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My First Camera
- Thread starter Alf
- Start date
Di.Poppitt
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
It must have taken a bit of saving to buy it Alfie. £16. 6s 8d
Oisin
gone but not forgotten
My first camera cost me nothing. I "acquired" it from my elder brother who bought it, duty free I think, on his travels around Africa. It was a 35mm Braun Paxette - very up-market with a range finder, adjustable aperture and shutter speed. I haven't owned one of that quality since. :'(
A.Willoughby
master brummie
An Ensign 12/20 was my pride a joy. Given to me by an uncle, as a young man, it stayed with me through my National Service and on into marriage and birth of my children but then....
On holiday in Greece it was nicked from us on the beach. Holiday snaps of my other half and the children - gone
Tried to report it to the local constabulary and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders and they went back to their game of cards.
Still in the eighteen or so years I had owned my 12/20 it was all I needed in a camera.... ÂÂ
On holiday in Greece it was nicked from us on the beach. Holiday snaps of my other half and the children - gone
Tried to report it to the local constabulary and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders and they went back to their game of cards.
Still in the eighteen or so years I had owned my 12/20 it was all I needed in a camera.... ÂÂ
R
Rod
Guest
My first camera was a Pracktica..... I borrowed the £50 odd quid I needed for it and then realised I had made a very expensive mistake, I couldn't take a decent picture to save my life :uglystupid2:. Theres not a lot changed now really except I can take hundreds of pictures and it dont cost a penny, I get one or two of my happy accidents and thats about the thrust of it. I love technology!!
Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
My first two cameras weren't mine at all, the very first was a 1930-vintage Kodak brownie box camera which took 620-size film. My dad had a new folding camera since the late 1930s, so he moreorless gave the brownie to me in 1946. I can remember going on the old Stechford tram route and also in New Town Row taking pics of trams, but they were pretty dreadful.
Over Easter 1947, when I was approaching 14 years of age, my dad let me borrow his proper folding camera, which took the 120-size film with a wooden spool, when we went to stay with his ex-RAF mate in London for a few days. Over that short break I went under my own steam by train to Hythe in Kent to ride on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a narrow-gauge tourist line which is still running, and took one photograph of an engine which was quite good. I took quite a few shots of trains, trams and trolleybuses over the next year or two still using my dad's camera. In fact I didn't get my own until 1956 when I had started working. There had been a short series of programmes on TV about the new Kodak Sterling camera (which I would say now was no more than advertising). So I bought one in September 1956 after I had been working for a year and could afford the £12. From then on my dad had his camera back.
In 1963 I bought a Yashica 72E for about £30, which I used on my many trips round Europe researching for articles on tramway systems. Although the negative was little more than a thumbnail size, the lens was quite good, and I got some passable results from it. In 1969, when I could just about afford it, I lashed out and got a second-hand East German Exa SLR with a shutter which opened and closed with a clap of thunder. The lens was excellent but the shutter was a disaster and after a few months I dismissed it history, all part of the learning curve. Since 1978 I have been an Olympus OM1 addict, but also have a little semi-automatic Olympus job.
Oh, and in 1963 I bought a crummy box cine-camera from Dixons in Oxford Street, London, for £12 but the lens was disgucting and it was another waste of money. But somewhere I still have some 8mm footage of our eldest as a toddler. Haven't seen it for yonks.
Peter
Over Easter 1947, when I was approaching 14 years of age, my dad let me borrow his proper folding camera, which took the 120-size film with a wooden spool, when we went to stay with his ex-RAF mate in London for a few days. Over that short break I went under my own steam by train to Hythe in Kent to ride on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a narrow-gauge tourist line which is still running, and took one photograph of an engine which was quite good. I took quite a few shots of trains, trams and trolleybuses over the next year or two still using my dad's camera. In fact I didn't get my own until 1956 when I had started working. There had been a short series of programmes on TV about the new Kodak Sterling camera (which I would say now was no more than advertising). So I bought one in September 1956 after I had been working for a year and could afford the £12. From then on my dad had his camera back.
In 1963 I bought a Yashica 72E for about £30, which I used on my many trips round Europe researching for articles on tramway systems. Although the negative was little more than a thumbnail size, the lens was quite good, and I got some passable results from it. In 1969, when I could just about afford it, I lashed out and got a second-hand East German Exa SLR with a shutter which opened and closed with a clap of thunder. The lens was excellent but the shutter was a disaster and after a few months I dismissed it history, all part of the learning curve. Since 1978 I have been an Olympus OM1 addict, but also have a little semi-automatic Olympus job.
Oh, and in 1963 I bought a crummy box cine-camera from Dixons in Oxford Street, London, for £12 but the lens was disgucting and it was another waste of money. But somewhere I still have some 8mm footage of our eldest as a toddler. Haven't seen it for yonks.
Peter
Oisin
gone but not forgotten
Might be worth hanging onto your old film cameras folks l
just take a look at this ...
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2065452,00.html
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2065452,00.html