What was you're first camera?

[Longgrain]

Just to spread some of the discussion a bit...

I was going through one of the closets today when I found this guy...



It was my first camera (actually my dads but I was always using it).
A Kodak Instamatic x-15. Nothing much to it, no focus, no zoom, just two buttons, click the shutter, and roll the film.

But we all started somewhere.

Years later, when I was twelve, my sister gave me her Kodak Disc camera (she never used it). Anyone remember those, they were very popular in the early eighties, and used some weird flat disk that had the negative at the end of each spoke. It was incompatible with any other type of film so I'm guessing that's why they didn't last long. (Ah-ha! So it was a marketing ploy!)

This was a little before my time, but does anyone remember the Polaroid swinger...



They don't make them like these anymore.

[Clark4Prez]

1. Kodak Duaflex

It was my mom's camera. I don't have it anymore, but I have started collecting old Kodaks. I have four Brownies and one Duaflex.

The Duraflex used a waistlevel finder, so you held the camera down and framed your picture at waistlevel rather than eyelevel like most cameras today. Waistlevel has some advantages a larger viewing area and you can shoot up by holding your camera out and not crimp your neck. The downside is the image is reversed, meaning that if you move your camera to your left the image moves right (this is actually how your camera sees the image, but most cameras today correct this and left is left).

Here's a pic of my first camera:

[Longgrain]

3. Wow!

And I thought my camera was ancient.

I actually have an old 8mm movie camera from the fifties somewhere in the basement. It was non-motorized so you had to crank it by hand.

Maybe tomorrow I'll go dig it up and take a picture.

BTW. Doesn't there seem to be a certain irony about taking pictures of cameras?

[funky_bug]

2. Those are some beautiful vintage cameras!

Do any of them still shoot? I tell ya, I love my Diana. She's original vintage, and she has to be sealed with tape, or I get light bleeding (which sometimes is lovely in its own right.)

[Longgrain]

5. It not sure if they even market the film anymore.

The Kodak posted above used a cartridge, that had the film on one end, encased in the panel, that scrolled to a container at the other end, so you didn't actually have to load and spool the film yourself. You just snapped in the cartridge.

Me, personally, my loyal camera for years was a simple, but sturdy Pentax K-1000. Lasted me ten years.

[Philostopher]

4. It was fun going out to find these images --

I don't have the first two cameras here in my possession, I don't think, though my mother may still have the first one. It was sort of the 'family camera' and my folks were willing to let me have it to use when I was about fifteen, though they didn't outright give it to me, and once they bought me the second camera pictured here, I gave it back to them:



It used those old flashcubes that would burn the crap out of you if you weren't careful and touched the cube before it cooled.

The next one was given to me for my birthday or Christmas around the time I graduated from high school -- and I used it until I started dating a guy in college who worked for Fotomat (he was my first husband, and still has the Konica as far as I know!) and we went in together on a discounted Konica 'point and shoot' 35mm:



Here's my baby -- I actually have three of the camera bodies, I wanted a second one to keep as a backup, in case the original one I bought eventually wore out; we bid on two of them (on Ebay), one that the owner thought was broken (it wasn't, but I only knew that because I'd had the same problem with mine and fixed it myself) and let go for a song:



So now I have three perfectly good Nikon FG bodies!

[Longgrain]

6. Did you actually say FLASHCUBES

Oh god, I remember those from my childhood. They would always blur up the picture if you tried using them in daylight.

I found these at a flea market about seven or eight years ago...



I don't really collect stuff like this, but I just had to buy it.

You can just imagine the look on the woman's I bought them from's face when I asked her how much she was asking.

I ended up paying a dollar for them, I think, with no haggling. I think she was surprised anyone wanted them.

BTW. I just love the look on the woman on the box's face in the above pic. Those we're the days.

[Philostopher]

7. Heh.

She'd better watch her finger -- I burned myself more than once on those things!

Mom also had one of those big blue, Brownie-style cameras (I don't think it was a Kodak) with the big silver seashell flash hood on it; may have been an Ansco, not sure. The body of the camera was blue, something like Bakelite.

On edit -- actually, I found one that looks something like it on Ebay -- it was a Kodak Brownie Starflash (the body on the one Mom had was blue where this one is red):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...

The flash bulbs were blue and bare, and they'd melt down into a gob of blue goo after they flashed.

That camera she gave to a friend whose uncle collects old cameras. It still worked when she gave it to him.

[Deja Q]

24. I had no idea DynaGirl peddled flashcubes!

[Longgrain]

26. Electra Woman and DynaGirl!!!!

LOL...Yep I remember the Krofft Superstars!

Next thing ya know the Big Foot and Wildboy will have their own brand of disposable camera!

[Maeve]

8. You're not even in the game if you don't know "Brownie"

Still got one somewhere in the back of the closet...and a flashcube burner...and remember when it was the cool folks who had the Beta max video recorders.

<sigh> Hubby was in Photo-journalism at Ohio State in the late '70's. See if you can make me feel old.....

[Longgrain]

9. The Kodak Disc

Here's what I was talking about in the first post...



Took a lot of pictures on a camera like this.

The only problem was the film. You had to use the specially manufactured Kodak Disc film to even use it. And you only had fifteen shots per roll (er...disk I guess?)



Still, it was considered, uber-high tech back in 1983.

[flygal]

28. I still have an old used disk I never developed

One day I'll find someone to do it for me. I loved my disk camera - but I remembered when they first came out a salesperson said this is only for professionals. I still crack up about that.

[Rocinante]

10. A Polaroid much like this

It was fun at first but it didn't take long to figure out its limitations.

[NashVegas]

11. Kodak Pocket Instamatic

110.

Graduated to a Fujica SLR.

[Kolesar]

23. Mine was a 110 Instamatic

It was "almost a hand me down". I traded it from a buddy for a six pack or something of scant value. I took it on my deployment to the Mediterranean and it took bad pictures. Maybe it was the developer on the Navy base that could not manage it.

When I got some money, I bought a used Minolta SRT 102 and five lenses. It was too heavy for weight-conscience backpacking or even long hikes, so I bought a Yashica T4 Super on the recommendation of Backpacker magazine. 35mm lens, no zoom, about no features, but at seven ounces it is truly super. The pictures are much better than the old Minolta.

I gave the Minolta to my brother.

[GOPFighter]

12. My first camera was plastic and it actually took flashbulbs

It took lousy pictures and they were expensive (for a kid) to have developed. My first real camera was a Asahi Pentax, purchased when I was in the AF stationed in Germany. I've had Pentaxes ever since, until I bought my first digital, an Olympus 3030.

[Fovea]

13. I started with a generic kodak instamatic

then was given a Rolleiflex clone, 640 film twin lens reflex.
After that, I had a Yashica D for years and years.

I finally went though a bunch of point and shoot digitals.
The last of which, a pentax optio S, is now my sweetheart's camera.
Currently I use a Nikon CP 5400, with a Fuji Finepix 4900z as my back up.

When I grow up, I would like either a Nikon D100, or a Fuji S2 Pro SLR.
Fuji has this odd proprietary sensor that gives amazing color depth.

[Touchdown]

14. A GAF 110 camera

Mom gave it to me at 8 years old. Taking his away from me was the punishment for anything, since I went through so much film with it, Mom thought she'd ground me and save money at the same time. She should've known the bug ot me back then. I never leave without at least one camera now.

[SiouxJ]

15. My first non-hand-me-down camera was a Cannon AE-1

I was handed down an old Instamatic as a kid, then I borrowed one from the school in High School, for my first photography class. Can't remember what that one was, but I was given a Cannon AE-1 for HS graduation; still have it.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

22. It's an amazing camera, no?

I inherited an AE-1 and still use it for most of my film photography. I love it!

[idiosyncratic]

16. My first camera was an Instamatic bought with my first paycheck.

I used it until my boyfriend dropped it overboard when he got excited taking pictures of some killer whales near the sailboat.

[alfredo]

17. An odd one. A Zeiss Ikon bellows camera.

Here is close to what it looked like, but I don't think it was as good as this model.



I then moved down to an Instamatic. because I wanted something easy and new.

[SiouxJ]

18. I have a Zeiss from the 30's

I did some research on it and as near as I can tell, that's when it's from. I bought it at an auction. No one was bidding on it, so I got it for like $3.00. It's just a very cool old camera. I have a small collection of old cameras and the Zeiss is the crown jewel. If I get a moment I'll take a photo of it and share. It's made of all kinds of interesting materials- leather, tin and even porcelain.

[SiouxJ]

20. Picture of my 1930's Zeiss

At the auction where I bought it, it was all folded up in the case and no one knew what it was, so no one bid on it (this was in a small rural town) I knew if I opened it and they saw what it was, a lot of people would bid on it, so I didn't. I bid $3 on it and was not challenged. Got it in the car and popped it open and was very pleased.

I should probably clean it up a bit huh?

[outraged2]

19. my first

My first camera was a Kodak version of a polaroid c.1975. Instead of the film/photo automatically spitting out like the polaroid, this one had a little crank you had to turn to get the photo (I think, I may be remembering wrong) I'll have to hunt around and see if I can find one to show. It was pretty funny thinking back.... I used it to take pictures of my toys and stuffed animals etc.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

21. A Polaroid

Crazy as it sounds. The kind where they come out instantly, and you have to wait a few minutes before the picture shows up.

My first "real" SLR that I still use, a Canon-AE1, was my father's. It's awesome!

[SOteric]

25. A Canon F-1

- And I'm still using it.

[Be Brave]

27. A classic. n/t

[RetroLounge]

29. My Dad's Argus C-3

I still have it, and my grandfather's C-4.



RL

[Lefty48197]

30. Bazooka joe comic send away 110 camera

Don't remember if I ever took a picture with it or not.

[RC]

31. A Brownie Hawkeye

Manufactured : 1949-51 (non-flash) Manufactured : 1950-61 (flash)
Mine was the non-flash

I have a Canon AE1 in the closet.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

32. Canon A-1

I still use it. I added a Pentax K-1000 to it and a couple of Holgas.
I still say the Pentax K-1000 is a great camera!

[HamstersFromHell]

33. The first camera that was actually "mine"...

Was a Kodak Instamatic 304, but dad had always dabbled in photography and I caught the (shutter)bug at an early age.

Unfortunately, as dad got older he didn't tell me he was hurting financially and had sold off much of his collection. It broke my heart that he had to sell them, especially in that I would have loved to have bought them myself.

Among the collection:

Hasselblad 2000F bought new, with (3) 110 backs, (2) 220 backs, 55, 80 and 135mm Lenses, sports, waist and prism finders, bellows.

Bell & Howell/Canon 7 with an awesome 50mm f0.95 lens. (He used it to shoot dance recitals with Ektachrome 160 using house spotlights only.)

Leica IIIc

Rolliflex (not the super nice f2.8 model, but the run of the mill f3.5 Xenar)

Zeiss Ikonaflex.

As for myself, I bought Nikons: FM, FE, F2AS, FM2, F3, F3HP, then decided my eyes were lazy and traded it all in on AF Nikons and Nikkors.

Currently have an N80, N6006, N2002 and a Coolpix 775. Drooling over a D70 (actually, have been for a while now), just waiting for th eprices to start falling a bit into "affordable hobby for me" range.

Hammies!