I read a fun post that asked, “What was your first camera?” As I read the many responses I recalled the first little Kodak cameras that I snapped pictures of family and friends with.
I remember the photo lab returned little prints with wavy edges that I glued using little sticky corners in construction-paged albums. Of course, the glue didn’t last and the pictures fell out, so I glued the pictures directly to the pages, then the chemical reaction discoloured the images and eventually those that weren’t lost by falling out of the album just faded away.
My first serious camera was purchased in 1967 while I was in the US Army. I purchased it from the PX (Post Exchange) while stationed overseas. My location was visually spectacular and different from anything I had ever experienced and I wanted to have photographs for memories. I talked to other soldiers who had cameras and decided to purchase a Petri V6 with two lenses, a 58mm and a 135mm.
That camera took lots of abuse (everybody in my company used it) and eventually only worked at shutter speeds over 1/125th.
My next camera was a loaner from a friend so I could take a college photography class in 1969. A Pentax H3V with a clip-on meter. It was a Pentax with a clip-on light meter and had a 55mm lens. It was clunky and harder to use than with Petri, but at least it worked at all shutterspeeds.
When I got the Petri, I purchased the 135mm lens because I was advised it was the perfect lens to take ¾ portraits of people. It was years later, many rolls of film, and my own study of photography that made me realize how the compression of a mid-range focal length telephoto lens will render a photograph of a person’s face in a most flattering fashion. Photographers even referred to the 135mm lens as a portrait lens. The borrowed Pentax with the wide-angle lens gave me more with which to explore and experiment. At the time I was told it was a landscape lens. Of course, lenses can be used for anything, but I continue to hear that kind of uninformed comment. I believe that the selection of a lens should be about problem solving, and photographers should make decisions about what they want to visually say.
I finished my photography class using that borrowed Pentax H3V. I then met a fellow student who volunteered to purchase a camera for me during a trip he was taking to Japan. The photo magazines were talking about a new camera with “multi-coated” lenses, and an amazing (at the time) through-the-lens spot meter. I gave him some cash and a month later I was the proud owner of a Pentax Spotmatic II. I think that was 1971. At the time I thought going through three cameras in the span of four years was pretty fast.
Although I used colour film for events like Christmas, at that time I absolutely believed serious photographers only used black and white film. I borrowed another lens, a Vivitar 35mm. Wow, A wide-angle lens!
Those first three SLR cameras wetted my interest in photography. They were complex enough that I read magazines, books, and took classes to learn how to operate them effectively. In addition, I searched for opportunities to meet other photographers and talk about cameras, lenses, enlargers, photographic paper, and all sorts of picture making.
Before the Petri and two Pentax cameras, photography was only about documenting events around me, not creating a personal vision of the things that interested me. If I hadn’t had the opportunity to start making images with those three SLRs I expect my photography would never have advanced from anything more than just snap shots.
Take a moment to remember your first camera(s). What was it that made you passionate about the medium of photography?
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week.
Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net. Stop by Enman’s Camera at 423 Tranquille Road in Kamloops. I sell an interesting selection of used photographic equipment.
