What was your first camera?

[jnanian]

my mom's kodak flashfun. took 127 film and funky flash bulbs. i think i was about 6 or 7. before that i had a mickey mouse camera, you pulled down the ear and it tripped the shutter.

my first slr was a pentax k1000 i got around 1980 ...

[harveyje]

1950 - my 11th birthday - I received a Brownie 620 so I would leave my mother's Kodak Tourist folder alone! The next Christmas I was given a Kodak developing kit with a contact printer because my father was tired of paying my processing bills - since then I have been hooked.

[ian_greant]

First Camera was an Exacta 35mm SLR with a Waist Level Finder, had a Weston meter too! It and a Rolleiflex were leftovers from my parents studio in Chicago.

Kid brother borrowed for school and school burned that day with the camera in the locker. Didn't replace it with a truly personal camera for... almost 20 years.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think the first was some sort of Kodak 110 Instamatic when I was around 9 or 10 years old, and then I started doing some simple darkroom work, and it seemed time to move up to 35mm, so the first serious camera was a Ricoh rangefinder, and later a Canon A-1. The Ricoh and the A-1 were stolen in a house burglary, but fortunately were insured, and I kept good records as a kid, so we got a good insurance settlement that financed a Canon "New" F-1, which I still use.

[Aggie]

My parents wouldn't let me touch their old kodak brownie camera. They bought me an instamatic when I was 10. My next camera didn't come until I was 16. That camera was a super 8mm Kodak movie camera that I won for out selling the rest of our Junior class in HS. That summer I earned the money and bought a canon ftb. I did an end run around the advisor of the HS yearbook, that refused to allow girls on the staff. I dated one of the guys who was a photographer, and did all of the work. He was too lazy to actually do a thing. That camera was stolen out of a company safe when I was working at Zion National Park two summers later. Next came a Canon F1, Which was stolen. Then Hubby got a Canon T-70, I got my first Mamiya 645. A few years ago I upgraded to the Mamiya 7II. 2 years ago I got my first LF, a Wisner 4x5. I'm still waiting for my 6x8 to arrive.

[Jon King]

After the "Kodak Instamatic" phase (110, ugh!), I expressed an interest in 'better' pictures, and my father dug out his old Zeiss 6x6 folder. Built in 45 or 46, no rangefinder and sunny f/16 for a meter, I used that for several years until I saved for a Minolta SRT-201. Still have both, although the Zeiss shutter is non functional ;( Nowadays, I split my time between a KO200 & an Ansco 5x7, the latter mostly for alt process negatives.

[ian_greant]

John,

You really had a Mickey Mouse camera? Now that's cool!

[Aggie]

I have a budweiser can 35mm camera. Still in the plastic and full instructions. I should take a picture of it and put it in the gallery. My most unusual camera.

[Ole]

Kodak Instamatic, it took 126(?) film cartridges. Then for a while my father sometimes let me use his Welta Welti, which I still have.

My first SLR was a Praktica TL3 with 28, 50 and 100mm lenses. Used that for a few years, then got a Pentax ME which served me well for many years.
Next I picked up a Lubitel 166U, which I later sold for two glasses of beer (a good deal for me). Then a folding Zeiss Ikon, before I bought a second-hand Bronica ETRS.

First LF was a Technika III with 4x5" reduction back. I then bought another one, with 5x7" back... When I found the Linhof color I traded in one of the Technikas along with the reduction back and a rather ratty 210mm Xenar.

[Fintan]

my first, was a Zenith 12 camera with fixed 50mm lens, still have it.