I was digging through some boxes recently and came across a box of my old camera gear, and lo and behold I came across the very first cameras I have ever purchased for myself, along with my Canon T50 35mm SLR.
The funny thing about it is that the camera still works, even after all these years.
I purchased my Canon T50 from the Fingerhut catalog back in 1983 as I had saved up all the money I could. Fingerhut allowed you to receive products on credit or sorts, and so I had monthly payments. So to my mother’s chagrin I ordered my first photography kit.
It wasn’t long after that I was given my first professional camera and lenses. It even had a motor drive. It was so cool (remember I was all of 14 years old) because it came with a bag, 50mm and 80-200mm lenses, even a lens cleaning kit, and some UV filters.
A Canon rep had seen my images in the local newspaper and decided to take a chance on me, and one day a package showed up at my house with Canon AE-1‘s with motor drives. I ended up with four of these cameras that were often loaded with different film.
Usually I would shoot my fashion stuff on Kodachrome 64, then Fuji came out with their ASA/ISO 50.
One of the things I love about the new full frame sensor cameras that they go down to ISO 50 which gives such rich color and clean images. But as you know, requires a lot more light.
The other cameras usually had ASA100 ASA400 and of course ASA 1000 or higher. Grainy images were all the rage back in the late 80’s for fashion shoots.
In 1990/91 I ended up getting a sponsorship of sorts with Nikon and I was handed two Nikon F4s camera bodies and a few lenses.
The F4s was a great camera for shooting fashion and glamour as it had a great motor drive, and was fully self contained as well as it introduced a vertical shutter release button on the grip. YAY for me.
I had put down the cameras professionally for a while to focus on my other career at the time but picked a camera back up in 1996 when I was first introduced to the internet.
I started a website back then and let me tell you what an annoyance film and scanning was for that. So once that started generating money I knew I had to change what I was doing.
I ended up purchasing my very first digital camera which was a Sony Mavica FD70 and then a month later I upgraded to the FD80 because it also shot video onto a 3.5 floppy disk, and I haven’t looked back at film since.
What a time and money saver, especially when you’re creating large volume of content for the web. And the quality of digital just keeps getting better and better every six months.
I figured that it was time to step up back into the 35mm SLR body world but in a digital format so that I could have interchangeable lenses to accomplish different looks when I shot, and so I went back home to Canon in 1999 when I was sent the EOS D30. That was a great camera and a total workhorse.
I put my Canon D30 through hell and am surprised it still looks and works as good as it does. For a while there I was doing up to five shoots per day.
Of course I upgraded from that and by 2007 was shooting with the Canon 5D series.
In 2004 I even grabbed hold of a thirty megapixel Hasselblad H3D as well when those first came out and it was a great studio camera that I really loved. When you needed to shoot a billboard that was the one to do it with.
I now have my 6D and I absolutely love it, and of course the ability to shoot video with it which I haven’t actually done yet to any major degree so talk about getting a two for one.I got to use the Canon 5Dr back in April and now I am preparing to upgrade to the that system. At 50 mega-pixels I’d be a fool not to. Especially since I’m doing almost all my shooting for print!
Digging through those boxes and the trip down memory lane got me wondering; what were the first cameras of other photographers. Please feel free to comment below what your first camera was.
It is notable; that the very first camera I actually bought from K-Mart in Corona, California was the 110 Instamatic Kodak 600 Tele-Elektralite, pictured below.
I actually shot a lot with this little guy. I was shooting any and everything that I could possibly shoot. So much that my mother told me that I had to get myself a job to pay for my habit, and I did. Working for a cable television station.
Let me know what your first camera was by leaving a comment below.
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