Your Camera/Photography History

Remember your first camera? What was it? Is that when your photography hobby started? How many cameras do you have, and how did you progress through them? What camera took your first JP or Anet acceptance? Did you have any relatives that might have gotten you into photography?

Talk about your photography and camera history here!


My very own first camera (that I got to use all by myself), was a very simple 27 exposure Jazz disposable camera. Sure, I had takine occasional photos with my parents' Leica and Cannon films cameras, but they weren't "mine". Plus, I was only about 3-5 back then and wasn't responsible enough for my own camera yet. I took that Jazz with me to Kennedy Space Center in Florida and took a bunch of photos there.

That was the time before digital came along. My first digital camera that was a Largan 1.3 megapixel digital camera. It was gift from a relative. It took very decent photos, and I took it everywhere I went. It had only internal memory, but could take up to around 133 photos, and it also had various flash, continuous shooting, and movie modes. I rapidly started to grasp the basics of photo composition.

My next camera was the 3.2 megapixel Fujifilm A210, a very decent camera that took my first 7 accepted pictures on JP.net. I got it from my dad since he bought a Fujifilm F10. Obviously, I've used it before sparingly, but it wasn't "mine". I still use it as a backup today. Both of the following were taken with this camera.
[jetphotos:28caa]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5858704[/jetphotos:28caa]
[jetphotos:28caa]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5865002[/jetphotos:28caa]

When my dad bought the Fujifilm F30, I received the F10, which I still use today. Like the 210, I've used it before, just not much. I love the large Super CCD sensor it uses which also features a very decent 1600ISO. I learned most of the knowledge of a camera's various modes via the F10. I've used the F30 before also, but usually only when my camera's charging, I need a backup, or I just feel like taking a photo with it. It's not too different from the F10, except bigger buttons, a screen with a higher resolution, and a 3200ISO setting. Everything else is mostly the same.

I still use P+S, the F10 mostly, but since my dad's still planning to buy a DSLR like he has been for the last year and a half, if he decides to get one, I'm definetely old enough to use it (unlike the Cannon or Leica from when I was around 3).

I used several disposable cameras

My first non-disposable camera was a fixed zoom, fixed aperature film P+S camera I won when I was about 6. My father still holds on to the photos I took with that camera, including shots of the grass, carpet, and my foot!

My first digital camera that was "mine" was the Casio Exilim EX-Z750 7.2 MP that I got about 2 years ago. I used that up until my Canon XTi (About January '07) Here are some of my photos taken with the EX-Z750.

First ever acceptance:
[jetphotos:a7293]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5745791[/jetphotos:a7293]

Some others with this camera:
[jetphotos:a7293]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5768695[/jetphotos:a7293]
[jetphotos:a7293]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5914369[/jetphotos:a7293]
[jetphotos:a7293]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5914390[/jetphotos:a7293]

First A.net acceptance
[airlinerstp://www.airliners.net/open.file/1172319/L/[/airliners

I think it was for completing some early year of schooling (preschool? kindergarten? first grade? I don't remmber) I got a simple, fixed-focus fixed-aperture 110 camera. I eventually upgraded to a 35mm P&S with some zoom, and I was given my dad's old Canon AE-1 35mm SLR with some lenses, though I had no idea how to use it (when Concorde was being floated up the Hudson to the Intrepid, I was down at the water's edge with that camera, but I must have engaged the lock without knowing because it wasn't taking any pictures).

Once I started working for my college paper, I borrowed an unused Canon S20 because I wanted to shoot more and go digital. A few months later I got my own digital P&S, a Canon A80. I used that for a long while, until one day I was dual-shooting the A80 and the AE-1 (which I'd finally figured out) and decided to take the leap to DSLR, picking up a used Canon Digital Rebel from B&H. Shot with that for about a year and a half until I got fed up with it (too slow) and picked up the 30D I have today. Along the way I replaced the A80 with an A95 as my P&S.

My first was an Argus C3. Then I graduated to a Rollei TLR & a Kodak Retina SLR which used 35mm film and Schneider lenses with leaf shutters. (The Retina line eventually changed over to 126 cartridge film.) From there I had a series of manual focus Nikon FTn cameras, an F3 and a brace of FM2n+MD-12 combos.

The very first camera was a dopey 110 "My First Camera" type. When I was 14, or so, I was digging around in some stuff my father left behind and found a Minolta SRT-102 with a 28/2.8, a 50/1.4, an 80-200, a 500/8.3 (yup, a straight 5!), and a 2x teleconverter. I futzed around with those for a few years before graduating to a Canon Elan IIe with the 28-105/3.5-4.5 and the 75-300/4-5.6. Later on, I added the 20/2.8 (all Canon brand, and all bought from, ahem, B&H). After running that combo for just over 9 years, I finally purchased the Rebel XTi this past February. I've also got a mini Rollei 35S floating around, but I very rarely use it.