What was your most significant camera? Why?

Cockney

Cockney

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Brian
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My first 'real' camera. It taught me the basics and technical side of photography, I thought I was doing OK.
I let my lad (then 12) take it to Alton Towers on a day out with his nan.
Out of the 36 he shot about 30 were better than anything I ever took. It showed me I didn't have 'the eye' , our Craig certainly does.
I'm getting better but I'm no artist. Thanks Aires.
 
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Canon AE-1 - my first camera that I bought with my own money (aged 11 - was still at junior school) - was given a freezerful of process paid Kodachrome & Ektachrome by a military photographer friend of my dad's because it was going out of date (in 12 months) - was still winding through it 3 years later when he dumped another bagful off.

Armed with the above and the 1958 edition of the Ilford Manual of Photography, I largely taught myself the technical side of photography and have spent the intervening 38¾ years trying to get the composition right:ROFLMAO:
 
My Cosmic 35 by Lomo, My dad belived it was very important to preserve our memories so at a certain age ( about 10ish) We all got a camera he seemed to have a fascination with anything Russian , watch's ,cameras , and binoculars. So they all ended up being from the Lomo company, My mom and two sisters had the later Cosmic 35m (still have my Moms) and I ended up with the 1960's Cosmic/Smena 35. The later cameras had the Cosmic/Smena Symbols, type Symbols which represent a rough guide to the shutter speed for various conditions ( Sunny 16) But mine didn't and I hadn't a clue, so I copied the symbols bright sun, hazy sun ,cloudy and rainy onto a small piece of paper placed it in the bottom of the camera case and then taped over it with sellotape. This worked fine. The one I have now is not the original as I had let the children play with it having been unused for a good while when digital came about. I am still really impressed by the photos and love the way it renders the images using cheap Kodak colourplus film (good job as I'm a cheapskate)

CAM.JPG
 
I remember my first serious SLR

It was an Exa 1a with the waist level viewfinder I also bought a small Sekonic lightmeter.

It taught me to think about everything including the challenge of composition using the waist level finder.
 
The Pentax S1 that Dad loaned to me along with a 50 or 55mm f/2 (IIRC) lens. Showed me how shutter speeds and apertures worked in concert.
 
Uh!, you guys and your very posh first cameras.
My first camera was a little less specced than yours. This is my first camera:
126_126_bb.jpg

It is the most significant because it was what got me interested in photography. It was a very cheaply constructed plastic box with a crappy plastic lens and a single speed leaf shutter. The whole thing clipped to the front of a 126 cartridge film and consequently created really rubbish photos.

It cost the princely sum of 6 Heinz baked bean can labels when I acquired it in (I think) 1971. I had to save up the baked bean can labels over too many weeks, then I had to use some of my paper round money to buy an envelope and stamp to post the labels back to Heinz in order to claim my "free gift" .
 
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Dunno if I have just one most significant camera, more a series of milestones.

When I was 10 my parents bought me a Kodak Instamatic 36 and that got me going. Much later in life the Panasonic G1 convinced me that mirrorless was the future and the Sony A7 got me to sell off all my Canon DSLR kit and give away my Nikon SLR.
 
A Praktica, I can’t even remember the model name, it was over 40 years ago and it was my first ’proper’ camera. I shot a friends wedding with it and that’s significant because I decided never to shoot a wedding again.
 
Nikon's D100 - my first digital camera and my discovery that I can shoot what I want & how I want without financial worries per shot, added to opening the door to my first ever PP experiences :)

If digital had come along 30 years earlier I'd never have p***ed about with any other career

Dave
 
For me it was my first D700, I'd had cameras previous to that both digital and film but that is the camera where everything really came together for me. It was the camera I finally felt comfortable in my shooting ability and settled into myself with photography; so for that reason the D700 holds a special place in my heart.
 
First real camera was a Canon 550d. Blew me away with the quality compared to the cheap compact cameras i had years before it.
If i bought a DSLR from the generations before it im not sure i would have continued with photography.
The 18MP Canon sensor made an impression on me for sure
 
Probably my 1st D800. I really grew my photography with that camera, improving my composition and technical skills as well as finding my style with it. I still use it regularly - over six years on it is still making me commercially successful images. Although not my 1st digital camera it is the one I camera I've taken a lot of shots that I cherish with. As a digital camera - it moved the whole game massively on.
 
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My Kodak Instamatic 126 got me interested. This was soon followed by used Exa1a with 200mm lens for plane spotting and Pentax S1a for general photography - we were living in Hong Kong in the days when cameras, especially used ones, were cheap as chips. But the Instamatic got me interested in photography for sure. The other two taught me about light.
 
My box brownie given to me by my late Grandma, it was my Grandads and I used it for years and took hundreds of pictures with it. Some I still have. It was up in my loft when I had a house fire last year and was the only camera to survive unscathed. I still have a few rolls of exposed film in the loft but no way now of developing them to see what's on them.
My Fuji XT2's are now my main cameras, I won't swap them as they do more than I want and are small and light to carry.
 
I suppose my most 'significant' camera was my first SLR, the venerable Zenith E. At long last my pictures were framed exactly as I saw them in the viewfinder and in focus, unlike those from my Instamatic. Although my Pentax ME is the camera I'm most fond of.
 
My first camera was an un named 120 folder and raised my interest.
My third camera was an Ensign Selfix 16-20 ll with ross express lens, my first quality camera.
Thornton Picard Ruby reflex 1/4 plate my first large format camera.
Agfa Solinette ll , my first pocketable 35mm camera. bought in Hong Kong.
Rolleicord 5a my first professional quality medium format camera. Rapidly followed by Rolliflex automat of same vintage.
MPP monorail First professional LF monorail I owned.
Olympus OM1n my favourite Slr
Canon G3 my first acceptable quality digital compact
Canon 40D my first digital DSLR
Fuji X30 the best walk around camera I have owned digital or otherwise,
Fuji X T 30 best digital camera.
All these cameras were a new step along the road.. There were many others...some much better... but they added nothing new.
 
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I have two. Firstly, this fully manual Pentina 35mm SLR, which was my first 'proper' camera and the one I leaned the basics with as a 14 year-old. Quite a quirky camera, with the shutter button and winding lever on the left hand side.

45758542732_7e3627c84e_b.jpg



The Pentina was followed by this, which was the first thing I saved up for when I started work.

50351372193_b5ffd5c1df_b.jpg


I still own and use both these cameras (in addition to shooting digital).
 
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There's never been a single significant camera, but I guess the nearest to it would have been a Bronica ETR I bought used towards the end of the 80s. It was the first camera I owned to give image quality that was not disappointing.

Camera ownership has been like the tide, ebbing and flowing. No tsunami.
 
Nikon D90,
I got this camera when I was younger but unfortunately my dad was diagnosed with MS, the uncertainty of everything forced me to sell it to ensure I was able to support my family.
I will always remember it as the camera that showed me how happy I can be when taking and editing photos.
 
The FED 4L

In 1982 I participated in the spanish exchange at school.

2 weeks in hot Albacete & then a week in the family's villa in Campello near Alicante.

Wonderful times.

So my dad bought me a FED 4L to capture the memories and taught me how to use it before I went.

Upon my return almost every shot had a black band on the right hand side (about 1/4 of the shot was black).

Turned out the shutter had a fault.



Fast forward to 2020 and I saw one in a local 2nd hand shop for £30.

I'm really tempted to get it just for old times' sake.

Worth it? No idea if the shutter speeds are accurate but it appears to work.
 
Canon 1d mkiii - not my first camera, however, it allowed me to launch my photography business at university, let me shoot with my best friend, published in my first national magazine and secured me a job to photograph a summer camp last year. For me - a pivotal camera and I’m a Nikon shooter mainly
 
Praktika L I think it was, closely followed by a Canon EOS 1000FN.
 
Probably the Zenit E that I bought second-hand for £8 in 1970. I always wanted an SLR and that fitted the bill. It was built like a tank, the lens was completely manual and I always had to remember to open the aperture fully to focus then stop back down to take the picture. It also had a wildly inaccurate exposure meter. I used it a lot and learnt a lot with it. 3 years later, I graduated to a Canon Ftb and a collection of lenses which served me well until getting my first DSLR in 2005.
 
Kalimar Reflex by Geoff Harrisson, on Flickr

Kalimar reflex / six sixty.

My late uncle who moved to live in Switzerland shot with these two when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. Gave me the bugs for 1) photography and 2) moving to Switzerland. I've done both so he has a lot to answer for :) He left me the cameras when he passed too and one now needs repair.
 
the canon 300d (or digital rebel), which is the camera i started learning photography with. before that i'd only used a point and shoot or disposable and my exposure setting was limited to whether i used the built in flash.
 
I had a little Kodak thingy that took a film cassette. Can't remember what it was called. But I did move on to better things and for some reason I took a heck of a leap and bought myself a Pentax MX. I still have it now. It was a brilliant camera and completely manual. I used it a lot and it taught me all I knew about photography for a long time. Now I've progressed to a Fujifilm XT3 after years away, and I find what I learnt then has been a great help getting back into it. I still do photograph mainly in manual. I seem to default to it. :cool:
 
Mine was an Halina 35X. My dad gave it to me in '68 after my parents split up. He wanted me to record us three kids growing up as he had a feeling my mum was going to 'do a runner' with us. He was right, the following year she did just that with another bloke. What he didn't consider was the fact that I would never have the money to buy film, so as much as I wanted to use it I couldn't. I only ever managed to put a handful of rolls through it.
Halina 35X.jpg

This frustration got me even more keen on photography and I tried to get into the photography club at high school, but it was so popular I didn't have a chance. A year or two later in '74 I met a friend who's dad was a keen photographer and he let me use his Olympus OM1 to get me started properly - he even helped get me started by giving me some film. I later bought it from him.

OM1.jpg

I then went on to get the OM1n and then in '86 I bought the OM4. Although, I had several digital compacts I never went over to a DSLR until I picked up a used Pentax *istD in 2013. Then I just worked my way through several crop sensor Nikons before finally settling into FF with the D810 I'm using now. My next camera will be a D850 that I shall get later this year or early next year.
 
Hi, my most significant camera purchase, in 1988 :


TP-LeicaM6-DSC00216-nex5-050-8.jpg



I enjoyed using a Leica ever after, the feeling of quality, compactness and superior image quality. You see my M6 I still have with the Summicron I now use on my M9s.

I always wanted to own a Leica, perhaps influenced by my father and Leica pictures in our family albums. My father had a Leica before WWII, but had to sell it after the war
on the Black Market to buy food for the family.

Building a house and paying for the university education of three children did not leave enough money for a Leica.

So, when I started earning serious money, I bought the M6.

These were my other toys when I bought it:



tp-NO-0589021-2.jpg



The PORST CX6 (practica) bought in 1973, was my first serious camera, the ROLLEI 35s I bought for motorcycling, MF was a side-show, and the XD7 I also enjoyed very much.

My approach is to use the camera systems for the purposes they are good at. Today, I use my Leica M9s, for sunny days and special occasions, my SONY A7R2s when I need
high ISO, high res and IS, and my NIKON D800 if I need high performance AF.

Using Leicas, has influenced me perhaps to buy quality tools ...
 
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justpix said:
Hi, my most significant camera purchase, in 1988 :


View attachment 293236



I enjoyed using a Leica ever after, the feeling of quality, compactness and superior image quality. You see my M6 I still have with the Summicron I now use on my M9s.

I always wanted to own a Leica, perhaps influenced by my father and Leica pictures in our family albums. My father had a Leica before WWII, but had to sell it after the war
on the Black Market to buy food for the family.

Building a house and paying for the university education of three children did not leave enough money for a Leica.

So, when I started earning serious money, I bought the M6.

These were my other toys when I bought it:



View attachment 293242



The PORST CX6 (practica) bought in 1973, was my first serious camera, the ROLLEIs I bought for motorcycling, MF was a side-show, and the XD7 I also enjoyed very much.

My approach is to use the camera systems for the purposes they are good at. Today, I use my Leica M9s, for sunny days and special occasions, my SONY A7R2s when I need
high ISO, high res and IS, and my NIKON D800 if I need high performance AF.

Using Leicas, has influenced me perhaps to buy quality tools ...
Click to expand...

I totally get the sentiment. Never had Leica but I had Contax for a while. Different gravy.
 
Certainly not the first, but by far my most significant is the Nikon F2. It's still my favourite by a wide margin. I can't really explain this, it just feels right...
 
My first was a Yashica (B or D) Twin Lens Reflex bought in about 1960.....Rollei's were pie in the sky to me ;)
I've never been a 'Photographer' but most of the time had a camera to save memories on film.
Finally bought my first dSLR earlier this year to see if I can learn what 'Photographers' are all about and master Capture One instead of Adobe Elements 5.
A very pleasant experience so far!
Yashica B TLR..JPG
 
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Mr Badger said:
I have two. Firstly, this fully manual Pentina 35mm SLR, which was my first 'proper' camera and the one I leaned the basics with as a 14 year-old. Quite a quirky camera, with the shutter button and winding lever on the left hand side.

45758542732_7e3627c84e_b.jpg



The Pentina was followed by this, which was the first thing I saved up for when I started work.

50351372193_b5ffd5c1df_b.jpg


I still own and use both these cameras (in addition to shooting digital).
Click to expand...
I’ve still got my A1 my Dad bought for me
 
The camera that changed everything for me was the Canon 350D my first digital camera
Completely transformed photography for me I could see straight away the results rather than waiting for the film to be developed and prints come back
I learned so much with that camera and still have it , it’s a bit battered with a high shutter count but still works perfectly
 
GreenNinja67 said:
The FED 4L

In 1982 I participated in the spanish exchange at school.

2 weeks in hot Albacete & then a week in the family's villa in Campello near Alicante.

Wonderful times.

So my dad bought me a FED 4L to capture the memories and taught me how to use it before I went.

Upon my return almost every shot had a black band on the right hand side (about 1/4 of the shot was black).

Turned out the shutter had a fault.



Fast forward to 2020 and I saw one in a local 2nd hand shop for £30.

I'm really tempted to get it just for old times' sake.

Worth it? No idea if the shutter speeds are accurate but it appears to work.
Click to expand...


And just bought it for £25.

Hopefully it works but if not it's great just to have one again for the memories it invokes.
 
I guess mine must have been my Pentax ME, the first camera I had that needed me to focus & set aperture.
I've still got it somewhere, despite bouncing down the road (after the strap came off while I was cycling with it) it still works.
 
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There are some really nice cameras and stories in this thread :)

My first camera of significance was probably my Nikon D40. Bought secondhand around 2010, and I really got into it. Picked up the 35mm f/1.8, as the internet told me to, and loved it. I'd had cameras before this but never had much interest in them or taking photos. I did have a fun yellow, waterproof Minolta(?) when I was a kid that we took on holiday to Greece. Remember taking some fun photos underwater but then after a while it started leaking.
 
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