
It is a bit strange to think that many of the citizens of today’s world created their first-ever photograph casually with a smartphone or other mobile device. For those who grew up in the age of film, while we might not remember the first image we created—although we likely knew it was a moment of permanence and carried a small cost (film and developing), we may remember, and have fond memories of, the very first camera we used or owned.
While some cannot look fondly on their first picture-making machine, some photographers have a special attachment to their first camera… and stories to tell!
To hear some of these stories, I polled my fellow B&H employees, as well as our B&H Creative partners and affiliates, to come up with this reminiscence of first cameras and experiences.
Levi Tenenbaum, B&H — @ibelevi
“Like most others, I started off with point and click 35mm cameras that our family used to capture vacation memories. My father was also one of those who invested in a proper shoulder mounter VHS camcorder to record our family memories—and that’s probably where the idea of documenting family moments became ingrained.
“The trigger for photography for me was when my cousin and his friend shot some amazing high fashion style B&W on disposable cameras. I was shocked that it was that simple and shot tons of rolls of disposable camera until another cousin started a Photo 101 class.
“Enter my first use of a Canon film SLR and learning that I could stalk deer with just a camera (that was before I understood telephoto lenses, so no good photos to show from that escapade). The bokeh hooked me in strong! Next, I had a simple point-and-shoot that I took with me when I went to Australia for 11 months.
“The real breakthrough came when I splurged and bought a used Canon 10D on Craigslist. Not only did I have a great buying experience, but I immediately bought a Tamron 17-35 wide angle lens, and a 55–200 (thank you, Samy’s Camera). And that is where the true beginning of the journey was born!”

Bjorn Petersen, B&H
“[The Canon AE-1] was my first real camera and was the only camera I used for the first five years of my photographic education. As my skill set improved and my curiosity was piqued, I gradually moved away from the AE-1 in favor of other, more esoteric cameras—medium format and large format—and eventually digital. And even though I had hardly looked at an AE-1 in more than a decade, having the opportunity to work with one again felt akin to returning to your childhood hometown and still knowing your way around the block.
“I wrote about the camera in this Classic Cameras article. Be sure to check out the Comments section, where the real entertainment is!”

Brent Eysler, B&H — @brent_eysler
“My first camera was an Olympus Stylus 400 given to me by my aunt. I saved up for a whole summer to buy a 256MB xD memory card from the local camera store for it. It had room for something like 400 photographs, and I still remember standing there after popping in the xD card and being like, ‘Whoa… that’s going to take me forever to fill!’”

Bridget Haggerty, B&H — @bhaggertyphoto
“My first camera was nicknamed ‘Pretty in Pink.’
“I didn’t realize what I had. I couldn’t tell you if I ever used it to actually shoot film—I don’t think I ever did. I was 5, I don’t remember when or how I got my Pink Barbie 110mm point-and-shoot. I remember stuffing it into my gel fanny pack when I went to kindergarten for show and tell. I remember telling my mother she was a superstar as I pretended to be paparazzi, firing in rapid succession. The camera does not have flash, so that was pretend, too. I remember periodically digging it out of the toy box and shooting my imagination.
“My camera was a toy to me, and I loved playing with it. Rather than taking a photo of something real in front of the shutter, I’d imagine a scene and snap away. The camera disappeared by time I was 8. I don’t know if it lurks in my parents’ basement with our other nostalgia or if we threw it out. When I was 12, I bought a digital point-and-shoot and really felt the photo bug bite me. I can’t say my first camera was responsible for making me a photographer, but it nudged me a tiny bit. I found one on a resale site recently for $10. Yes, I bought it.”

Chuck Capriola, B&H — @chuckxpics
“My first camera was my father’s Fujica 35M, introduced at the World Expo, in 1957, held in Japan. The film advance was on the bottom of the camera, much like the Rollei 35 miniature viewfinder cameras, and you focused by turning a recessed wheel with your thumb on the back of the camera. The shutter was in-lens and, as I recall, would stick and not open unexpectedly or unpredictably.
“Giving me his old camera, my father would come home from work one evening with a ‘GOLDEN BOX,’ which contained what would be my first real camera and now a cherished family heirloom. The Nikkormat FTn would be the camera I learned photography with and be the camera I’d return to time after time, straying to other flavor-of-the-month models. The camera is rock solid with the customary 1970s security engraving that was a popular thing to do. I also own a black-body version, which I do use from time to time. My father’s Nikkormat sits on my desk. While the original 50 f/1.4 and 200mm f/4.0 lenses are long gone, I do have two versions of the same 50; the one pictured is a black nose copy. The build and durability of the camera made it a favorite of Vietnam War photojournalists and the camera made a brief cameo in Stanley Kubrick’s movie, Full Metal Jacket.”
David Brommer, B&H — @suspectphotography
“My first camera was a Polaroid Land Camera when I was about 8 years old. I thought it was the bee’s knees and quickly blew through the two packs of film I received with the camera. My mother took me to the local pharmacy to get more packs of film and it was super expensive, so she bought me one pack (ten shots) and said, ‘Make this last, because you’ll have to use your allowance to buy more film.’ With my allowance rate being a meager $2.00 a week, it would take me a month and a half to get more film! Little did I know this was my first lesson in shooting discipline and was a great primer 30 years later using large format, where you carefully choose what to expend a sheet of film on.”

Ido Jacoby, B&H - @idojacoby
“The first camera I owned is the Canon SD980. I bought it in a very sketchy place, in Lima, Peru. This camera endured extreme humidity, some water damage and still got great shots. That was my portal to photography and videography.”

Jill Waterman, B&H — @nightpix
“I remember my father showing me how to work several of his cameras as a young child (including the Argus C3 I wrote about here), but the very first camera I could call my own was probably the Polaroid Swinger my parents gifted me at age 10—and it delivered instant results.
“Both form and function had a classic ’60s groove, as famously expressed in the TV jingle, ‘It’s more than a camera, it’s almost alive.’ Instant film cameras have come a long way since Polaroid’s domination of this niche, and today one can get instant gratification from different camera brands. Yet, long after my Swinger and most of its pictures have been lost to history, a pungent whiff of its chemistry still lingers in my mind, perpetuating the memory of this early mass-market phenomenon that ignited my passion for photography and connected me to the spirit of the times.”

John Harris, B&H — @jrockfoto
“My first camera was a Polaroid SX-70, but it was not really mine; it was my fathers. I used it at holiday gatherings and on vacation, but he mostly kept it out of my hands. I still have many photos taken with this camera from the 1970s, and the color holds. My own first camera was the Canon T-50, a wonderful starter SLR for folks of my vintage. I wrote about the T-50 and the incredible Canon T-series in an article from 2021.”

Jorge Rojas, B&H — @nothingbutgrain
“I didn't get a camera as a kid but, rather, as a college student interested in photography, so the first camera I ever owned for myself was a battle-hardened Nikon FM2 that I bought secondhand, in 2012. It turned out to be the only camera I would ever need. There has been a lot written over time about this camera, but I was hooked instantly by the quality feel of its film advance and shutter mechanism, the durability of the construction, and the simplicity of its design. It made me appreciate the straight functionality of it, and how it was a type of beauty in itself. It was also a deeply humbling experience having to learn to shoot with something so unforgiving to mistakes, but that had the ability to make really beautiful images when I got it right, which made it that much more rewarding.
“And yes, I still have it and use it every day. The titanium shutter will probably outlast me.”

Josh Brown, B&H — @xxjoshbrownxx
“The Canon 110ED was my first camera. I was tearing through 110 cartridges at 3 years old, so my mom cut me off at some point. I think I sold the camera at a garage sale for $2.”

Joshua Fischer, B&H — @joshuamfischer
“My first camera was a tank: The Canon AE-1 Program.”

Maria Perez, B&H — @shotbymariaperez
“My first camera was the Canon Rebel T3i. Technically, it was a gift we gave my dad but, then, I basically took it.
“This camera was really what helped me figure out my passion for both photo and video. The Canon T3i helped me figure out my interviewing skills and learn how to shoot video properly. When I started to travel, it was my companion going across the country and world, learning to love to document the details, colors, and find my love for portraits. Today, I’m a video producer and a portrait photographer and without my little T3i it never would’ve been possible.
“This camera also taught me the importance of gear. When I started to have the need to level up, I quickly realized I would need a mic input, which the T3i didn’t have. I ended up selling it a few years ago to a realtor. I like to think after so many years of travel, my T3i, with its 18-200mm Sigma lens, is enjoying retirement—taking photos of backyard pools.”
Matthew Emond, B&H — @emondphoto
“Like countless others, my first camera was the Pentax K1000. With its barebones simplicity, rugged build quality, and affordability, it’s no surprise the camera was made for over two decades (1976-1997). It was the perfect camera with which to learn photography. The only thing that made my K1000 better is that it came to me free of charge from a cousin who had taken a photography course and decided it wasn’t for her.”
For more information on the Pentax K1000, click here.

Thomas Simms, B&H
“The first camera I ever used was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. The first camera I bought, with money from mowing lawns, was a Kodak Instamatic X-15F, from K-Mart, at a counter that also sold Casio watches, cherry Icees, and popcorn. The X-15F produced square images and used film in cartridges and flash bars with eight flashes that burned out after each use. After that, I had a couple of 110 cameras that never really worked well; I never had enough money for the yellow, waterproof one (the Minolta Weathermatic-A). Then, my dad gave me his Pentax Spotmatic, my first “real” camera, a 35mm SLR with a 50mm lens and a 135mm. The Spotmatic’s metering consisted of a plus and a minus sign and a needle floating between them: simple to use and a great way to learn the fundamentals of exposure.
“It’s pretty beautiful. I thought about it for your Best Looking Camera article, but I thought it was too plain and “basic SLR” looking. It is the quintessential SLR. I like that it doesn’t even have a hot shoe or connection to add a winder.”
Yana Zabavnik, B&H — @yanafauna
My first camera was the Nikon FM10. Completely manual, this camera was a powerhouse of truth-telling—it told you exactly where you lacked and how you can learn from it... but only days after you drew it out of the darkroom bath. I think my amazing photography professor had a certain joy in giving it to us. I went through a lot of ‘out of focus’ or overexposed film rolls during that time, all of them memorable for their flaws and imperfections—with some truly lovely standouts that I still have framed.

Todd Vorenkamp, B&H — @trvphoto
“I have two cameras that share the ‘first camera’ moniker in my past; the first camera that I ever owned and my first ‘real’ camera.
“The first camera I ever owned was a Kodak 110 Instamatic 30 that my grandmother gave me when she upgraded to a new Kodak Disc camera. I shot many rolls of film with it—memorably a great many frames of pigeons flying around our balcony at the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World—and some of my other early adventures. I still have the camera (adorned with a 40+ year-old Snoopy sticker on the bottom) on my shelf today as a reminder of how I started down this path.
“And my first ‘real’ camera was my trusty Nikon N6006 that traveled the world with me and that I wrote about in this 'Classic Cameras' tribute.”

Kodak 110 Instamatic 30
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Share Your Thoughts
Now it’s your turn! Tell us the story behind your first camera in the Comments section, below!
122 Comments
Post Brownie, my first real cameras were a Yashica A 2-1/4 and a Miranda F. Taught me lots about understanding exposure and depth of field. Also learned the beauty of 2-1/4 square even with an average quality lens on the Yashica.
Hi Hannah,
Thank you for sharing your story! Great cameras there!
The square is a fantastic format!
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
The first camera I had as my own was a Minolta XG-1. In my high school years, I had a Minolta X-370. I loved them both. The last non-digital camera I owned was my Minolta Maxxum 5. I still have that one with me. They all worked great. The only reason I switched to Canon was because Minolta was baught out by Sony. My Maxxum is in great shape and still takes great pictures.
Hey Robert,
My grandfather was a Minolta shooter and loved their cameras. You were in good company there!
Thanks for reading and sharing your firsts!
Best,
Todd
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye that my Mom gave me. She was shooting with an Argus C3. I still have the C3, but my beloved Hawkeye was given to my cousin when my Mom upgraded and I got the C3.
Hey James,
Does your cousin still have the Hawkeye, or did they not love it as much as you did?
I am glad you still have the C3!
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Fiesta, a gift when I was 10. It wasn’t reliable, but enough to record my summer camp. My first real experience in photography started when, vacationing at age 13, my father gave me his Zeiss Ikon Contaflex, showed me how to use it and told me: This trip you are the photographer. That Contaflex (I think model 1959) was a great camera I used for many years. Then my first owned camera was a Pentax Spotmatic II (in 1973). I used the Pentax for about 40 years without any failure and I still miss its simple but reliable functionality. I started the digital era with a Canon 650 but I always remember the Pentax.
Hi Enrique,
Do you still have the Pentax? It is amazing how short the half-life of today's digital cameras are when compared to film cameras of not-too-long ago. No one is going to be using a digital camera for 40 years...ever!
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
Hi Todd. Yes, I still have the Pentax! Regrettably, after “only” ~43 years of use the shutter started to fail. But the excellent SMC Takumar lenses (50mm and 28mm) had a second life with an adapter for the Canon. Sadly, my father’s Contaflex was lost (stolen?) when my widow mother moved to other house. I enjoyed reading your article!
43 years of use? Wow! I guess they don't make 'em like they used to!
I am glad the lenses are still getting used on the Canon. Very cool! And, bummer about the Contaflex.
I am glad you enjoyed the article. Thank you!
My first camera was a Minolta SRT101. I bought this while in college in 1971. It traveled with me to California, and down South with me two years later when I took a job as a portrait photographer, using a large format camera. It was great shooting the Minolta on my days off.I then took it with me to the Rockie Mtns. I kept it until 1980 when I traded it and an old Nikkormat, plus a little cash to a dealer for a new Nikon Fm and a 50mm f/1.8 lens. I still shoot the Fm about once a year, but I usually pick up a Df, a Z6, or a Zfc. With the Df or the mirror less cameras I can shoot all the Nikon lenses I have picked up over the last forty years. I was shooting film only until I ran out while deep in the mountains, with the nearest store three or four hours away. This was in 2009, and luckily I had a a D100 I had been schlepping around with me since 2006 but rarely shot. I shot a few hundred more shots, and couldn't believe how good the shots looked when viewed on a 21" monitor. It was then I realized how good the CCD sensor was.
Hey Ronald,
The D100 was my first foray into digital after being on USS Nimitz with my N6006 and seeing the ship's photographers running around with D1's...and then uploading them onto their computers in the "photo lab" where the film processing machines were suddenly collecting dust.
Very cool that you still get out with the FM!
Thank you for sharing your story and thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
I guess my first camera was my mother's Kodak Instamatic 110 that, yes, took those little flash cubes. I was maybe six years old, and the main draw for photography was that my little sister would screech and wail with jealousy when she saw me out photographing bugs and sticks with "my" camera.
My first camera that was actually mine was a Samsung Maxima AF Zoom. It had something like a 38–100mm ƒ/5.6 lens and a viewfinder that only vaguely approximated what that lens was seeing. I thought it was amazing.
My first digital camera was an Olympus D-550zoom. Birthday present from my parents at a time when I was feeling pretty down and out. I loved it. The ability to take a photograph and know, within seconds, if I'd gotten the shot? Life-changing. I used that camera until multiple parts of it wore out, until the New England weather fogged it, until my makeshift repairs to the battery door fried it. I have far "better" cameras now, but the Olympus D-550zoom convinced me that photography was an art form.
Hi Artie,
Fantastic journey. Thank you for sharing it!
How did you become a Pentaxian after those adventures?
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
Hi Todd:
I became a Pentaxian because of tight finances, a desire to own a good fisheye lens, and an abiding love for rechargeable AA batteries. Not kidding.
From 2003–2005, I worked at a camera store north of Boston. (Shuttered long ago, no pun intended.) We were authorized to sell Leica, Nikon, Konica-Minolta, Mamiya, and Kyocera/Contax. I got the job because I was a kid who knew every feature of my Olympus D-550z, and I could finesse and flatter this expertise to sell the local dentists and college professors their first digital cameras. We got a nice employee discount, and the owner encouraged us to play with the gear so long as shelves stayed tidy…but I think I made $10/hour, so a Leica Digilux 2 or a Mamiya Leaf back was never on the cards for me.
The owner's family had operated three camera stores on the North Shore since the 1960s, so believe me when I tell you we had literal TONS of broken camera junk in the back storeroom. Over several lunch lunch breaks, I rigged up an ancient focusing bellows with an apartment door "peephole" to make a fisheye attachment for my Oly D-550z, a camera which didn't even have filter threads! I wrote a letter about my invention to the "Tips & Tricks" pages of Popular Photography magazine. They published it and sent me a snazzy camera bag.
I noticed a lot of customers come in seeking weird little proprietary batteries that we no longer sold or carried. Back then companies seemed to invent and abandon battery formats with each new model. My Oly D-550z took FOUR AA batteries, which on a pocket point-n-shoot meant about 2/3 of the camera was battery. However, a fresh set of AA NiMH rechargables cost only $10, and I knew that AA batteries would never, ever get discontinued. In my own silly way, I felt my camera was "better" than those fancy Contax cameras with weird lithium Lego bricks.
Somebody—wish I could go back and thank him—came in to the store one day with a Pentax *ist D DSLR. It looked like a "real" camera, but it took AA batteries just like my Olympus. We had a brief conversation, but I came away knowing that if I had a Pentax DSLR, I could use cheap Pentax 50mm lenses from the 1980s. Plus, Pentax made a 10–17mm zoom fisheye lens for their APS-C DSLRs.
Around 2005, a customer refused repairs for his Olympus C-3040z, which had a bad meter and overexposed everything by about 2 stops. He left it on the counter and didn't return our calls. Little by little, the store owner let me "adopt" it. The camera had a P/A/S/M dial, so I learned to take a blown-out shot in P, switch to M, dial it down to -2, and get a proper exposure. This "take 2, keep 1" system made the camera hopeless for street photography, but it did well for portraits and landscapes.
I left that job around 2006 and got a "proper office job" according who whoever makes those rules. Little by little, I saved up for a Pentax DSLR with AA batteries. I bought a Pentax K100D-Super around 2008. My first lens after the kit lens was the magnificent smc-DA 10–17mm Fish-Eye zoom. I felt like the luckiest photographer alive: AA batteries, a full set of nobs and dials, access to cheapo k-mount lenses, and a fisheye lens that was a million times better than an apartment door peephole.
Yeah, okay, I shoot a Pentax K-S2 these days, so even I faced facts and gave up on AA batteries. I'll die owning that 10–17mm fisheye, though. The battery door on my Olympus D-550zoom broke in 2010. I repaired it with glue and aluminum foil, which worked for another few days before the electronics fried. I own a beautiful Manfrotto backpack from B&H, but I still keep a few lenses and my +2EV 3MP Olympus C-3040z in that PopPhoto camera bag.
That famous Pentax "Green Button," by the way? It resets metering much like my crazy exposure workaround for the Olympus C-3040z, except you don't have to actually take the first overexposed shot. So it turns out I was practicing all along to become a Pentaxian!
Hey Artie,
That is an awesome tale! Thank you for sharing!
I guess that is one way to become a Pentaxian!
If you still love cameras and AA batteries, may I suggest the Nikon F4! :) It swallows half-a-dozen at a time! :)
Thanks again for reading and thanks for sharing that story!
Best,
Todd
Oh, and Pentax is my main system for landscapes and product photography, but I still keep a toe in Olympus, too. For hikes, street shooting, and social events I use a micro 4/3 Olympus PEN with the kit zoom and the nearly-perfect 12mm ƒ/2.
Hey Artie,
I really enjoyed the PEN I got to test out. Fun camera and beautiful to look at!
I have shot several Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras over the years and I have always enjoyed the results and find their glass to be exceptional.
Thanks again for reading!
Best,
Todd
When I was about thirteen, I used to go to the local pharmacy and lust after a Kodak Starflex, but we couldn’t afford the camera, the film or the flash bulbs, much less the developing and printing.
I left home when I was sixteen to work with a traveling band. With my much increased income and the desire to record images of all the wonderful places I saw while traveling the country, I bought the Kodak Instamatic 300 in the gift shop of a Nevada casino where I worked in 1965. My first picture, of the woman who sold me the camera, was nothing to write home to Mama about.
In a few months, I discovered the limitations of the camera and went upscale to the Instamatic 500 which had good build quality and more flexibility, but still used cartridge film.
Someone in a camera store somewhere convinced me to move to 35mm film to get the increased sharpness that couldn’t be achieved with 126 cartridge film. They sold me a used Agfa 35mm. This camera was more or less a disaster, starting with my not getting the film on the take-up sprockets for the first 36 exposure roll. Part of the sale was six rolls of Agfachrome film. I was never happy with the prints that I got from that film and ended up trading the camera rather quickly. I was probably indoctrinated to the look of Kodacolor print film by then.
Later in 1966, while waiting to be served in a camera store in Flagstaff, Arizona, I listened to the salesman tell a customer all about the Alpa 9D. By the time I was able to make my purchases, I was totally convinced that the Alpa was the answer to all my wants and needs. The only problem with the Alpa 9D; the price of the camera was equal to two months of my gross income. Just before I left, I asked the salesman what camera he uses. His response was “a Pentax Spotmatic”. Remember that little detail.
My lust for the Alpa 9D didn’t go away, though. Not long after that, I was in a camera store in Missoula, Montana where the salesman happened to have just sold an Alpa 9D to a local customer. He offered to ask the new owner if he would sell his old 6C with a 50mm Kern Macro Switar lens to me. He did and a new era began for me.
The Alpa served me well, but not without faults for more than a decade after I stopped traveling. I’ve got hundreds of pictures of kids birthdays and the very occasional “get away” taken with that camera.
In 1981, my five-year-old son wanted to take a picture of the Catalina Foothills in Arizona. Not to stifle his budding creativity, I let him have the camera. He very quickly dropped it over the side of a cliff, breaking the lens and the body. Remembering the response from the original salesman when I saw my first Alpa, I went down to K-Mart and bought a Pentax K-1000 with the basic kit lens for $139. I still have the camera even though I allowed all my children to take it to their events throughout their lives.
After the first couple rounds of digital cameras entered the market, I bought a Minolta DiMage S414 in 2003. I used it as a pocket camera at work and for family events at home. Looking back at the output, it wasn’t stellar by today’s standards, but I captured many memories with it. One might say, it was analogous to the Instamatic 500 from 1965.
By the end of 2007, I was lusting for a more capable, yet still pocketable camera, and I bought my first Canon G-series camera, the G9. I liked the G-series Canons so much that I bought a used G2 and G5 to do a months-long timelapse video. Over time, the fact that the G9 could shoot video piqued my interest and, by 2013, I bought a G15 mostly because the video was much better while I could still keep it in my pocket at work.
Now that I’m retired, I shoot mostly video and I’m much more tolerant of carrying a heavier camera, tripod, separate microphone and batteries, so I get by with a Sony RX10 IV.
Oh yeah, I’ve begun to lust after the Canon EOS R5 C.
Hi John,
Amazing journey there! Thank you for sharing all of the stories!
"Remember that little detail"...I have a 2.5 year old who has handled all of my cameras (but not near cliffs). I will keep a sharper eye on him!
And..."Remember that little detail"...a bit of a non sequitur...the owner of a NYC camera store (not B&H) once told me that everyone on his staff "shoots Nikon or Canon digital for 'work', but shoots FUJIFILM for personal projects." That little detail tipped the scales for me once upon a time.
The Sony RX10 IV is an amazing camera that can deliver amazing results...a salesman at B&H, Steve Moore, has convinced many to buy that machine by showing them his amazing prints!
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
Have long forgotten my first camera but I remember dad was a bit miffed when I lost it. It was replaced with a Kodak Retinet (sp?), which I remember very well and was used until it was replaced by a Pentax Spotmatic in 1965 in an overseas BX. Hundreds of rolls of film went through those two cameras.
Went digital in 1999 but have no memory of what camera it was though I do remember losing the first chip-load of shots during the download process; was upset as they were memories of something long gone. Used a Canon G1 (good little camera) until a stumble on a CO trail banged it up (It was a great, feature loaded little camera-still have the carcass). Moved on to a Canon SX10-IS and have added a Canon G5x-Mk II.
Hey R C. K.,
Great stuff! Is "miffed" the right word for your father's reaction to you losing a camera or are we playing nice? :)
Knock on wood, I have not really misplaced any digital images, but I know many who have and I have dodged some bullets with data recovery software and dumb luck!
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
Great article! My "first" camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye, which my father gave to me when I was a child. I still have it to this day, and it still works, although the lens is a bit cloudy. The first camera I bought for myself was a Nikon FG-20, which also still works, although the light meter needle is no longer operative.
Hi Richard,
Thank you!
Very cool that you still have your Brownie and Nikon FG!
Thank you for reading!
Best,
Todd
My first camera was a ZENIT 12 XP., with a 44mm lens, metal and very heavy, but fantastic at that time.
Hi Rodolfo,
That is a great looking camera! This article has prompted me to look up many cameras I was unfamiliar with. Thanks for your entry!
And, thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
My first camera (still have) was a Kodak Instamatic 100 which uses a 126 cartridge film (which can no longer get) received this camera back in perhaps 1965/66 as a christmas gift.
Hey Leslie,
Thanks for sharing your Instamatic story! Do you still have it?
Thanks for reading Explora!
Best,
Todd
My "first camera" was a Polaroid Swinger. My parents bought me that since I was taking photos with their Polaroid Land Camera using bellows for focusing.
But my first real camera was the Canon A-1 in May 1980. I researched the photography magazines, Popular Photography and Modern Photography. The A-1 was ground breaking; all the other cameras at the time were aperture priority; the A-1 included shutter priority and program mode. I added the motor drive and Sunpak 522 flash later.
July 2013, my wife and I were returning home when I mentioned that <name redacted> had a used Canon F-1N with the AE Finder FN New AE Motor Drive FN for $500. She asked "Is that their flagship?" I answered "Yes, for the 80's." She said "Buy it." The F-1N was on my camera bucket list.
Hey Ralph,
In case you missed the AE-1 article: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-review/classic-c…
I know the A-1 was different, but close!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
As a kid, I had a cheap Instamatic-type 126 camera, and as a teen I was occasionally allowed to use my dad's old Nikon rangefinder. It wasn't till my 20s that I got cameras that I could really call my own and take interesting photos with them. One was my dad's old Land 100 Polaroid (he'd bought an SX-70 and never looked back). I bought so much B/W film through my job at a photo kiosk that Polaroid had a rep drop by to see why they were suddenly getting such a demand for it.
The other was my beloved old Yashica-Mat LM. Not exactly an action camera, but I learned a lot about image composition and making each shot count.
I still have both cameras. The Polaroid sits in hopes the film will be revived someday, the Yashica just waits for the right moment.
Hi Heidi,
Amazing story from the photo kiosk! So cool! :)
Retro Polaroid films have been popping onto the market. Keep your eyes out!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
When I was a younger Lad, Pop had a Homemade Photography Darkroom in the Basement, which I learnt the Basics of Black & White Photo use, and the first Camera I learnt how to do any photo work was the Kodiak Retina IIC and a Light Meter which I still have with now many year’s worth of other cameras as well. I have yet to stop taking images of what I can see. Thanks Pop
Hey Hap,
My father also got me into photograph. Great story and awesome first camera!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
My first camera was one my father gave me after he purchased a "new" Argus C3 to document us kids on 35MM slides. It was the one he brought back from Germany after landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day. It was a Zeiss Icon Box Tengor that took 120 film and I used to take pictures at summer camp and develop them in a makeshift darkroom.
Hey Raymond,
That is an amazing first camera—with an amazing story!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
Like Thomas S. my first camera was purchased in Vietnam in Aug 1967, it was a Minolta SRT-101. I really loved that camera, learned the basics of photography with it and literally wore it out, I still mess it.
Hey James,
Thank you for your service as well! Cool first camera!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
My intro to photography came out of a BX in Viet Nam. All I shot was slides and I still have them. The Topcon RE Supewr was a great camera!
Thanks, Thomas!
My first real camera was a Minolta SRT-101, which was brought to me by a friend returning from Japan. I replaced it with the Minolta XD-11 which I still have. However, shortly thereafter I entered the Nikon family and have used Nikon cameras ever since. I also have a nice collection of Nikon lenses. Despite how long ago those MInolta cameras were used, I got some great prints and color slides with them. Thanks B&H for many years of providing quality purchases of many photographic items!
Hey Dewayne,
That SRT is a great first camera. Thanks for sharing your first and thanks for many years of shopping at B&H!
And, thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
My first real camera was a Topcon RE Super. I purchased it at the Cam Rhan AFB BX (Viet Nam 1967). Getting off the site to a BX was a big deal When we finally made it there was very little to buy. I remember getting Kool-Ade and flound the Topcon camera with several lenses. I was able to find aboiut every accessory. I got some time off and had a few days in Saigon.On the way down country I met 2 Army guys and was able to get them a flight yo Saigon and when we got there I went in to get get rooms for us for the night on base. When I came out everything was gone - All my Topcon equipment! They threw my duffle bas out of the truck and were gone. To this day I have not got over that loss and I am 75! I have looked for the same camera here in the states but can not afford the prices.
Hey Thomas,
I had to look up the Topcon. What a cool looking machine! I love the clean lines of the design.
I am so sorry that it left you. :( Ugh. People suck.
Thank you for reading, sharing your story, and for your service to our country!
Best,
Todd
I have vague memories of crossing paths with a Kodak Brownie sometime early on, but the first camera I bonded with was my parents' Graflex Graphic 35. When I bought my own, I got a pre-Spotmatic Asahi Pentax SLR and a Mamiya C series TLR.
Hey Ralph,
I wonder if the Brownie has vague memories of you? :)
Thanks for sharing and thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd
My very first camera was a cheap plastic, no-name roll film camera that used 127 film. Since that one, I've owned and used many different kinds ranging from a 110 Kodak Instamatic to a Leica M3, Mamiya 645 to a variety of Minoltas (SR-T101, SR-T102, XE-7 and Dimage S414), and am now using an Olympus OM-D E-M10 II. In between I've used a Pentax with screw-mount lenses, a couple of YashicaMat 124G twin lens models, a Fujifilm point-and-shoot with a zoom lens and a Fujifilm Finepix S6000fd. The Minolta SR-T 101 was my first "real" camera and was my favorite for many years. I still have the XE-7 and the Mamiya 645 but haven't used either since I stopped doing my own darkroom work many years ago. For that matter, I still have the Leica M3, but since it's regaining in popularity, I may try to sell it soon.
Hey John,
That is a lot of cameras! Thank you for sharing your "firsts" with us!
My dad sold his M3 and has regretted it every day since! Beware!
And, thanks for reading Explora!
Best,
Todd
Ah, nostalgia! My dad taught me about photography in the late 1930's on his Kodak Autographic, (Do not recall if it was the model 1, 2 or3). He gave me that "machine" when the V120 (or was it V130) film was no longer available in stores, only through mail order with Kodak. Ah, but technically that was his camera. When he believed that I was serious about photography he got me a Kodak Brownie that used 127 film. That simplistic camera frustrated me and I stopped using it almost immediately. So, in reality I consider my first camera the 35mm Argus C3 which I acquired in 1946. That was a CAMERA! This is the camera that let me get into creative photography! There wasn't anything that I could not do when I set my mind to it. It was a treasure that I used until the world of digital photography forced me to retire it. This camera still holds a place of honor in my home on display on my bookshelf.
Hey Stan,
Great story! Thank you for sharing!
And, I am glad the Argus is still safe at home!
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Todd