What and when was your first serious camera?

Sony a200 back in 2007. Purchased as I was fed up with the shutter delay on compacts so bought a 'proper' camera. Not as old school as some here!
 
I love that Minolta! It was my first serious camera as well. I still have it, too.

I also loved my Minolta 7000 until I lost it due to a house burglary.

Ended up replacing it with a Minolta 9xi, which was also a superb camera.
 
My first serious camera was a Pentax ES II w/ 50mm f/1.4 Takumar lens. I remember the day I bought it... November 4th, 1974.
 
2011 canon 5D Mark II, remember paying £2500 for it from jessops and it was such an exciting day for me going FF.

I had various canons before then, 450D 550D etc picked up my first camera back in 2000
 
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Mine was back in 2007/8, I got a Nikon D40 from Jessops, then went D80, D90, D4, D810

They were the first SLR's, others were just compact.

Still have the D40, the baby I used to photograph in 2008 now uses it with a 35mm prime!
 
Used Canon 300D I bought before going travelling in 2006 - spent the whole trip reading amateur photographer magazines and trying out different techniques. Loved it!
 
My first camera was a second hand Pentacon FM which was the renamed and slightly updated Contax S. I got mine with the much maligned 3-element Meritar in 1967 for £19 19s 6d (about £350 in modern money). The "S" was the first camera with a built in pentaprism and despite being designed in the 1930s looked quite modern in the 1960s. It saw me through the first 2 years of my photography which was pretty good given that it was in no way a well made camera. Here are some of those early shots and please remember that I was all of 16 when I took them...

Pentacon FM 67-9001.jpg

Pentacon FM 67-9020.jpg

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Minolta 9000 purchased in 1986 I think.
Still got it, and the 35-70, 70-210 beer can lens and the 4000af flash.

Minolta-9000-M4771.jpg
 
Mine was bought in 1981 a Canon F-1 from Comet ,later that year I went on holiday to New York when the exchange rate was good and bought a 70-200mm F/4 lens, a 24mm F/2.8 lens the motordrive back for it and then went to Flushing Meadows to the US tennis open to try it all out.Happy days.
 
Pentax K1000 followed by a Nikon FE2.
 
I was bonkers about photography gear even as a teenager, I got a Saturday job in Hambletons Photographic in Romford market when I was about 15 so that would have been 1962! It was there that I bought my first camera, a Werra 1.
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It had the weirdest film wind mechanism, the ring around the lens base had to be rotated to wind the film on. Tessar F2.8 lens.
 
My first camera was a second hand Pentacon FM which was the renamed and slightly updated Contax S. I got mine with the much maligned 3-element Meritar in 1967 for £19 19s 6d (about £350 in modern money). The "S" was the first camera with a built in pentaprism and despite being designed in the 1930s looked quite modern in the 1960s. It saw me through the first 2 years of my photography which was pretty good given that it was in no way a well made camera. Here are some of those early shots and please remember that I was all of 16 when I took them...

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I'm trying to identify the places pictured in your post.
#1 River Thames with a railway bridge in the distance, is that Kew railway bridge?
#3 Israel archaeological site, perhaps Masada?
 
Fujica STX-1 back in 1980.
This is when a 50mm lens and leather case was standard :D

My very first camera was free by collecting wrappers from SPORTS chocolate biscuits when I was 5 in 1962.
I think my Mum still has some of the photos I took with it
 
I'm trying to identify the places pictured in your post.
#1 River Thames with a railway bridge in the distance, is that Kew railway bridge?
#3 Israel archaeological site, perhaps Masada?
After more than 50 years your guess is probably much better than mine! :D However: the first shot is somewhere in the Chiswick area; the second shot is in Kent and the third shot is indeed Israel but I recall it as being further north and closer to the Dead Sea (possibly in the area around Metzoke Dragot).
 
Zenith with a 50mm lens bought from Campkins in Cambridge 1975 when I was 14 , a couple of months later i'd saved up enough for a telephoto
 
^ I should have been in Eilat right now for the spring bird migration, now trying to get refunds from airline and hotel, maybe next year.....

We should be halfway to Spain on a ship , 2 weeks driving up through France , all cancelled , hotel refunds were OK but Brittany Ferries have only issued travel vouchers
 
A Kodak folding camera that took 120 film, probably a Kodak 66. My old man gave it to me when I was about 9 or 10, so that was in the very early 1960s. Completely manual, right down to the shutter cocking lever, and I hadn't a clue how to use it. The owner of the local camera shop took pity on me and explained the basics of what we call the exposure triangle, Sunny 16 (maybe Sunny 11 in the UK?) and how to focus. The camera took good photographs and I started developing my own films shortly after that, but never got into printing because I didn't have access to an enlarger. My first SLR was a Zenith, and my first good SLR was a Nikon F2. Still the best camera I've ever used!
My own first was very similar, except that it took 620 film and I bought it myself when I was 11 after saving up for months. I loved that camera but it was a very bad choice because I couldn't afford to buy film very often. But I learned a lot from it because of this, and studied every single photography book in my local library, so that every shot counted. My next camera was only slightly better, an Edixaflex bought for £44.6.11 (9 weeks wages) when I started work. Waist level finder, didn't even have click stops, a nightmare to use in portrait mode in sunlight, but that started me off in pro photography.
 
We should be halfway to Spain on a ship , 2 weeks driving up through France , all cancelled , hotel refunds were OK but Brittany Ferries have only issued travel vouchers
I've still got to have a battle with Eurotunnel over our June crossing with our motorhome, should be fun.......
My next camera after the Werra was a Zenit B followed by an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic bought in 1973 at the Chiswick Camera Centre which is still a going concern.
 
My first serious camera was a Pentax LX with 3 lenses :):pentax:

The only down side was the Mrs went balistic when she found out that I put some on credit

Boy was I in the dog house :wacky:
 
2008 - Panasonic FZ8

Still got it too.
 
Yashica TLR in 1960 and a light meter.....it was very simple then!
I was never 'serious' as my cameras over the years were used to record general happenings and our visits to places and countries.
Finally in 2019 I changed my Panasonic DMC-F25 for a Nikon D3500, joined my local photography club and started to take an interest in the technical aspects.
I learnt how to mount my images and the first two were made ready for a club competition.
Unfortunately the week before the competition everything was shut down!

Did once have full free access to all Nikon produced for three years but it was in the 'simple' days and I never got hooked:cool:
 
Mine was a Canon AE-1 in about 1979 from Dixons. With film you def thought more about your images before you pressed the trigger!
I still have this camera and my lenses. Just can’t seem to part with them even with not using them for years!!
 
A Ricoh KR-10x, late 80’s. A really decent little camera which I sold to a mate before “upgrading” to a Nikon F301. In reality it wasn’t an upgrade at all as the Nikon was pretty poor. I’d wanted the Nikon F3 but couldn’t afford it. I’ve not owned or lusted after a Nikon since.
 
I used Bridge Cameras from the 90's until 2014. I asked my girlfriend to get me a new camera for my birthday and spotted an entry level DSLR kit in Jessops (Canon 1100D w 18-55mm and Tamron 70-300 lenses).

Stuck in Auto Mode for the first few attempts, then spent hours learning how to use it (you tube etc.).

Made the leap to Full Frame earlier this year :)
 
1996 Minolta Dimage SLR and 35-70 kit lens. Sadly the camera never saw a different lens (impoverished student)
 
Mine was Nikon FE2, with a 35mm f2 lens bought round about 1981.
A lovely little camera on it's own, but combined with an MD-12 motor drive it turned into a turbo.
I had two.
Long gone, but still missed.
 
Nikon FM approx 1979-1980 still love them today, great workhorse with a nice 50mm
 
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