Camera With Memories: I was looking out at the cold and cloudy scene out my old wavy glass windows thinking of the original owner of the house from 1895. Then started thinking about...

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

I was looking out at the cold and cloudy scene out my old wavy glass windows thinking of the original owner of the house from 1895.
Then started thinking about cameras then and now.
I have not had a lot of cameras but as I was thinking the Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model has really the most memories of actually using. Got it from an older sister around 1959/60. I took photos of friends, ranch animals, pets, vacations etc. for several years.
I still remember lining friends up for a photo or other times using it.
Simple camera and simpler times but the memories still make me smile.
I had the middle camera shown, Still have it but too lazy to go take a photo right now.
Please relate your memory and feel free to post a photo of the camera here.
Smile.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My family had a large, rectangular Kodak of some kind. They used it so infrequently that they always had to figure out how to open it. I had several cheap 127 cameras when I was a kid. I think the first "good" camera I had was a Polaroid. Then I got a nice Agfa 35mm. When my son-in-law came for a visit in about 1970, he had a Miranda Sensorex. That was my next camera.

Hereford Loc: Palm Coast, FL

Very interesting. My father had the folding Brownie 2. I always admired this bellows camera with a number of adjustments that the others did not have. I thought that camera took pretty decent pictures. Dad used it until the bellows disintegrated. He then replaced it with a Brownie Hawkeye, but that one seemed to produce inferior photos. My three sisters all received Brownie Hawkeyes for Christmas. Today we have our phone cameras to replace those early cameras for the masses.

Beowulf Loc: Aquidneck Island, RI

My earliest cameras as a youth were several bakelite 127s and the Brownie Hawkeye and Brownie Bullet,. My first serious cameras were a series of YashicaMats and Mat124s. Then came the Miranda Sensomat, a Contax IIA, a long series of Minolta SRTs. and then Nikons of several series. When I sort of left film for digital I stayed with Nikons: D200, D7000, D7100, D600, D610, and D750. I was a serial upgrader all along, but I don't think at my age (80) I will be plunging into mirrorless Nikons.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Beowulf wrote:

My earliest cameras as a youth were several bakelite 127s and the Brownie Hawkeye and Brownie Bullet,. My first serious cameras were a series of YashicaMats and Mat124s. Then came the Miranda Sensomat, a Contax IIA, a long series of Minolta SRTs. and then Nikons of several series. When I sort of left film for digital I stayed with Nikons: D200, D7000, D7100, D600, D610, and D750. I was a serial upgrader all along, but I don't think at my age (80) I will be plunging into mirrorless Nikons.

Yes, the YashikaMat was a nice camera - kind of old fashioned when I bought it.

tramsey Loc: Texas

My first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye with a flash. I used it till I was well into my teens. I had a hard time waiting for the pictures to come back. I forgot about photography until a college professor met me and got me interested again when I was in my thirties. He was totally into Nikon. When he decided to upgrade from his Nikon G he sold it to me with a 50 mm lens for fifty dollars. We went on photo shots together and he taught me how to work it. He had something he called an alligator bag. He would put film in it and do some hocus pokus and come out with negatives so you could decide which to make into photos and which to toss. I still have both of those cameras. I went through a series of Nikons and ended up with a d7200 and a d850

radiojohn

[quote=Architect1776]I was looking out at the cold and cloudy scene out my old wavy glass windows thinking of the original owner of the house from 1895.
Then started thinking about cameras then and now.
/quote]

As mentioned elsewhere, the first camera that was "mine" was a Minolta 16 II, bought around 1965 when I was in high school. I used to develop my own negs and reload the little 16mm cartridge with a spool of 16mm movie film. Few negs got printed by me until much later.

By summer of 1966 I was in the Army 6 days out of high school. I needed to get through basic training in time to catch the next class at Army Intelligence School in Baltimore. I had elected to become an intelligence analyst -about the only thing you could do in that area at 18.

Here is a shot I took while waiting to march off to class in October of 66. Yes, we trained with Marines as well.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

My Dads oldest Brother was given the 50th anniversary camera and later gave it to my Dad. In the late 50s I started taking pictures with it. Well my dads youngest Brother just came back from Germany in 1960 and saw how much I liked to take pictures so he gave me his Leica M2. I was totally in love with it and took many rolls of film through it. Well before my Dad passed on he gave me the 50th camera. I still have these two cameras. This started my love for collecting cameras. 350+ and quit counting😂. Attached are the two cameras that started it all. Now I’m teaching my 5yr old grandson. Started at 3 1/2 and doing well, he has his own D7200

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BARRY COWAN

I received my Brownie Hawkeye from my parents in the late 1950’s. I used it for many years photographing Yosemite and other favorite places. I still do a lot of photography in Yosemite and other parks in the west, but I now use a Nikon Z7. Sadly, most of my early photos have been lost in time, but I still have my Brownie Hawkeye

ELNikkor

We've also got some of those Brownie Hawkeyes in a box in the den, as well as other old classics. (My dad worked at the Hawkeye building above the Genesee River through the 50's & '60s while I was growing up.)

Irv Pearlman Loc: Farmington Hills, Mi.

My first camera was the Brownie Hawkeye. Then a Polaroid. My first 35mm was a Nikkormat FTN. Next a Pentax ME Super. Nikon N6006 35mm. (still have). First digital was Fujifilm 3000. (Still have). Couple point and shoot pocket cameras. Nikon D3000 and a nice used Nikon D7000. Just turned 77, and probably done buying any more cameras.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I remember as a VERY young child playing with my mother's Kodak. I don't know the model number, but it was one of those that the bellows folded in to close the camera. I have lots of the pictures taken with that camera. It was my toy of choice! I wish I still had it. My grandmother got upset about me playing with Mom's camera all the time, so she got me my very own Brownie Holiday for my birthday when I was 8. I recently purchased a Hawkeye, but I've not shot it yet! I do have a roll of film for it.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Ah yes, recounting the days of exploding flash bulbs, I had a shield on mine, burned finger tips from changing bulbs in a hurry. I wonder how many Hoggers started out with one of the Brownie cameras?

petercbrandt Loc: New York City, Manhattan

Architect1776 wrote:

I was looking out at the cold and cloudy scene out... (show quote)

I have that camera sitting next to me right now ! (actually I have two, both with a flash, but only one with a leather case).
Peter

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nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

My mom also had the middle camera that she shot with the blue flashbulbs. I had a no-name box camera (probably some kind of Kodak) with a finder that I had to look down to center pictures. That was in about 1952. Took a few rolls but those pictures along with the camera are long gone. Good memories, however.