What was your first 'proper' camera?

Mr Badger

Mr Badger

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As a newcomer to the forum I thought it was time I started off a thread of my own, rather than just chipping in on others. :) So I thought I’d ask what your first ‘proper’ film camera was, and do you still own it (sorry if this has been done before)? By ‘proper’ I mean a more advanced type camera, such as an SLR with interchangeable lenses, rather than a ‘point and shoot’ sort of thing.

To start the thread off, mine was a Pentina 35mm SLR that I bought from my Dad when he upgraded to an Olympus. I believe it’s a fairly uncommon camera in the UK, entirely mechanical and made in East Germany in the early 1960s. It has a bayonet type lens mount, the shutter release button is on the left hand side and you can’t see through the viewfinder unless the film is wound on to prime the shutter.

Unusually (from what I’ve read), this one still works, but I have to tilt it backwards when winding on or the mirror doesn’t come down properly (which leaves the film exposed!). I’d consider sending it for a CLA but I’ve read that a lot of camera repairers won’t touch a Pentina with a barge pole, as apparently it’s not an easy camera to work on or fix! As you can see from the photo below, my camera also came with a Meyer Optic Domigor 135mm lens, which is still in lovely condition with nice clear glass.



It’s still capable of taking nice quality photos too; taken last year using the Carl Zeiss 50mm f2:8 and Agfa Vista 200 film:



My first new SLR was a Canon A1, and was the first thing I saved up for when I started work! This still works fine, with no trace of ‘kennel cough’, and it can still deliver some lovely looking photos.



Taken spring 2016 using a Canon FD 35-70mm f4 and Kodak Ektar 100 film:



So what was your first ‘proper’ camera, and do you still own it?
 
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The first film camera I used was a Praktica BX20 35mm SLR which I borrowed from my dad in 2007, before I got into photography seriously. I still have it at home but it no longer works sadly. After that I bought a digital camera (sorry :p ) and used it for a few years.

The first film camera that I actually owned myself was a Mamiya C220 which I bought after advice on this forum in early 2014. I think it's one of my favourite cameras, although it can be a bit heavy. I still own it, although it took a tumble from a hotel bed in Paris last year, so it doesn't work any more. One day I'll get it fixed!
 
Zenit B for me

Built like a tank. The first 'real' SLR, as far as I am concerned, was a Pentax MX which I still have, and use, over 33 years since buying new. It built from the MX and 50mm lens to a much larger collection, and I found a rare 24mm M lens for it 6 months ago!
 
A Pentax Spotmatic II - this one in fact:


33/366 2016 - This was my first by fishyfish_arcade, on Flickr

I bought it because I had an interest in astrophotography at the time (back in the 90s), although I never really got anything of note with it - a few shots of comet Hale-Bopp that I liked, but which would've been unlikey to impress anyone else. I also didn't really know much, or show much af a detailed interest in, the actual mechanics of photography. I was disappointed in many of my general pictures, but it was down to a lack of understanding of the basics which I didn't really pick up until later on when I started buying digital cameras.

I had the camera until the start of this year (although I hadn't used it since before the millenium), whereupon I sold it to contribute to some lenses for my DSLR. A few months later, the film bug bit and I started buying old film cameras again!

It was a nice solid camera, and could produce good results, but I didn't like the focussing screen which I found difficult to judge and as a result got a lot of slightly OOF pictures. By comparison, the Olympus OM-1 I have now has an absolutely brilliant viewfinder and focussing is a dream.
 
Pentax ME Super.
Bought it as a Christmas present for my wife in 1984, and ended up using it more than she did.:D
 
I didn't really have a 'real' camera until I bought a Nikon D40x in about 2007 but it didn't take me very long to realise that I wanted to try film and a very kind chap (Desf) donated a Nikon f301 to me which I used for a bit. Since then the list of cameras has become almost too long to mention..... :D
 
My first 'proper camera' was a Chinon CE-5 given to me by my brother for my short-lived college photography course which I never finished. Had the power winder grip for it as well, which never worked but I kept it on there as it just looked more impressive. :D Still have an undeveloped roll of black and white film taken with it 20 years ago which I've never got around to developing. :eek:

Sadly I left it with my ex-wife years ago and never saw it again!
 
Pentax S3 in 1960 and still occasionally use it....also the Pentax lenses on other cameras as the S3 is very basic and doesn't have a built in light meter or hot\cold shoe....they were accessories in those days.
 
I kinda missed 35mm out, I mean I had 35mm cameras but they were just cheap plastic pas's
First "proper" camera was Veronica I reckon.


ru3aco.jpg
 
Pentax S1 with the meter clipped on top of the pentaprism. Actually borrowed from Dad until I could afford a Spotty (although I carried on using his lenses for several years!)
 
Zenit E was my first SLR, had an Agfa Silette II before that. I don't have either anymore.
 
My first serious camera was a Zenit E. An excellent camera based on a Leica rangefinder camera. Lacked just about all the bells and whistles but that never stopped me taking the pictures I wanted.
 
My parents bought me a Praktica MTL 5 for Christmas in, I think, 1983. And the following year an E6 starter kit. Kitchen sink slides. Happy days :)
 
Zenith E back in the 70's, I don't still have it but I do another copy knocking around somewhere. I traded it in against an OM1n sometime in the early 80's, which I then traded in against a Nikon F801 in 1989, my first AF camera, which I do still have.
 
john.margetts said:
My first serious camera was a Zenit E. An excellent camera based on a Leica rangefinder camera. Lacked just about all the bells and whistles but that never stopped me taking the pictures I wanted.
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Sorry to be a pedant, but the Zenit E was/is an SLR.

On the other hand a Zorki ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorki ) was a Russian rangefinder camera.
 
I bought myself a centon DF300 when I was a student. It was a minolta X300 clone I think. Shutter used to stick and it was repaired once then stuck again. I got another one and that was ok. Sold that year before last I think. It had been living in the loft for years.
 
GeeJay57 said:
Sorry to be a pedant, but the Zenit E was/is an SLR.

On the other hand a Zorki ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorki ) was a Russian rangefinder camera.
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Yes it was an SLR - and it was developed by adding a pentaprism to a Zorki! If you take the top off both a Zenit E and a Zorki, they are identical. And the Zorki was a copy of a Leica so that means the Zenit was developed from a Leica.
 
Spottie 2, after 5 years with the Werra1 (not your average p&s in today's terms). Soon replaced with an Electro Spotmatic, IIRC on a visit to Hong Kong in 1974, the final deal being done at the entrance to the mall some 50 yards from the shop, where the owner had chased me after I definitely, absolutely said No! That in turn got replaced by the now-defunct ME that I still own, after Pentax annoyingly changed to the K mount...
 
My first 35mm was a Yashica Minister D, my first SLR was a Yashica FX-3.
 
1976. Got myself a Spotty. Loved it, got written off in a Motorcycle accident. Always lusted over Nikon F2.

Years later I managed to acquire a couple. Along with a Spotty F which I've never used.
 
I'm a youngie, so my first was my dad's canon 450d - I learned so much on that camera. Perhaps ironically I now mainly use film (except for things that need a quick turnaround) so I've gone in the other direction from most!
 
Ignoring a focus by scale 35mm camera, my first serious camera was an Exa IIB in 1965. That was traded for an Exakta Varex IIB in 1967, which I still have. The shutter failed twice (repaired once) and was replaced by an OM1 in 1974 which I also still have.

It may well depend on how "serious is serious" though; these days I tend to think of 35mm as a toy format, so my first serious camera would have been a Mamiya RB67 :D.
 
Mine was a Roller B35 - quality little thing! First digital was the D50 - an exceptional model!
 
Pentax Me Super. Bought in 1982.

Still have it.

It's been to Everest Base Camp in Nepal as well as most Asian countries with me and all Central and South American countries with my brother in law.
 
Canon AT-1 with 50 f1.8. Still have it but only gets occasional use as I moved to nikon and medium format.
Canon AT-1 by Kyle, on Flickr
 
This one:-
17242-1480962514-0fb2ee96e587fb221fdfb96b1ee1ae2a.jpg

The 'Classic' Olympus XA2 Clam-Shell compact...
17243-1480962521-ebf6ec3044c99bef0f24f2d1415a714d.jpg

Rear view showing the enormous amount of 'patina' acquired through use!

Yer's OH-Kay, its a P&S, but? Its still pretty 'serious' Bought brand new in 1981, by my Dad for my upcoming 11th birthday, so I could use it to take holiday photo's. It was, ISTR as expensive as the Olympus OM10 ad 50, entry level SLR, if you bought the dedicated A11 flash to go with it. But I had the choice of three cameras on the counter in the shop; One my Dad hoped I would choose and kept encouraging me to pick was the Pentax 110 SLR, which I am glad I did't (I think he wanted to play with it, TBH and would never have got a look i!). Lovely camera, but, I don't think I would have appreciated it and would have probably lost the lens within the month! Other was the Minolta Auto-Focus compact, the first over the counter 35mm AF camera I believe, which was novel, and had a built in flash ISTR, but likewise I don't regret rejecting.

That little darling went almost every where with me for twenty years; from school excursions to teenage parties, university shindigs to back-packing across India; it's been to the rocky mountains and Disney land as well as the local park! It took the first pictures of my children and probably the last of my grand-parents... a life time of memories are associated with and were recorded by that little camera, so yes of course I still have it!

It still works too... sort of! I think that the lens must have got scratched or the coating started to break down, and it shows some curious flare spots in some shots, that stared around '97/98 ish, and I retired it gracefully to the display cabinet, and two people gave me much better condition examples they never used, when I told them they shouldn't just throw them out! But I have little or no sentimental attachment to them, as I do this one., which is an old friend.

My Dad gave me his OM10 and a couple of lenses later, when I started university. He thought it would be useful if I wanted to take my photography any further, after picking up a pack of very fuzzy snaps from boots where I had tried recording renovating my motorbike and struggled with close-focus/macro type shots... that one I DON'T still have.... t sort of fizzled out in a pool of beer at a gig i the SU bar one night! And I bought another when my next grant cheque came through, they were only about a fiver or so 2nd hand!

I NEVER bought a brand new SLR, until four years ago, when I grimaced and went Digi. I'd had two or three digi-compacts, in the early years of EPM's, which were convenient; and the last a Kodak 3x zoom, almost fulfilled the promise it would do 'almost' all a 35mm SLR could... ish... except last! And when I came to look for a new one, the market had been polarised by phone-cams, and were very cheap and nasty, or very expensive and luscious..... so bit the bullet and bought a D3200.

Apart from that OM10 replacement, I have never actually bought a 35mm SLR or other film camera! Well, there was a Practika, but that came in a box of assorted M42 screw lenses I wanted... I didn't want the camera and never used it.... I seem to recall I ended up giving it away at least three times but it kept coming back like the proverbial bad penny! The lenses I wanted were for my Sigma MK1, a Richoc copy fro the early '70's, which fell out of some-one's attic when I was helping them move, and they gave me for my efforts. All metal, all clockwork, with only a swing needle TTL viewfinder meter as 'easement' has a certain tactile charm... and solidity, especially when you not just hear but feel that heavy metal leaf shutter 'clunk' open and closed! And encouraged me to build up an 'all prime' period outfit around it as a counter-point to the over automated winder equipped OM's.. the 'ten' having been joined by a 'four' another gift from my Dad, when he observed I was getting 'in' to this photography thing... and what I really wanted was an enlarger?!? But hey, don't look a gift horse in the proverbial! The OM4, which was still in the official OM sales brochure at the time, and was a a 'pro-grade' SLR about £2K!!! ISTR, is probably then the most 'serious' camera I have had.. and do, like all but the broken OM10 and the bad penny Practika still have...Last used summer before last, when in pique I chucked it back on top of the wardrobe when the brand new ruddy batteries wet 'flat', a notorious niggle with the 'four'.. but even so, infuriating to be stuck with just clockwork 60 shutter speed, after just 12 frames! I probably ought to do something with that half exposed roll of film really..... but I am loath to waste any more batteries in that camera! Sigma still gets infrequent use, and remains probably my favorite SLR...

But n the last five years, the 'replacement' XA2, for the simple fact that it is STILL a it always was, such a cracking 'little' camera; that could be slipped so easily n a pocket, and used so readily ad unobtrusively, and get still delver cracking results far above its size of complexity, HAS probably had as many or rolls of film go through it. It is just a great little Camera, and progressing to more sophisticated SLR's has done little to diminish, but only enhance my opinion of it, really.
 
I got an Olympus Trip 35 for my 21st and my first slr was a Praktica PLC2, chosen because it had electrical contacts that allowed open-aperture metering! Still have the Trip in the cupboard for sentimental reasons, but hasn't been used in years.
 
A used Zenit EM bought around 1983. Still have the camera but haven't used it since 1985 when I got a Praktica BC1. Still use the Helios 44 lens that came with it on a Praktica MTL5.
 
Zorki 4 was my first in the late 60,s quickly followed by the Canon AT1 which I had until the year 2000 ish.

Moved to Nikon and the slippery slope as lead me to own over 20 Nikon.
 
20 Nikon? wow....Not so much interested in collecting bodies but to complete my fairly decent range of Nikkors would like to have a Nikkor 18mm or 20mm lens but they are so expensive.
 
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Nikkormat FTN + 50mm f1.4, Was my dad's, and he gave it to me about 25 ago when I was still a teenager. I have bought a ridiculous amount of cameras since and sold most of them, but the Nikkormat stays. It is hard as nails, is still all the camera I need (in 35mm anyway) and will undoubtedly outlive me.
 
I got a Praktica MTL-50 to use in my college photography course - I wish I'd uploaded the photos I took with it to Flickr, I think they're lurking on my hard drive at home somewhere. It was chunky yet funky, and easy to use for a beginner.
 
John....... would your Zeiss Loxia 21mm f2.8 fit my T70
 
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