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Post by Randy on Jan 9, 2012 15:05:54 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera? Mine, Pentax Spotmatic.
What was the reason for your choice? It was a present.
What year did you get it? 1969.
Do you still have it? Yes.
Does it still work? Yes it does.
AMENDED: After all these years, I'm still shocked at the thought of getting a Pentax Spotmatic for Christmas. I was 18 years old, and I know it cost my Grandmother at least $500 dollars. That was a lot of money in 1969. I opened the box and almost fell over. She saw the look on my face at first and thought I didn't like it. lol
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Post by Rachel on Jan 9, 2012 15:25:48 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera? Praktica IVF with Tessar f2.8 lens. What was the reason for your choice? Probably because I could afford it and I liked the look of it; it's a long time ago  What year did you get it? Around 1965. Do you still have it? No but I found a nice one in a "junk" box at a local camera fair a few years ago. Does it still work? Yes, the replacement does.  |
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Jan 9, 2012 16:44:35 GMT -5
My very first 35mm camera was a Zeiss Ikon Tenax I, 1/2 frame. It was really the Tenax II but that is another tale. I was about 13 years old. It has been lying peacefully at the bottom of Lake Couchiching for lo these many decades. I tried diving for it at the time but the water was too deep. I bought this replacement several years ago. It is engraved by Alois Höner, Siebnen/Suisse. I wonder of he is the harmonica Höner.  Mickey |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2012 16:55:48 GMT -5
My first 35mm was an Ansco (Agfa) Super Memar. The reason we got it was it was on sale and had an F2 lens--fast in those days. My first SLR was an EXA I. The big reason was it was on sale ($39.95) My dad got the Exacta VXIIA at the same time for $69.95. I wanted an SLR because I liked taking close ups of model trains and printed documents (no copiers in those days) and it was tough dealing with focus and parallax shooting with an RF. Still have the Super Memar and an exact copy of the Exa.
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Post by Peltigera on Jan 9, 2012 17:18:24 GMT -5
My first 35mm camera was a Zenit E, bought in 1973 for the princely sum of £45.00. The week after I bought it, I dropped it while taking pictures out of the upstairs rear window of a moving bus. It bounced down the stairs onto the platform and out onto the road. Did no harm at all. It was a faithful friend until I got married in 1978 and the wife said hobbies were too expensive.
Why did I buy it? Because I had already bought an old Agfa folding camera (I don't know the model or age but had two wire frames for a viewfinder). That was getting difficult to use (I was guessing exposures) and expensive (12 pictures per roll). I wanted an exposure meter, proper viewfinder and cheap to use.
£45.00 was two weeks take-home pay so it was not cheap to buy but I never regretted buying it (more than I can say about marrying the wife!).
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Jan 9, 2012 18:58:50 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera? Iloca 1a
What was the reason for your choice? I needed a camera
What year did you get it? 1968
Do you still have it? Yes*
Does it still work? Yes*
* It's in that box of things I can't find at the moment. I need to get in the storage area in the loft - boxes of all sorts up there. I'm sure it will work: there's not too much to go wrong.
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Doug T.
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Post by Doug T. on Jan 9, 2012 19:42:09 GMT -5
My first 35mm was a Konica Auto S2
It was given to me as a gift ca. 1970
It was a very nice camera, was stolen, so I don't know if it still works or not.
I may even have bought it back at some point without my knowing it.
Doug
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Post by olroy2044 on Jan 9, 2012 20:42:01 GMT -5
My first 35mm was a Zeiss Ikon Contaflex II. I bought it in 1964 with my first income tax refund check of $65.00 and change. I had my heart set on a Minolta rangefinder (of some sort  ) but could not afford one. I went into Royal Cameras in San Jose, Ca, and told the man behind the counter that I had $65 to spend, and asked him to show me the best camera he had that I could get with that amount. He asked if I had to have a new one, and brought out the Contaflex when I told him that I didn't care if it was used. That camera was just like new, with a mint case and instruction manual. He threw in a Honeywell Tilt-a-Mite flash, a box of P-25b bulbs, and a roll of film. I will be forever grateful to that clerk. Lessons learned from the use of that camera have not been forgotten. I used that camera for years, then gave it to my son. It was still working, but had developed a light leak. I never got that leak fixed before he died. The camera is now in a place of honor that my daughter-in-law has set up with mementos from Scott's life. Someday I'll get another, for sentimental reasons, if nothing else. Roy |
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SidW
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Post by SidW on Jan 9, 2012 21:20:09 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera? I have vague recollections of a small Zeiss with a small belllows that came straight out, was tyhere such a thing? Maybe I'm thinking of a Zeiss 3x4cm (16 on 127). Or maybe something like a Paxette. The first that counts was really two: A FED1g and an Exakta II
What was the reason for your choice? Interchangeable lenses. Saw the FED in the pawnbroker's window and swapped the anonymous one for it. A friend had an Exakta (he was my father's generation so thinking back it must have been a pre-1939 one and who knows it might have been the round-eye from 1936), so I wanted one.
What year did you get it? FED in 1958 and Exakta II in 1959. My neg and dia archive is complete from 1958 on and I've posted a number here from those years. I'm holding the Exakta II in my portrait on the left, from 1962, complete with Enna Ennalyt 85mm/1.5, a budget lens in those days but can't afford one now, it's value has grown inversely to my own change of value.
Do you still have it? No, both were stolen when the car was burgled in 1963 at Verdun so I never saw the battlefield pictures still in the cameras. Fortunately the other cassettes from that trip weren't in the car.
Does it still work? Who knows. Had a fit of nostalgia a few years ago and got another FED 1g and an Exakta II in working condition and have used them now and then.
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Berndt
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Post by Berndt on Jan 10, 2012 2:51:10 GMT -5
My first 35 mm camera ? An unkown brand plastic camera, my grandfather gave to me as a present, when I was about 13 ? ... maybe. No light meter, no range finder ... aperture, shutter time, focus ... everything fully manual, just by guess. My grandfather said, that's the tool, you can learn photography with. And indeed ... after a little paractise, my success rate was pretty high and I could take great pictures with it. Honestly speaking, I have been much better in guessing light and distances at that time then I am now. The camera does not exist anymore, but I actually used it for years ... until I bought a russian Zenit SLR on a holiday in Prague. Still communism at that time there and the exchange rate for money at the black market has been just wonderful So, I could afford such a camera even still being a student. That should have happend in the middle of the 80s. |
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Post by colray on Jan 10, 2012 3:53:28 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera ....Robot Star
What was the reason ..Work camera
What year did you get it... 1958
Do you still have it? No
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Post by grenouille on Jan 10, 2012 4:21:30 GMT -5
1st Camera : Nikkormat FT in 1965
Reason : Record my 1st born daughter. Camera & daughter now both 47 years old
Cost : Bought new, 1/2 my month's wages, had to eat at my parent's place for the rest of
the month
Present : Still have it and everything is still working fine including the meter. I still have the
original recipt and papers, regret not keeping the box
Hye
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Post by camerastoomany on Jan 10, 2012 10:01:11 GMT -5
The first one -- Minolta SRT100x plus the usual 3 lenses.
Reason -- travelling in Indonesia and wanted something better than the Instamatic and more convenient than my Yashica D tlr.
Year bought -- 1980
Yes, I still have it.
Yes, it still works.
I also still have the Yashica and, of course, it still works. It was a Christmas present when I was 13. Mother was not happy with father, as that gift cost as much as the family's whole Christmas expenditure. What did I care. I was the only kid at school with such a camera.
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photax
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Post by photax on Jan 10, 2012 12:28:27 GMT -5
What was your first 35mm camera? Agfa Optima 1035.  What was the reason for your choice? The camera was a Christmas present from my parents. What year did you get it? I think it was around 1976 at the age of 11 or 12. Do you still have it? Yes of course. Does it still work? I think the Agfa still works properly, but I have no suitable batteries. At the age of 13 my grandfather gave me his 1931 Leica and a complete Leitz darkroom outfit. I learned a lot about manual settings with this old lady. Later I got also interested in photographic history and old cameras. Grandfathers camera was the starting point of my collection.  MIK |
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Post by John Farrell on Jan 10, 2012 13:31:21 GMT -5
An Agfa Isomat-Rapid, which I bought because I found my mother's Kodak Duoflex too awkward to use, in 1969.
I gave it to my then girlfriend in 1970, when I got myself a Zenit 3m. Where it is now, I don't know.
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) but could not afford one. I went into Royal Cameras in San Jose, Ca, and told the man behind the counter that I had $65 to spend, and asked him to show me the best camera he had that I could get with that amount. He asked if I had to have a new one, and brought out the Contaflex when I told him that I didn't care if it was used.
