What camera did you start on?

[Interpreter]

I would be very interested to hear about which cameras member began their photography on and how they progressed to the equipment which they now use.

I started with an S4. What a camera that was. It weighed a ton and could only be used on a tripod. Single speed (pendulum) shutter and an F8 (I think) lens. But I learned a lot about photography using it. I progressed through MPP Microtechs, Rolleiflexes, Mamiya C3 and RZ645s, RTS lls, Fuji S7000 and now a Canon 350D and 5D with a 300 as backup. I still have two Bronicas for medium format work. The biggest camera that I ever used was a Littlejohn which took 36" x 36" sheet film and ran on it's own railway track.

[Tormentil]

A Box Brownie, many many eons ago.

[Oscar2006]

Ditto box Brownie
35mm SLR - Pentax then Canon EOS
Compact Digital - Fuji
Digital SLR - Canon 350D

[Tormentil]

After the old Box Brownie I had the Brownie 127, I think they were Bakerlite bodies.
Minolta HiMatic 7s - still have it
Minolta SRT 303b - still have that too + several lens
Minolta Z3
CanonEOS350d

As you can see, I was a Minolta fan.

[Pete W]

Canon AE1 program (wish I still had)
Minolta 7000i
Minolta 7si
Canon 300D (still have)
Canon 30D (Backup)
Canon 1D mark III

[Ukwildlifeo]

A had a Boots basic 35mm when I was younger, Then bought a £40 digital Sipix camera (which had a whoping 640x480 resolution, and when the battery died, the memory wiped!). I then got a cheap unkown brand 2mp compact camera when the other was to rubbish. And then this year final got a decent camera in my Panasonic Fz7. Ill get an SLR one day...

[Oy]

In order...

120 Roll
Agfa Isolette II

35mm SLR
Praktica Nova B
Praktica LTL
Praktica BC-1
Nikon FG20
Minolta 7000

*The Minolta 7000 got stolen and I endured several years of cheap 35mm compacts. Then...

Digital compact
Fuji DX-10 (0.8mp)
Fuji MX-500 (1.5mp) *Paid over £300 for this LOL!
Fuji S602z (3mp)
Fuji S7000 (6mp)

Digital SLR
Nikon D70
Nikon D200 - Still using
Nikon D2Xs - Still using

[matt_xyz]

I started out with a Praktica SLR, very basic, no frills, manual focus only etc. I had 28mm, 50mm and 200mm primes, of which the first two were very good quality. It was a good camera and an ideal way to learn basic photography since I had to get to grips with exposure issues, manual focusing and so on. I've still got it somewhere but I seem to recall it developed a problem winding on.

Matt

[RobSutton]

Zenit E - made it doubly hard by using Kodachrome 25asa Slide Film with it - learnt a lot about exposure the hard way.

Next Olympus OM1 - still the nicest handling SLR I've ever had - so small you could fit in a pocket and beautifully engineered.

Olympus OM2n - dodgy electronics meant batteries only lasted about a month.

Canon EOS5 - eye controlled focus and my first autofocus.

Canon EOS1n - stunning but twice the size of the Olympus OM1.

Canon EOS10D - excellent, sold all the non digital stuff once I got this, I just never used them again.

Canon EOS20D - better yet.

Canon EOS30D - even better but still not a patch on the old Olympus OM1 in terms of engineering and overall handling - or is that just nostalgia?

Rob

[eeyore]

I started with a 120 cartridge compact
then a very old ilford fixed lens 35mm viewfinder
then a fairly old konica
then a slightly newer pracktica

then i discovered alcohol , women and sport and lost interest for a long while

about 8 or so years ago i restarted with

a pentax MZ7 35mm slr
then added a second body mz30
then progressed to the MZS and a decent selection of lenses

then i rolled a floating hide over killing the MZS and my most expensive lens - with the insurance money plus the proceeds of selling m other kit I switched to the canon eos system

first with a s/h 10D
then after that was K.I.A a 300D

these days I still have the 300D but have a 20D as well , plus 3 film slrs eos 30 , eos 3 , and eos 5 - a mamiya 645 medium format kit, a fuji F10 digital compact , a Panasonic FZ7 bridge camera , and a s/h canon G4 digital compact