I enjoyed the thread on your latest 35mm slr purchase, so I thought this might be interesting.

What was your very first 35mm? How old were you?

The first 35mm I bought was a Mamiya Sekor 500tl. I think I was about 14. I cut a lot of lawns for that baby. I bought it from the neighbour across the street (who was doing colour at home in the 60's) who probably charged me about 1/4 of what it was worth. He also threw in a bulk loader and a roll of "old" film. He taught me a lot about photography and darkroom work. His name was Tom Barton. I built my first darkroom that year in my parent's basement out of cardboard from refrigerator cartons. It looked like hell, but it was light tight. I'm 52 now and enjoying photography more than I ever have.

I just bought (out of nostalgia) a Mamiya Sekor 1000dtl with a 50/1.4 on ebay. Everything works including the meter. I paid a whopping $15. God Bless Digital!

Moderator: I did a search for a similar thread to this one and didn't turn up any. If this is a repeat, just delete it.

Rick.

The first 35mm that I used was my father's Yashica Electro 35 GSN, and I was about 15. I bought a 35mm much later, and it was the Nikon F60. The GSN still runs fine after about 22+ years.

I am sure I used a point and shoot at the Knoxville World's Fair in 82, but the first SLR I used was my mothers X370 Minolta in my early 20's. I got my first SLR, Minolta XG-M in 96. Now I have 3 camera bodies (all XG-M's), 6 lenses (28FFL, (2)50's (FFL), 300 tele w/ ext tube, 28-70 zoom and 70-210 zoom), two teleconverters, motor winder (never used by me). And I have finally gotten all of the camera I could want in 35mm. i have a Mamiya m645 w/ 150mm. No LF yet.

I got a russian thing from Cambridge Camera, I think. I can't remember the name but it was a screw mount lens thing with metering from a selenium cell on the top of the camera. The lens was not auto, so either you composed in the dark or had to remember to stop down after composing, which I wasn't too good at. I think I was about 10 when I got this (31 years ago), but I am not sure. I can still remember the weird leather smell from the thing, however. :)

My first 35 was an Agfa of some kind, with a fixed lens and chrome body. It had symbols for the focus and aperatures, instead of numbers, and a beautiful leather case. It was small but heavy. It felt very important and expensive at the age of 13. It was my grandfathers, but I used it. The first one I purchased was a Canon A-1 in high school. Collected a lot of great FD SC glass for it over the years, and used it right up until it all got stolen two years ago.

I was 22 and bought a Pentax K1000 to get ready for the baby photos I just knew I'd be taking with the birth of our first child. Prior to that .. had used a twin lens camera of some type that my parents owned.. wish I knew what happened to it.

Yashica J, when I was 12!

Cheers

André

Sorry to be a party breaker, but :

http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16020

Is the thread you were looking for!

What was your very first 35mm? How old were you?

A Zeiss Ikon "Ikonette" borrowed from my then brother-in-law. I was 16 or 17, but I had been taking pictures since I could remember with various 127 and 620 box cameras. I also started darkroom work about this time - hence the need for a "real" camera.

As soon as I could save enough lunch money, I bought a Sears TLS (Ricoh). Age 17. Still have it, but the shutter "bounces" and leaves an interesting piece of evidence on the negatives. :( It was a common problem with these cameras. I even had the shutter replaced and the new one developed the same problem. Oh well.

David

My first 35mm camera was a Leica I(A), purchased in 1926 to celebrate my 90th birthday.

Hey, it is April 1st, afterall. ;)

my first 35mm was a k1000, i think i was 13 or 14 ... i have had it worked on once since it was new - last year ... and it was because 15 years earlier it dropped to the pavement when i was chasing a bus. it had duct tape on it for 15 years, and finally i took it in for cosmetic surgery :)

great camera!

-john

I remember using my roommate's girlfriend's Canon rangefinder. It was a wonderful camera. I had only used 126 cartridge cameras before that. The first SLR was my wife's friend Dave's Pentax ME Super. I went to JC Penney's and bought my first, Minolta X-570 shortly after that.

Luke

"... What was your very first 35mm? How old were you...?"
I was 19 when I got a Petri half-frame 35mm. As soon as I got my first roll of film back I saw the implications of the tiny half-frame negatives; within the week I got a Minolta SRT-101.

Olympus OM1n. I was sixteen. I'm 44 now and the camera is still with me and in regular use.

Mine was some cheap enormous P&S camera by Kyocera. I was 18. I was not into photography back then, but I still remember I got real nice shots wth it in Savannah, Georgia in that summer.

Konica TC at 21 (1979). Followed by a Fujica AX-3, Crown Graphic 4x5, Cambo SCX 4x5, Zone VI 4x5, Wisner 8x10, Zone VI 8x10, and a soon to be released Ritter 7x17.

I received a Practika TL1000 when I was 14.

My first was a Yashica J. I bought it used when I was 18. I traded it soon to get a Yashica TL Super. I was told and convinced that rangefinders were dead. I was wrong, and it took me decades to fully appreciate how much so.

Today my first choice is a rangefinder again. Full circle after 40 years.

Pentax K1000 I was about 17 I guess. 1978
or so.

A Zeiss Ikon Contax my father gave me when I was 13 that I still use.

That's really personal isn't it?

Canon AE-1 at 17. Before that Polaroids & 110!

A Petri 2.8 rangefinder I purchased in 1958 at age 13. (More here. (http://www.electricedge.com/greymatter/archives/00005231.htm)) I'm not sure what possessed me other than my Grandfather had a Leica IIIc (Which is mine now.) and the Petri kind of looked like it. That Petri was just like the one in my avatar.

My first 35mm SLR was an Olympus OM-2. I was 21 and purchased it to use in the Photo I and Photo II classes (taken concurrently) at San Diego City College.

Argus C-3 Standard rangefinder for $10 when I was 12. Prior to that, Polaroid 100. Three years later, moved up to SLR with a Canon FT-QL. With both cameras, I must have shot a thousand or more feet of Pan-X...