My very first camera. Kodak Brownie Flashmite 20 introduced in 1960. (click to enlarge) This was not the camera, however, that caused me to fall in love with photography. |
I received my first camera when I was about 9-10 years old. It was a birthday gift from my parents. I still have the camera. You can see it above.
I received one roll of film and a pack of flash bulbs with this camera. I remember taking some snapshots in the days after my birthday party. Just stuff around the house. Family members, our dog, the outside of the house, stuff like that. I distinctly remember, after making an indoor flash picture, removing the small flashbulb from the reflector and immediately finding out how hot it was! Almost finger burning hot! It was hot enough that the next time I didn't touch it so soon after snapping the shutter.
Today we may think why only one roll of film. It was common in the 1950s and 1960s that a single roll of film would last a family a full year. No one took many pictures back then. It was expensive.
Kodak Instamatic 104. (click to enlarge) The Instamatic series used 'cartridge' film. It made loading film very easy. |
My second camera was a Kodak Instamatic 104. That, too, was a birthday present a couple of years later—about 1964-65. It also came with a 126 size film 'cartridge' and 'flashcubes.' This series of cameras was designed to be really easy to use. Just drop in the cartridge, no loading or threading film into a take-up spool, plug in a 4-bulb rotating Flashcube and start taking photos. I still have this one as well. Here is an image of that camera. Cartridge film was Kodak's attempt at making photography really easy so more photos would be taken and more film would be purchased. The same with the Flashcube. After each use, the Flashcube rotated 90 degrees on top of the camera, making the next bulb ready to fire. No more grabbing hot just-fired flashbulbs to replace it with another. After the four flash bulbs had been used, a new Flashcube replaced the expended one. Very simple.
Each time, after using up the included film, the camera was largely put down and not used again. Oh, I may have made a few photos along the way if my father or mother bought some film, but I had little interest in photography and any money I may have had wasn't spent on film.
This was the camera that caused me to fall totally in love with photography. A love that has not diminished to this day. (click to enlarge) |
In the spring of 1971*, my cousin (he and I are more like brothers than cousins as we mostly grew up together) returned from his military service in Vietnam. He gifted me the camera he used while over there fighting with the U.S. Marines. The camera was a Minolta Hi-Matic 7. It was a 35mm fixed lens rangefinder style camera. That camera had a 45mm f/1.8 lens. The lens was sharp and I learned how to use the camera on the fly. Yes, I still have that camera.
That camera was the one that sparked my passion for photography. I remember taking a series of photographs standing at the end of the runway of Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport (back then you could stand about anywhere you wanted without much restriction) as a commerical jet airplane came in for a landing directly over me. Several days later when I received the 3.5" x 5" prints, I was (and this is a 1970s saying so bear with me) 'blown away' by what I saw. I had no idea that photography could be more than just mundane record snapshots of family events, your car, a pet, etc. Those photographs had real impact.
It was that moment that I fell in love with photography and I am still as passionate about the craft as I was then. It wasn't long after that I sold my prized stereo outfit and drove to a camera store on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio and bought my first interchangeable lens camera—a Minolta SR-T101 with a 55mm f/1.7 Rokkor lens. Yes, I still have it and it still works wonderfully just as it did the day I bought it.
From there my life changed as photography consumed much of my leisure time. Same as it still does to this day. I started reading every photography magazine I could get my hands on, went to the library to check out photography books, looked at thousands of published photographs to better understand composition, color, gesture, tone, depth of field, etc. I experimented with different types of subjects and did everything I could to learn how to be a photographer. Not a better photographer. But just how to be a photographer.
I am so fortunate to have had that spark ignited within. Photography has been good to me. It has been a source of income, the impetus to travel, create, record, document, write and photograph for others. I have made so many friends through the common interest of photography. I don’t think I can come up with words to express just how much pleasure and satisfaction photographer has brought o my love over these past 50 years.
Now, if my wife only knew how many cameras and lenses I’ve bought and sold over the years...well...never mind. Lol.
*I had previously written that I thought the year I received the Hi-Matic 7 was 1970 in several previous posts but recently I asked my cousin for clarification and he told me he returned from Vietnam in 1971.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Dennis, I do still have my passion for photography. Mine started in two ways: winning a Kodak Instamatic as a paper boy when I was a teen, as well as a disdain for having my photo taken meant I got to shoot some of the vacation photos (after Dad had taken care of all the settings LOL).
ReplyDeleteI do think I'll be heading down your path soon, simplifying down to one system with a few lenses. Somehow I got to the point where I think everything has to be photographed, and therefore I need a lens or body for virtually every scenario, whether it be size, weather resistance, etc. Even trying to simplify isn't necessarily easy, at least not as long as I hold to the everything premise. Hopefully I'll figure it out.
Jim, I can highly recommend simplifying your gear. When I think I miss my Nikon full frame or my Olympus m4/3 cameras, I just remind myself how much I enjoy using my X-T4 and the excellent Fujifilm lenses and how satisfied I am with the images I’ve been making with it. I’ll admit I do get the bug to buy another full frame camera but so far I’ve been able to rationalize my way out of using my credit card. That said, I still don’t have a backup camera and when Fujifilm introduces their latest model in (supposedly) May, I will buy one and switch my T4 to auxiliary and/or backup status.
DeleteThe Kodak Instamatic 104 was my first camera which I used in the 1970's. Easy to use but photo quality was shaky - especially in low light. Later on it was the Canon FTB (or one of it variants) for my first SLR - it had a 50mm lens. Minolta GX7 in the early 1980's, followed by the Olympus XA, then the Nikon FM. Mirrorless was next the Olympus EP-3 Micro 4/3rds, then EM-1 mark I. then Em-1, Mark II (still have) and Nikon Z50 with Tamron 18-400 zoom. Nikon full-frame might be next.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. Interesting. I have had some of those same cameras over the years. I still have my little Olympus XA. That was a really tiny camera but a really good lens.
DeleteDennis -
DeleteThe XA was a masterful piece of camera engineering. Unfortunately, I left my XA on a rock while exploring in South Dakota - so small, you can leave it anywhere!
I thought the future of micro 4/3rds would be to do a XA sized camera with a great lens - Missed opportunity!
Yes, a basic digital camera like the XA would be really nice.
DeleteDon't have the camera, but still have the spark! (o;
ReplyDeleteGood to hear! I hope that spark never goes away for you.
DeleteI still have my first one, too, a German Bilora Boy bakelite camera that uses 127 film, given to me in 1956. In the '60s I bought a 126 Instamatic that lasted until 1969 when I got my first good camera, a Minolta SR-1S. It was essentially an SR-T101 without TTL metering. I then used various Minoltas until switching to Nikon in 1978 with an FM. I doubt I could ever tally up all the Nikon film and digital cameras I've owned since then! Having a good camera, learning to use it, and getting good results has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life.
ReplyDeleteJon, thanks for your comment. I enjoy the variety of gear almost as much as I enjoy making images.
DeleteMy first personal camera was a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL-a Pentax knockoff that was really a fine camera. It stayed behind when we were evacuated from Teheran during the Iranian civil war. I miss it to the day. OTOH, I bought a truly dreadful Russian Zenit B because it used the same screw mount lenses. Haven’t missed it for a second. Truly a piece of crap
ReplyDeleteBob, thanks for your comment. When in high school I remember looking at and reading about the Mamiya 500 DTL and the 1000 DTL in the Sears catalog and really wanting one. I never did did get the money for one but you mentioning the camera does bring a fond memory. Thanks again.
DeleteInteresting to reflect on all these cameras. My photographic epiphany came about in a corn field with a just purchased moldy Graphic View II 4x5. What a heavy and unwieldy camera but seeing the image upside down somehow made a huge and lasting impression on me. I soon transitioned to lighter 4x5 Linhofs and that became my prinicpal camera for decades. In retrospect, I should have avoided the dozens of other cameras I owned. Fun but a distraction from purpose. From Minox B to Leica to Linhof and Sinar P, I have had a bunch of them. I even had a complete surplus police crash car Crown Graphic outfit. I bet the guys in the police labs had to be magicians to get quality prints from negatives made at those night scenes.
ReplyDeleteI still have a Linhof Technika III and two Koni-Omegas in the closet. The Koni made higher quality prints than the Hasselblad with 40 S. Angulon. I was glad to get out of Hasselblad.
Very interesting comment. Thank you. My first medium format camera was a Koni-Omega. It had that ‘different’ push-pull film advance. Although my serious photography at the time was centered around 4”X5” work, the Koni opened my eyes to the fact that I could be happy with medium format. That camera led to a Mamiya C330F and several lenses and then to the Pentax 6X7 system, which I carried around for more than two decades. Still have two of them and several lenses. As for the ‘police’ kit, I was one of those police photographers when I was a young forensic CSI detective. I was in charge of the photo lab and oversaw the conversion from black and white to color. I was one of those guys out there ‘paining with light’ at night scenes, photographing death scenes and every other type of crime scene as well as grip and grin work, portraits and everything else that needed to be photographed. Although I used a Super Graphic at times, I mainly used 35mm Pentax Spotmatics at the beginning and then Nikons. Oh! Can’t forget that huge potato masher Honeywell Pentax manual flash and the 510 volt battery! But I loved every day of it!
DeleteI just found your blog (from Jim Grey’s blog) and this post about first cameras got my attention. We followed similar paths. My first camera was the Brownie Starmite (circa 1960). I remember my Mother’s admonishment to not “waste” film. I no longer have that camera but I do still have one photo of my dog taken with it. My second camera was the Instamatic 104 (1968). I thought the flashcubes were the coolest thing ever. :-) My first serious camera was the Olympus OM-1 at about 1974. That’s the one that sparked my interest in photography.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and commenting about the blog. I appreciate it.
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