First Camera

[DWalt]

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.

 

[yaktamer]

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

 

[JohnRippert]

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.

 

[DOUBLESHOT]

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.

 

[Old cop]

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

 

[Tom S.]

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.

 

[Tom S.]

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.

 

[Jellybean]

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.

 

[DWalt]

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.

 

[Jellybean]

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.

 

[DWalt]

The quality of the lens is the most important consideration, not the camera itself.