What was your first camera ?

[Roland Vink]

• First camera I used: Dad’s Pentax (not sure what model) on a family trip to Europe in 1979.
• First camera given to me: Cosina? manual SLR with Pentax K mount, and a 28-70 zoom. Used occasionally, usually on holidays until it was stolen.
• First camera I bought: Hanimex? After a couple of years without a camera decided to get an SLR with the features I wanted: aperture priority and DOF preview. Cameras like Nikon F70 were current then, didn’t like the plastic interface so bought a used manual camera which had what I wanted and the familiar Pentax mount (didn’t know about Nikon etc then)
• First Nikon camera: FE. Saw a shiny mint FE in the shop window I was hooked. Beautifully made, nice touches like interlocks to prevent accidental changes to settings. Much nicer than the Hanimex which I quickly sold. This is the camera which really started it all for me. Later upgraded to a couple of FE2 cameras. Started buying Nikkor lenses (and never stopped…)
• First camera I bought new: FM3a: very similar to my original FE and FE2 cameras but with some nice refinements.
• First AF camera: Nikon F601. A decent camera, would have been better with DOF preview. Used for some paid jobs where AF was useful, but I mostly used my FE2 cameras.
• First DSLR: D600. Shooting digital is very convenient, the ability to get good quality well above ISO 100 is amazing, and the grip is more comfortable than the FM3a. I still prefer the size and interface of my FM3a though...

[Airy]

Ok, so by the same logics :
- First camera given to me and used : Bilora Bellina, 1964
- First SLR camera used : my father's Contaflex, around 1965
- First Nikon used : my brother's Nikkormat, around 1979
- First AF camera used : daddy's Canon ... with 40/2 lens, 1986
- First camera I bought (new) : Canon T70+50/1.8 (SLR, manual focus), 1987
- First compact and AF camera I bought: Yashica T4, early nineties
- First digital camera I used : daddy's Nikon 4100
- First digital camera I bought : Nikon 3100
- First DSLR I bought : Nikon D700, 2009
- First mirrorless : Olympus OM-D E-M5, 2011 methinks
- Last (so far) : Nikon Df, 2014

[Wannabebetter]

  I must apologize for being somewhat remiss regarding my own gear:usage tabulation. Apparently I didn't consider all parameters for first deployment of a camera, its system and/or ancillary media. To wit, I'm diligently researching the matter by assembling an ad hoc committee of current and former colleagues, familiar relations (those who will still take my calls), friends (I use the term loosely) and anyone else who may have witnessed, heard, or had a referential understanding, that I ever handled a camera. It is my hope then that in fairly short order, I should have, at the very least, a cursory list available, to the inclusion thereof:

1.) My FIRST camera deployed as a weapon
2.) My FIRST camera used as a boat anchor
3.) My FIRST camera surrendered to the court in a divorce settlement
4.) My FIRST etc etc etc

Oh, and yes, as much as I wanted to keep such thoroughly disgusting and reprobate notions under the heavy rock or sewer they belong, I will even endeavor to recall, however difficult it may be (I was young at the time and experimenting with "substances") when I tried my first Black camera. And just for the record: Some of my best cameras were, and are, Black. And not that it's anyone's business, but I've been in a happy and committed relationship with a Black DSLR for several years now. And she is hardly "my first" DSLR, and not a mere fetish either! You should only know the hell I endured decades back, when I broke off my high school engagement with my sturdy, silver, German SLR only to break my mother's heart by coming home with "that used Japanese thing".

[ArendV]

My first camera ever that I got as a birthday present was a Chinon 35EE Rangefinder


My first SLR I took over from my father was a Nikkormat FTn


My first digital camera was a Panasonic FZ20.

My first DSLR was an Olympus E500

[aerobat]

My first cameras:

• Agfamatic 100 sensor - 126 film compact camera
• Minox 35ML - 35mm film compact with excellent 35mm Minotar lens
• Nikon FM2 - first SLR and MF lenses
• Nikon F50 - first SLR and AF lenses
• Nikon D50 - first DSLR

It is interesting to remember the amount of cameras one's gone through in 4 decades...

[Tom Gresham]

Hmmmm.   The first camera I used was a Rolleiflex TLR.  It belonged to my father.  I used it to shoot photos of him for one of his books (I was 13 -- 1965).  I used his Pentax (actually "Asahi") Spotmatic, Mamiya C330, and others.  The first camera I purchased was a Rolleicord TLR I found in a pawn shop for $100.  My first SLR was a Nikon FTn with a 24mm, 55mm Micro Nikkor, and 135mm Nikkor, purchased new in 1971 or '72.  I went astray, buying systems from a lot of camera makers.  Came back to Nikon with the N8008 and stayed there.