Your first camera

Good thread -

First camera I used - My dad's Praktica MTLR 3 - East German SLR - I can still hear the sound of the mirror - clunk - it was like a draw-bridge going up and down.

First camera I bought myself - Lubitel 2 - Soviet era 6x6. Super basic but my 12 year-old self loved it.

First cameras used professionally - Olympus OM single digit series. I put hundreds of rolls of film through them. They always worked, the lenses were superb. The metering system in the OM3ti and OM4ti versions is probably the best I have used in any camera I have owned. I still have them all - I couldn't bear to part with them.

cheers - I.
 
The first camera I owned was bought by myself circa 1 year ago - a Pentax K-S2, in white. It's a lovely camera with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome? o_O) and a pentaprism viewfinder. 18-50mm waterproof stock lens to go with the waterproof camera makes a good coupling. I'm hankering for a prime lens now, however, before my holiday in Belgium in August!
 
Good thread -

First camera I used - My dad's Praktica MTLR 3 - East German SLR - I can still hear the sound of the mirror - clunk - it was like a draw-bridge going up and down.

First camera I bought myself - Lubitel 2 - Soviet era 6x6. Super basic but my 12 year-old self loved it.

First cameras used professionally - Olympus OM single digit series. I put hundreds of rolls of film through them. They always worked, the lenses were superb. The metering system in the OM3ti and OM4ti versions is probably the best I have used in any camera I have owned. I still have them all - I couldn't bear to part with them.

cheers - I.
In the mid nineties lot of Russian and Polish people came by bus on the weekend to the two big flee markets on Saturday and Sunday in Bremen. A lot of Lubitels came with them. Bought two of this plastic, weight like nothing middle format cameras and made images for fun because they cost only around ten Deutsche Mark each. Not really sharp, plastic lenses with some mistakes but made interesting images. Maybe there is still one somewhere in the packing cases in my cellar. :)
Found this on ebay. :D
s-l500.jpg
 
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Olympus XA2

Olympus-XA2.jpg


loaned to friend many years ago who managed to lose it somewhere in the Falkland Islands, well that her story and she was sticking to it.
 
Mine was an East German Praktica Super TL (from looking at pictures ... something like, anyway). It was my Uncle's and it came with a 50mm prime lens which mine was stuck wide open. I still have the lens, which could be pressed into action with a collar on my Canon EOS.

I used to photograph in B&W, largely because colour film just wasn't all that ...

On those old Eastern Bloc lenses, there's some good stuff out there. After the Iron Curtain came down, the Soviets found themselves with a Karl Zeiss factory on their side. Copied many times and put into cheap as chips lenses which are a lot of fun to use today.

For a long time, I didn't have a (working) camera and didn't embrace digital until quite late on. I had a Fuji E500 for a good long while and took some cracking pictures with it. I was into food photography back then and would often get questions about my kit, to which I stunned inquirers with my answer.
 
My first proper (SLR) was a Chinon (CM-4, I think) from Dixons pre-1980. I was a teenager and it was all I could afford. I had great fun with it and lusted after a real SLR "brand".

Stock photo:
Vintage_Chinon_Model_CM-4_35mm_SLR_Film_Camera%2C_Made_In_Japan%2C_Basic_Manual_Exposure_Camera%2C_Circa_1980_%2815253010460%29.jpg


Several years later I bought myself a Pentax P5, as the Chinon had the "universal mount" i.e. Pentax K. This was space age, LCD panel, program mode, electronic self timer. Autofocus was still many years into futureland. I got a 24mm wide angle lens and a 200mm telephoto. Zoom lenses were out of my price range.

It was like a dream and lasted many years and took quite a lot of abuse.
I did loads of B&W file and print developing and had a right good time.

Stock photo:
p5.jpg


Now I have a Pentax DSLR. Still one of the cheapest DSLRs you can get but performs way above its price. Next camera will probably be another Pentax - but I've got to wait until mine breaks, which could be a long time.
 
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The first camera I owned was bought by myself circa 1 year ago - a Pentax K-S2, in white. It's a lovely camera with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome? o_O) and a pentaprism viewfinder. 18-50mm waterproof stock lens to go with the waterproof camera makes a good coupling. I'm hankering for a prime lens now, however, before my holiday in Belgium in August!

Great choice, a few steps up from mine. Get yourself a 35mm Pentax lens. Affordable, tough, light and small. It'll make your SLR feel like a compact. Using an easy-to-use simple lens will allow you to focus on the photography not the hardware. 35mm is a versatile, natural view point. My biggest bugbear is the camera kit which is so bulky that I don't go out with it.
 
In the mid nineties lot of Russian and Polish people came by bus on the weekend to the two big flee markets on Saturday and Sunday in Bremen. A lot of Lubitels came with them. Bought two of this plastic, weight like nothing middle format cameras and made images for fun because they cost only around ten Deutsche Mark each. Not really sharp, plastic lenses with some mistakes but made interesting images. Maybe there is still one somewhere in the packing cases in my cellar. :)
Found this on ebay. :D
View attachment 26496

A. There is a shop in Madrid that sells only Lomo cameras. As you say - like the Lubitels - the lenses are - interesting. It's apparently quite cool now - among the hipsters - to use these cameras. Fair enough. The more film photography going on is to the better. I.
 
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