Technically, my first working camera:
Imperial™ Twin lens reflex (620) - Christmas gift. Shot a roll, or two, with limited success owing to the fact I kept forgetting to advance the film to the next unexposed frame. Used thereafter, if not mostly as a toy then as a talisman to the gods of light and composition. (Loved those huge, blue flashbulbs! Hours of fun!)
Second, but first to be put to any real practical use:
Polaroid Swinger™ - A gift in deference for performing my holy duty, and thus attaining my heart's desire. The camera that truly earned me the accolade "photographer", however sorely overrated I was and continue to be. I still have several images taken with it in my archives. Mostly of sentimental value now, but a few are quite good -- even historic!
First "Nikon anything" (not my first 35mm or SLR):
* Nikkormat Ft-N™ - chrome body, used (six months old); $109 . Lenses: Vemar™ 28mm and 200mm; $35 [?] the pair, used. (Lenses purchased from a really famous, photography teacher -- every year, at least one of his students placed nationally in a Kodak™ sponsored contest -- who had recently acquired them from a colleague that just returned from South Africa. May well have been Mars, back in those days. Prompted me to wonder, Where the hell is South Africa? No! Don't tell me! I'll figure it out for myself.)
[*addendum: My first "Nikon anything" as it were, was in fact a Nikkormat™ Ft-N -- not a "Nikon" as previously stated and subsequently corrected as of this writing. (It was late and I was exhausted, so sue me!) After a scant two years use, if even that long, it was willfully destroyed, and beyond any hope for economical repair, and was soon replaced by my first (used) Nikon F, purchased without a finder, then shortly after equipped with a *new-ish/unused standard, eye level, "penta prism" finder. (*At that time, it was not uncommon in some certain New York City neighborhoods for buyers to leave those "meterless" [sic] finders with the dealer when instead opting for the Ft-N meter-finder on a new purchase. What the buyer was never told was, that they owned both finders at point-of-sale and that they just effectively gave one away. Good news for young hippies, like me!) Both were acquired from separate vendors, for what even in those days were "a song", or about a week and a half's minimum wages. I merely felt compelled to add all this upon reviewing this thread, and discovering the Nikkormat Ft-N to Nikon F genesis was not unique to my situation, or perhaps circumstances a well. Besides, I've way too much time on my hands today.]
