AGFA CLICK-I
What was your first camera?
I remember a plastic Agfa camera [probably the Click-I pictured above] that took black and white 120 roll film. It was fixed lens with an optical viewfinder on top. The film was wound manually with a knob. It was easy to use [“point and shoot”] and, because there was only 12 frames to a roll, you thought long and hard before pressing the shutter release button. Sometimes, you thought you took an especially clever composition and you couldn’t wait for the whole roll to be used up before sending it in for developing and prints.
Canon Demi EE 17
I then upgraded to a Canon Demi EE17 [really belonged to my brother] with a fast F1.7 30mm wide-angle lens! The Demi EE17 was a half-frame camera, that is, though it used a regular 35mm film cartridge, it took pictures that were 24x18mm. Reminds you of the APS cameras? It was great because you got twice the amount of frames! I believe it had PASM and was my first introduction to semi-auto and manual exposures.
Nikon L35AF
When I left for university, I bought a used Nikon with F2.8 35mm lens, autofocus and pop-up flash. Notice the use of the ASA/ISO terminology as ISO started to replace ASA.
Minolta SRT-100b
Later at UT Austin, I traded that to a friend (who liked the results I got from the Nikon and didn’t know how to use manual exposure) for his Minolta SRT-100b SLR, my first SLR camera.
What about you? What were your first cameras?