What was your first SLR?

[AdminPTF]

Did you buy it, or did you receive it as a gift? What was your memory of it? Do you still have it? If not, what happened to it?

[Captain Slack]

My very first one was a Pentax K1000. Purchased it from Ritz Camera for the B&W Photography class I'd signed up for in college. Came with a Tokina 28-80 lens, I think. I kept it for years, but eventually sold it after switching to Nikon SLR's.

[jamesmck]

My first SLR was a Nikon F with Photomic FTn finder, maybe around 1968. It was stolen from my apartment, and replaced with a Pentax K1000 which was then stolen from my car. I then got a Pentax MX, which I still have. All of these were bought new. I liked them all very much, though I don't think I'd be happy lugging around the F these days. --- James

[OpenWater]

Mine was a Canon FTb (the original) which I purchased through the mail from a place in Hong Kong. I was delighted with it and remained a Canon user for years, although I have mostly Pentax gear now. I had and still have the 50 f1.8, 28 f2.8, and 100 f2.8 (my favorite).
Mike

[melek]

My first SLR was a Cosmorex SE, which I learned decades later was a rebadged Zenit. I suppose that Berkeley (the importer) thought it sounded like Contarex. Who knows.

I bought it around 1974 with my Christmas tips from my paper route, taking a bus with my brother to a small camera shop on Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh. I recall seeing some Retinas and other cameras, but I wanted a new camera.

I shot quite a few rolls of film with it. I took it to Maine with me in 1977 when I was in the Air Force, and when I bought my Pentax MX, I got curious and took it apart. It ended up in the trash bin.

I bought another a few years ago and was surprised by how crude it is. Even so, it took me back to my adolescent years.

[Philip]

Mine was a Zenit E. That was early 1979; I finally had a full-time job and could afford a "real" camera. After a couple of years, its shutter curtains jammed and I couldn't get it fixed. I changed to a Minolta X370 then and suddenly realised (1) I hadn't been doing manual stop-down properly with the Zenit-E (and thus had been overexposing a lot of pictures), and (2) how much I loved automatic stop-down. The Minolta still works and I still have it. But I own so many cameras now that I can't remember the last time I used it. The Zenit is still in its box somewhere in the basement. I keep telling myself I can use the Zenit lens on something else. Haven't yet.

[Julio1fer]

Zenit 3M, with Helios-44 lens. Bought used, to a Soviet sailor passing through Montevideo - they carried cameras to sell for hard currency back in the 1960s.

Built like a tank. I never knew that the lens could be changed.

[P C Headland]

Mine was my Grandad's Kowa E, which was a fixed lens SLR with auxiliary lenses.

Then I progressed onto a Praktica LTL 5 (I think), which I kept for quite a while. I eventually ended up with a 28mm, the 50mm, and a 200mm Tokina. Then I progressed through a Fujica STX-1N and Minolta 5xi (my first auto anything camera).

Still, I never really bonded with any SLR, I always preferred something smaller, but still high quality. This was the role that Minox 35GT fulfilled more than adequately. Even in the land of DSLRs, I much prefer my GF1 over its predecessor, the Minolta 5D.

So, why do I now have a Canon AE-1 with 28, 35, 50, 100 and 135mm (f2.5) lenses, a Pentax Spotmatic with several lenses and a Praktica TL of some description, and the aforementioned Fujica

[rgeorge911]

Writing from my phone, so pardon the brevity.

My first was a brand new K1000, I think 1977. I got the lovely 50 f1.7 with it. I still have it, having recovered it from a friend after many years. Still works great.

Reed
My blog: dmc-365.blogspot.com

[davela]

It was a Yashica TL (not one of the later Electro models) in 1973. This was an economy 35mm M42 mount SLR of fairly good quality. I bought it used and paid $125 with a standard lens when I was 17 and working in construction making more money than I was used to. I bought a variety of M42 lenses to go with it from Sears, Vivitar, etc. I loved it. It was a real 35mm SLR that outperformed all the junk left-over cameras I had struggled with before as a kid.

Not long after I began seriously using this camera I learned about the Nikon system from media professionals that worked for my dad, and soon realized it was yet another step up in the SLR world, but lamentably way, way out of my price range then! At that time the Nikon F ruled, but the Nikkormat was really getting traction as an affordable alternative, and it delivered impressive results for the time - everyone wanted one.