There are lots of threads her about first rifles, first shotguns, first revolvers, etc., but I don't remember any about first cameras. Last week, I was doing through some old boxed-up stuff, and found some animal pictures I took at the Cincinnati zoo back when I was in the first or second grade. And that wasn't yesterday. I remember that trip well, mainly because that was the first time I took pictures of any animals. I received a Kodak Baby Brownie camera (127 roll film) for Christmas or my birthday (I don't remember which). I even had a leather carrying case for it. For awhile, I was taking pictures of everything, but all were B&W. Color film was too expensive to buy and have processed. I used that camera into my early teens, and even started doing my own darkroom work, but nothing fancy like enlargements, just contact prints. I got a Sears kid's starter darkroom set for Christmas. Mainly just a darkroom light, a film developing tank, a set of trays, and an electric light printing box. I have no idea what happened to that Baby Brownie, because somewhat later I moved forward on the photography trail with a succession of better cameras, ending high school with a half-dozen others, the best of which were a used Speed Graphic 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 cut film camera from the 1940s and a Zeiss Contessa in 35mm, plus a fairly well-equipped B&W darkroom. None of that stuff remains today, as I went digital back in the 1990s. But it all started with that Baby Brownie. Does anyone else have any interesting "First Camera" rememberences?

I had three first camera's though they really weren't mine. Freshman Year in High School and I joined the Photography Club. We were pretty sophisticated for 14 year olds. Shot the Cheerleaders and sold the prints to fund equipment and did the entire year book. Got to use three cameras, a Speed Graphic 4X5, a Rolleflex Twin Lens Reflex and a Pentex 500. 59 years later and at least that many cameras behind me, I still have fond memories of nights in the dark room and rooming the halls, dances and sporting events taking pictures.

Bob

P.S. - That is me on the left

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

Like most, my first camera was a small Brownie, around 1960. Later picked up a used Zeiss Conterex with 35mm lens, but didn't like it because it was a view camera, and the SLR cameras were the thing then. Later moved to Nikon, and thanks to a BIL that was a Nikon Rep, had quite a collection of Nikon equipment. I gave up photography when the digital cameras took over.

My first was the Kodak instimatic. With the drop in cartridge film. Took lots of pics of stupid stuff.
I have literally wore out about four point and shoot digital for work as every assignment needed multiple pics.

Now for fun I have a Nikon d3200 and a d7500.

Thinking of taking photography classes at the community college now.

Still have many of my film camera. I have 5 Canon Bodies, 4 Digital to 29 Megs and one 35mm, but my best cameras are my Mamiya RB67Pro and 645 and my Blad all with Lync Digital Backs to 50 meg.

Bob

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Sag Harbor & Manhattan, N.Y.

My first was a Kodak instamatic and somewhere I have an album with pix I took in Europe at 13 (‘68) In high school I had a b&w darkroom I’d set up with a borrowed enlarger and bought a Fujica 35 mm slr. I think my daughter or ex still has it

I had a Kodak pocket instamatic. Cool little camera. Took pretty good pictures. Had to use magic cubes indoors.

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Keep on Chooglin'

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

My first camera was a Kodak box camera, that used roll film. That was circa 1943. I don’t recall, who gave it to me. I do remember taking snapshots of my pets, friends, and the area that I lived in.

That camera may still be in my ‘stuff’, if it hasn’t been disposed of, as so much of my stuff has been. Pictures taken with it, have also been misplaced. I don’t know if any of them can be found.

I can remember photos, of kittens, one in an old drinking water pitcher, and one in a flower urn.

I've got’ a quit, nostalgia just bit me in the ankle.

I believe darkrooms have now become obsolete, or nearly so, due to the appearance of digital photography. When I was in college (Chemical Engineering at Ohio State) I made a little money photographing equipment setups the graduate students had made for their thesis and dissertation projects using my Speed Graphic. The Department had a fairly decent darkroom at that time, which to my certain knowledge was occasionally used for extracurricular hanky-panky by some of the undergraduates. At the time I quit the dark arts over 20 years ago, I had four different enlargers and ended up throwing away two of them (including a superb Omega 4x5 with color head) as no one was interested in buying them at any price by then.

I never owned an Instamatic, but they were fairly popular back in the 1970s as film loading and unloading was simplified. But I don't believe that the Instamatic design was ever adopted by the higher-end film camera makers such as Nikon, Canon, etc., pretty much limited to simpler cameras for the amateur market. I don't remember seeing film of any kind or size for sale anywhere for years, but I suppose it still has limited availability as I believe that some of the pros may still use it. I don't know if even the Hollywood studios use film these days, I'd guess they have also gone digital.

As the cameras contained in Smart Phones are so good now, I'd believe that there is not much of a market remaining today for dedicated digital cameras, except among professionals and semi-professionals. Today, 99% of my use is with an older Panasonic Lumix digital that does anything I need done very well.

As near as I can remember it was a 4X5 Speed Graphic I got while in High School.

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Paul
Salome, AZ

My first camera was the world-renowned Donald Duck camera!





And here's a picture of me with that camera around 1948, on the beach in Oceanside, California -

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Had a Kodak Duoflex as a kid. Later in my 20's I tried B & W developing and liked it but too expensive to do color so I gave up. Most people don't appreciate B&W pictures. Have 2 Konica view finders-freat pictures, an Olympus 1/2 frame Canon SLR with lenses and filters etc.
Cannot sell any of them-no one wants them.

When I was 6 years old, I saved my money and bought a Thunderbird box camera.

I found this pic on the web.



My Dad was an amateur photographer. He was in the Korean war and he could get all the 35mm film he wanted from the air recon guys. He shot a lot of stuff during the war.

He was surprised that I wanted a camera and bought me a roll of film for it and showed me how to load it. We went to Ft. Knox and Lincoln's birthplace. I shot the roll.

I remember, to this day, the surprised look on his face when he developed my roll. They were all good shots. Apparently, good composition is genetic! LOL

,

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Death? Smile back...

First serious camera was a Pentax K1000.....a Christmas gift from my wife and son. It was kind of a bare bones 35MM SLR but it took great photos. I still have it but have switched to modern Canon SLRs these days.

Instamatic 104. My dad got it for me during the brief time we lived in Texas when I was a kid. I still have it, but 126 film is unobtanium AFAIK.

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Release the Kraken

My first camera was basically a toy, but it worked. I don't remember the brand. It used 127 roll film. I could only afford B&W. Still have some of the prints from that camera. The camera itself, though, is long gone. Later got a Kodak instamatic that used the larger 126 cartridges. In high school I saved and bought a Pentax ME Super 35mm camera and a couple of cheapo lenses for it. Had the 50mm "kit lens," a 50-200 Vivitar zoom, a 2x multiplier, and an 85mm Vivitar lens. Still have the Pentax gear, but now I shoot (rarely these days) with Sony digitals.

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Or something like that . . .

My Grandson has my old Fuji AX-3. Bought it in Naples at AF South. Lots of pictures taken with that. Next door neighbor ran the station photo lab. He must have developed 50 rolls of film for me.

Sorry: My first camera was either a Kodak 110 or a Polaroid Square Shooter.
As a kid I was given an old Kodak Brownie to play with, no film of course.

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USMC 69-93 Combat Pistol Inst.

A rectangular 110. Took bunches of awful pictures of Mystic Seaport and Aquarium.

My first camera was the worst piece of junk ever invented for the purpose. I got it to be pocketable for a long camping trip to the national parks, and expected it would not survive the trip, so didn't want to spend for a good one. Even cheap it was a rip-off.

The Kodak disc camera:

My first was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash at age 10. I got it Christmas 1956.

I picked up a Voigtlander Bessamatic 35mm SLR camera in 1964 when I was stationed in Germany.

Both were great cameras.

This thread is an enjoyable read. My first camera was an Instamatic that took 126 film cartridges, not the later 110 cartridges. I came across it recently while rutting through some boxes of mementos. I got more involved in phot0graphy in High School. My girlfriend bought me a Pentax MX. Still have the camera. Girlfriend long gone.

Then I made jump to Nikon. A series of F's followed, F2, F3 and F4. The F3 in my opinion was the best of the F's. I was one with that camera. It sits in my safe brassed and well-used. Then I went digital. Fun thing is that all my old Nikkor AIS lenses work on my D850. So I can go old school with fixed focal length and manual focus or I can pop on a modern lens.

Film was magical. Not just in the processing, but the thinking process behind making images. I'd immerse myself in it. The simplicity of an F3 and a 35mm/f1.4 involved me in the scene. By contrast, digital has a bazillion knobs/buttons/levers. You can just rattle away and pick out the keepers or post process the images. I find myself "piloting" the camera rather than being one with it. I'm sure that disconnect shows in the photographs.

I like single shot rifles and manual transmissions for the same reasons.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, then an Instamatic, then a Mamiya 330 TLR. I tried a Mamiya RB67, and I was hooked. Then I bought a Pentax 6X7 for crime scene work, then I bought another. Then I bought another. I have three Pentax 6X7 cameras; one with a 45mm lens, one with a 105mm lens, and one with a 200mm lens. I also have a 4X5 view camera from my Ansel Adams period.

After I saw that Annie Leibovitz went to a Mamiya RZ67, then I decided it was time for me.

I caught the photo bug in 6th grade. Dad actually let me use his 35mm Konica.

In 7th grade, I almost always had a photography magazine and a gun magazine between my school books.

I saved up and in 8th grade bought my Nikon EM. Also got a Beseler Printmaker and set up a darkroom in my basement bathroom. Even got into bulk film to save $$$. Developed and printed my own pictures.

In high school, you were not allowed to take photography until sophomore year. By then, I was already ahead of photography 101. I went to the photography teacher and asked to skipped the class. He quizzed me with about 10 questions about darkroom procedures, camera, and exposures. He approved me for photography 2. Weird being there with upper class men. I then got a Nikon FM2.

By Junior year, I was drafted as the yearbook photographer. I told them no sport photography because I was in sports and did not want to go all over to capture pictures. So I did candid shots. Pretty much had full rein at the school..if I wasn’t doing something, I’d just walk around and shot kids doing school things. I revamped my equipment to the new Canon EOS line with the auto focus lenses. That was high tech back then.

By senior year, I was doing free study in photography and even messed with a full view camera…but I was burning out. Photography was becoming a chore rather than a passion. I pretty much dropped it after high school.

In college, I’d tried to take a class in hope to rekindle the spark. Nope.

It wasn’t until recently that I picked it up again. My kids were in sports..daughter doing competing shooting and son doing baseball and volleyball. I was spoiled because there was always a parent shooting pictures..until there wasn’t.

I picked up a Canon Rebel EOS…yeah. I bought a cheap kit. But it was enough for me to grasp digital photography. I upgraded last year to a Nikon 7200. It isn’t bad considering I am shooting pictures as is. No photo editing software. I am going to pick up a faster lens and a laptop once I finish moving.


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First underwater camera was a basic Nikon.
Family/friends visiting South Florida were required to have their picture taken in the deep blue waters ...... of the pool.

They are hanging on a place called "the Wall of Whales".

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Have Fun/Stay Safe

My first camera was a FUJI that I accidentally sat on out in the woods and cracked a little.

Last thing that dang camera took a picture of was a .223 bullet headed toward it from my second AR-15.

It seems that several others shared my experiences. I was also the photographer for my high school yearbook for all four years, but by that time I had acquired a camera a little better than my Baby Brownie. I had bought a Kodak Signet 40 (35mm) and fell in love with it. Not only did it have a focus-coupled rangefinder, but also lens aperture and shutter speed setting adjustments and that shutter went up to 1/400th second, good for sports pictures. It also had a thumb lever frame advance. The 46mm lens, quite sharp, was only f/3.5, but that was good enough for the Kodak Tri-X B&W film I normally used, which I sometimes pushed in development if necessary. There was no way to mount any other focal length lenses, but I did have a set of Series V close-up auxiliary lenses which screwed in, which I needed a few times to get REALLY close. So if I needed to fill the frame, I just got closer or moved back. My feet were my telephoto and wide angle lenses. The Signet lacked a light meter, but I was pretty good at judging lighting and exposure by then (remember the "Sunny-16" rule?) and didn't often need one. It also had a detachable flashgun that used both M2 and #5 bulbs. Of all the cameras I had accumulated by then, I liked that Signet 40 the best because it was versatile, compact, and lightweight and I understood its eccentricities. Much later (early 1980s) I took it with me on a trip to the Middle East, where the shutter locked up on me at the worst possible time. I had to buy another camera to replace it at one of the Kuwait City souks, which I remember was some Minolta Point and Shoot model. It worked OK, but I still preferred the Signet 40. At that time, no Leica could have served me any better.


I won't get into my first experience with a 35mm SLR in 1962 with an East German Praktica, but it wasn't very good.

First camera was a Kodak Brownie back in the mid 60s while in High School. Loved taking photos, but had to be very selective about what I shot. Unlike today's digital cameras, you had to take the roll of film to a photo studio to have it developed. Had to wait a week or so to get the pictures. Only 12 to a roll. Cost was around 2 bucks and I had to pay that out of my own money. That's like 20 dollars now days.

Then in my Senior year, 1966, I bought a polaroid camera. Cheapie called "The Swinger". At least then I didn't have to wait to get the film developed, but the picture quality sucked.

The first camera I owned was a Voightlander Vitessa T with coumbi plunger 35 mm.

When I was 12, I sold my model train set to buy it used ($75.00 in 1961) for a family Christmas trip to Puerto Vallarta.

During the 1960s-70s, the 35mm Pentax SLR cameras were great, especially in lens selection. Lenses using the Pentax M42 screw-mount design were made and used by many other camera and lens manufacturers, and there was a huge variety of lenses of all types available, many of which were very reasonably priced if not dirt cheap, and even the cheap ones were often pretty good quality. I once bought a new no-name 300mm M42 telephoto lens new for less than $50 that was optically superb.

My father had been a pro photographer for awhile and ended up being Victor Keppler's dark room assistant for years during the 1930's. My first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye kit when I was 7. We would process the B&W film in our home darkroom. In high school I graduated to a Leica IIIf when I worked at Olden Camera Co in NYC and then my first Nikon F and a long string of Nikons ending with a F3 and 9 lenses/accessories etc. Sold it all to a Nikon collector in Australia about 10 years ago. Now, like everyone else, it's the iPhone. Just for the heck of it though, I have a Nikon Ftn from 1966 sitting on a book shelf doing not much of nothing to look at.

Stu

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For several years back in the 1990s I owned a Nikon Ftn, also an F3. I was going digital at that time, and sold both Nikons for a relative pittance. The F3 had some internal problems, and rather than spending anything to put it into working condition I sold it on eBay for parts. I haven't checked eBay prices for any of the formerly high-end 35mm SLRs, but I can't imagine they are worth much, if anything, today unless LNIB. Several years ago I sold a very nice Rolleiflex f/2.8 TLR in top condition for around $500. But Rolleis, like old Leicas, are in a class of their own when it comes to collectibility.

Regarding Kodak Hawkeyes, Kodak made so many of them that they had a completely separate building in their Rochester plant dedicated only to making Hawkeyes. Back in my high school days I worked evenings and Saturdays in a local camera shop and around Christmas, we couldn't keep up with Hawkeye sales.

Wait a darn minute. There was someone in Polaroid marketing that decided ‘the swinger’ was the name to slap on a Polaroid camera. Give that person a cigar!!


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My mom was taking hundreds of pictures during holidays, business travels, business functions etc..

So when at 12 I showed interest in photography, she handed me down her old camera, a German Voigtländer. That was real photography school where you estimated pretty much everything, distance, light, shutter speed needed and set it all up manually.



After two years of taking a lot of pictures, and learning to develop films at school, she brought me to the best photographic equipment shop in town and bought me a brand spanking new Nikon FE with a 50mm 1.4 objective. I used it for a long time, close to 15 years, and then one day in Tokyo, I found a great deal on a Nikon F3. Used it very little for a few years and then film died to the profit of digital. I sold the F3 not long ago, barely used.

Argus C3. Decent lens with good color correction. Heavy and solid enough to be used as a hammer, boat anchor etc. Second was a Leica IIIA. Beautiful camera with an Elmar lens but not as sharp as my later Leica M3 with Dual-Range Summicron F1.4.
I still have both Leica's but not the Argus.

My ‘first’ Camera was my Mother’s Brownie.
My first really mine was a Kodak folding 35mm.
Bought it used in Ft. worth.
Just looked it up.
It was a Kodak Retina IIIc.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

My first "real" camera was an Argus C3. Got it with S&H Green Stamps in 1966.


Traded it in on a Yashica SLR. Sold that.


Now using a Nikon D3200 with several lenses.

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Lorin

A plastic box brownie about age 8-10. When enlisted in the USAF and got to England I bought a used Edixa rangefinder 35mm and within a year graduated to a Edixa 35mm SLR. About a year later it was a Nikon F, and a few lenses. I studied a correspondence course from NY Institute of Photography, and did some weddings and commercial work. Then the Rollie 2.8F twin lens and I did some commercial work and for a year managed the base photo hobby shop. Out of the service, needing money to get married I sell the Rollie and the Nikon, but when the 1st baby comes along I buy a Cannon SLR.

Lots of years in between, but I did get a Nikon F2 Photomic and 4 lenses joined a camera club and started entering Salons. Primarily 35mm slides, but I did build a darkroom and make B&W prints for competition up to 16x20. Fast forward another 20 years and I have a collection of nearly 40 "Vintage" folding cameras (Currently trying to sell) and my Nikon, but haven't used for years. Do have a shirt pocket sized Cannon digital that I have used for travel pictures as well as pic's of my guns.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

The 35mm Argus C3 was often called "The Brick" because it looked like one and it was also rugged and simple. Millions of them were sold over more than 25 years on the market as they had many good features (for the time period) and weren't very expensive. But they were fairly heavy and bulky. Also it was made in the USA when nearly all other 35mm cameras weren't, even the excellent Kodak Retina series folders, which were made in Germany. Simply, the C3, at least as a 35mm camera, had little competetion for much of its time on the market. I once bought a used C3 for $10, and used it mainly as a decorator object on a shelf, and never shot a single picture with it. There was also an improved Argus C4 model which had more of a streamlined modern design, a faster lens, and some additional features. But it was never nearly as popular as the original C3 in its heyday, as the superior Japanese 35mm cameras coming on the market at about the same time (mid-1950s) limited the C4's appeal to more serious American photographers.

I was the oldest kid in our family and wound up being the family photographer. Which worked out well as I have tons of pics from when we were growing up. The first camera I had was a Kodak that used 620 film, and I developed the pictures myself, but only contact prints as I had no enlarger and only in black and white. That must have been 1964 as that's the date on the first pics I have.

Two years later I moved on to color prints but didn't develop those myself as it was easier to take the film to the drugstore for processing.

In 1969 I got a polaroid instant camera. No more waiting for the film to be processed but definitely a step down in picture quality. After a couple years with that camera I moved on to a pocket camera with flashcubes.

Sometime in the early 80's a friend loaned me his 35mm camera and I was so impressed with the picture quality that I bought one of my own and used it for many years. I still have it in a closet somewhere. It kind of got phased out when digital photography came into being. I had a couple cheap early model digital cameras but like most people these days all my pictures and videos are now taken with my phone.

I went digital in the late 1990s with a Kodak. I don't remember much of the details about that camera, but it was only maybe 2 megapixels, and was essentially a pure point-and-shoot with no other features such as a zoom lens, etc.. It did accomodate a memory card which was not included, and was itself fairly expensive at the time. But I will say that early Kodak took very excellent (albeit low resolution) pictures and I used it a lot. I am sure I still have it hidden away somewhere. I should probably try to find it. A few years later, in the early 2000s, I bought another Kodak digital with more bells and whistles, but nothing comparable to what is available today on a typical cell phone. Too bad Kodak couldn't make it in the digital camera world, after being first to that market.

Kodak Instamatic that took the 126 cartridges. Probably around 1969.

My first camera that my parents bought for me was a Kodak Instamatic X15, probably sometime around 1975-76. The first one I bought with my own money was a Olympus OM-2S that I purchased from a workmate of Dad's. I ran that one for years before I bought a Canon EOS-10S. Went through a variety of small digital cameras for snapshots before I finally got back into DSLR's and got a Canon 50D. Nowadays the 50D is my around the house snapshooter and my latest, a 80D is my primary nature shooter with a 2nd gen EF 100-400 lens.

As a senior in high school (69-70), my best friend was the yearbook editor and I was the co-editor & photographer. I am still a yearbook photographer but now I get paid for it.

One of the best Hanukah gifts ever was a Brownie Hawkeye camera when I was about 10 yrs old.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

The first camera I bought was a Pentax Super ME (35mm film). The last was a Pentax K-1 (Digital). The beauty of Pentax for me is that I can use the same lenses I had for that first ME that I bought 50 years ago on my current model Pentax. At one time, the Pentax brand was more recognized than Nikon or Cannon, but advertising campaigns changed that.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

The first camera I bought was a Pentax Super ME (35mm film). The last was a Pentax K-1 (Digital). The beauty of Pentax for me is that I can use the same lenses I had for that first ME that I bought 50 years ago on my current model Pentax. At one time, the Pentax brand was more recognized than Nikon or Cannon, but advertising campaigns changed that.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

My first was a Polaroid Land Camera I got in elementary school. After college I bought a Pentax ME Super. I never got into developing my own film but wish I had, I'd still be taking pictures.

The older Polaroids are fairly interesting and they were very popular from the late 1940s into the 90s, especially the later SX-70. The big disadvantage was the high film cost, and also you had no negative if you wanted multiple copies of prints. You had to have the original print copied or scanned. For a while, back around 20-25 years ago, I bought every SX-70 I could find at garage sales (common to find them there at that time) and re-sold them on eBay, often making at least a 100% profit. Digital cameras largely killed them. Just like roll film cameras. I understand that even today, there is a group of hardcore SX-70 cultists, and rebuilt and refurbished SX-70s are still being sold, along with some European(?) film for them. Original Polaroid SX-70 film hasn't been made for at least 15 years and old film won't work - the SX-70 film packs had a battery in them, and the battery had only a few years of shelf life.

Kodak came out with its own instant picture camera in the late 1970s or thereabouts, but Polaroid shot them down with a patent infringement lawsuit which they won.

I used the Polaroid quite a bit for a while and one thing I learned from it was that you didn't need an expensive camera to take nice pictures if you stayed within it's limitations. This even worked for cheap 35mms I'd pick up at Wal-Mart, or Goodwill, when I didn't have my Pentax with me.