I got when I was 14: a used Minolta SR-7 with a 58mm f/1.4 lens. Nice camera. I shot a lot of B & W with this and set up my first darkroom. The affliction was set in stone! ;)

les_stockton Loc: Eastern Oklahoma

I started off with my dad's Argus C3, which was a great camera. It was a rangefinder. Not long after that, in high school, I used a Pentax Spotmatic slr in a photography class in school, but still used the Argus when I couldn't borrow the Pentax. I loved that Pentax though.
I also used to medium format cameras, but don't recall what they were because I didn't use them very often.

When I graduated high school, I finally was able to buy my own slr, and although the Nikon F2 was really what I wanted, I couldn't afford one, but managed to get a used Minolta SRT-101 (which I still have) instead. Great little camera.

I only moved to digital about 3 or 4 years ago. Film served me well.

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

I got a Kodak Instamatic for my birthday when I must have been around 10.
The first thing I did was set up my army men and tanks etc. and try to do close up battle scenes complete with explosions using fireworks.
As a kid I could never figure out why the pics never really turned out all that great.

I have not shot so much as a frame of film in 11 years, it's been all digital.
In fact we have a cat that will turn 11 this summer and she has never had a picture taken of her using a film camera.

CanonJC

Lucky! It is or will be offically antique if it works excellent condition.

:wink:

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

A Kodak Junior Six – 16, like my avatar. That was 1950, I was 10 years old.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Here's some photos of my grandfather's camera, made by the Seneca camera company. It used glass plate negatives. You first focused the image on the ground glass focusing plate on the rear of the camera, then slipped the negative holder between the focusing plate and camera body and then removed the front and rear cover from the negative. It has wooden plates you can move around to get one 5X7, two 3.5X5 photos of four smaller ones. I still have the suitcase sized carrying case and black cape you throw over yourself when focusing it. Not sure how old it is, but I think they started making them in about 1909-1910 and I still have the photo grandpa took of my dad when he was born in 1919. We don't know how good we have it these days.

Focusing plate and negative inserted


glass negative


Grandparent's house


Had to cock the shutter, then push the button