Francisco Fernandez

Hi fellow hoggers! I’m Paco Fernandez from Mexico City. I would like to share a little bit of nostalgia from the times of analog photography. These two cameras I’m talking about are, my first SLR, which I bought at a department store in 1970, (on my mother’s account) and paid her religiously every month. Back then I was 18 years old.
Now after searching for some time I finally found the exact model I used to have in those days a Praktica Super TL, German made by Pentacon.
The other one is my current camera the Nikon D850, as everybody knows Japanese made.
*Note: My very very first camera actually was a Kodak Instamatic 50 and it was a gift from my father back in 1963, I was only 11 years old. I remember I used to open the camera’s film cover right after taking a picture to see if there was something visible on the film!!
I believe it would be interesting if you guys could share stories or anecdotes of your first camera ever, at least, I would be very interested in reading them. Thank you very much

jrcarpe Loc: Jacksonville,AR

I started with the Kodak brownie cameras at age 15 and use them (Several) until I bought a Voightlander in Berlin in 1961 then another Voightlander in 1963 ,still have it.In 1986 I bought a Canon AE1 Program then have bought several film and digital Canon point and shoot cameras. In 2008 bought a Canon 40D DSLR then replaced it in 2015 with a Canon 70D DSLR.As you can tell I am a Canon shooter.

srt101fan

When I was a kid I got a box camera, Agfa I believe. If I remember correctly, it had one shutter speed and three apertures selected by pulling out a metal slide that had three different-sized holes. I guess it was one step up from a pin-hole camera! I wish I had kept it.....

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Any German made film camera from back in the day is a well made machine. My first camera was a Vivitar 35 mm, i was always fasinated with film cameras.

ELNikkor

I had a Starflash Instamatic at 9 years old. I bated chipmunks and took photos almost on top of them, but they still looked far away; couldn't figure it out. I wanted to shoot a chipmunk photo that looked like the post cards in the Adirondack mountains. I found out later that those post cards were done with a fast telephoto lens; something I knew nothing about when I was nine and thinking, "A camera is a camera..."

kcooke Loc: Alabama

1st camera Honeywell Pentax spotmatic
2nd camera Bausch and Lomb 8x10 large format bellows camera for work.
3rd camera Rolleicord TLR.

ragon Loc: Wisconsin

My first was an Agfa which I took with me to Nashville to go to the Grand Ole Opry with a bunch of guys in Feb. 1957 at the Ryman. When the show was over it was raining hard so we ran for the car. I was in the lead and running the fastest when a guy jumped out from a bar exclaiming "No trooper is going to take me in". I couldn't stop and hit him like an NFL linebacker but he didn't go down. It broke my camera and I was a bit angry. A woman came out of the bar and said "Don't mess with him, he's dangerous" By this time the guys I was with caught up. We decided she was probably right.

repleo Loc: Boston

Mine was a Voigtlander rangefinder that I got for Christmas when I was 12 years old. It had no light meter. I had to expose based on the little slip of paper that was inside the film box. I rarely had money to buy film or pay for development so I would go around ‘shooting’ with an empty camera.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

First camera I used, was an older brother's Ensign Full View. Most of the time (only 11 plus) I had no film. The cheapest 'Film' was 'Gratispool' (Glasgow based) Paper negatives. Send the film off to them , they would process , send prints, and a replacement Gratispool film. That was in the 1940's/ 50's. The first camera that I bought, was from Woolworths, think it was made from Bakalite. Laid on it's back, it looked just like a military tank (but much smaller). It took 127 film , had two red windows to see the numbers on the film-back. In use Number 1 was wound to the first window, and exposure made... Number 1 was wound to the second red window and another exposure made. Then number 2 was wound to the first red window etc..etc... Using the 16 numbers one could get 32 pictures. (with a bit of luck, and concentration). It was small simple and handy to take with me on cycle-rides. my other passion. First decent camera I could buy was the Corfield Periflex...First real SLR, was the Practica Super with Tessar lens. Such happy days ...experimenting with chemicals in the dark-room.

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

I made a trip to Louisville Ky. to search pawn shops for my first real camera. There is a military base nearby and the pawn shops had a great selection of cameras.
I bought a Canon AE-1 that came with a 35mm lens. I would shoot a roll a week while I saved up for a new Canon A1.
From there it was a Nikon D90, D800, D810 and my current D850

steve33 Loc: Yarmouth MA

My first good camera was a Minolta srt-101 that I bought when I was 16. It came with a 50 mm lens. Added a vivitar 70-210 zoom . I had a darkroom that I set up in my parents basement. I only developed black and white. I sent out color film to get developed. I couldn't afford the equipment needed to process color.

cmc4214 Loc: S.W. Pennsylvania

My first camera was a Kodak 126 instamatic I got for Christmas when I was 8 yrs. old, my next camera was a Pentax k1000 I got for my 18th birthday (1981 and I still have it) when the light seals started going bad, and the meter quit I reluctantly bought my first digital camera, a Kodak 6.1 mp with a 10x zoom (2007) soon became flustered with the lack of manual controls and bought a Nikon D90 (2008) in 2019 I bought a nikon D750 because I wanted better low-light performance. The D90 was just sitting in a closet, so I gave it to a neighbor girl who has an interest in photography (a rarity these days)

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

The very first camera I learned to use was a Kodak ektra 100 but the very first film camera I owned was a mini 110. My first dip into SLR's was into a Yashica and I was late in going to DSLR, the D5300 being my first.
.
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netgrab of Kodak Ektra 110


netgrab of a micro 110 also called a spy camera


netgrab- how a micro camera looks like when the 110 cartridge is inserted.

keywest305 Loc: Baltimore Md.

My first was Polaroid instamatic. Picture slides out and you watch it develop. Expensive film and horrible IQ compared to todays standards. I then moved to the Pentax K1000 which I still have in and old camera bag. Then Nikon and 4 of those today D3s D4s D500 D850

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

My first camera ever was a Mickey Mouse camera when I was a kid (<10 I think) - the nose was the lens, and it used 126 cartridge film (remember those!), and these one-shot flash cubes which were horrendously expensive. Not sure if I had the exact one as pictured, but it was very close to that at least. I took a few rolls then took the camera apart - I took all of my toys apart to see how they worked.

2nd camera was a 110 Minolta instamatic camera that my aunt gave me. Remember those tiny 110 negatives - the analog equivalent of the micro 4/3 or maybe the cell phone cams (haha - not quite).

3rd camera was a Praktica LB2 SLR - yep those East German (at the time) made 35mm (was first 35mm for me) cameras. The LB2 had a selenium photocell powered light meter mounted near the film rewind crank - no TTL metering! All manual! The shutter release was weird mounted next to the lens. Sure wish Praktica was still around in the digital age. Took many pix with that camera but only had the 50mm/2.8 screw mount M42 lens. Got it as a Christmas gift - my parents could not afford a Japanese camera at the time like those from the majors. Years later I bought an B2000 electronic Praktica - nice film camera but had a loud shutter. Also had a couple of lenses with the B- Praktica bayonet mount.

After that had a variety of 35mm pocket film cameras but then eventually went with the OM series cameras and built some kit over the years...until digital in 2000 with the Oly 3030 (3.3 mp)....then years later with Nikon.

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