What's your camera history?

[MarkBarbieri]

What path did you take to get to the gear you have now and why did you choose it?

I started as a kid in the 70's with a 126 camera. If I recall, it was fixed focal length, fixed focus, and probably even fixed exposure. I didn't use it much.

In the mid 80s, I bought a Minolta 7 series (I can't remember the exact model). The model used "creative" cards. You could put these little cards in and modify the behavior of the camera. It was cool in the marketing, but useless in real life. I bought a couple of cheap zooms to go with it. It was where I learned about exposure, composition, and other basic concepts. After a few years, I trashed it on a canoe trip and decided to quit shooting for a while.

After that, I bought a basic waterproof 35mm point and shoot. It sufficed for a couple of years, including my honeymoon. I always hated not having an SLR though.

I finally decided to re-enter the SLR world in the mid-90s. I bought a Canon Rebel (pre-digital). I liked the fact that Canon had started offering image stabilized lenses. Given that my favorite hobby was still canoeing, having a stabilizer was a big selling point. I bought a basic 28-100(ish) lens and a 75-300 IS.

I fell in love with photography again once I had an SLR to play with. After a couple of years, I upgraded to an Elan. It offered a higher frame rate, eye controlled AF, and a few other features that now escape me. It was also the quietest camera I'd ever heard. I used both bodies for several years.

I added a 28-135 IS lens for better IQ and more IS capability.

In 2001, I took a three week vacation to Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. I was tempted to get a Canon D30, but it was only 3 megapixels and cost over $3,000. Instead, I shot 50 rolls of film on the trip at a cost of about $500 for film and processing.

In early 2002, Canon released the D60 (6 years ahead of Nikon ). It was $2,200, but I figured that it would pay for itself in a couple of years on the film savings alone. I also added a 17-40mm wide angle lens to recapture some of the wide angle ability I lost going to a DSLR. At the time, Nikon was the only other make of DSLRs and they offerred no compelling reason to switch from Canon.

In 2003, my camera gear was stolen from my hotel room in Oklahoma City. My insurance replaced it. I upgraded from a D60 to 10D. I replaced the 17-40 and 28-135 with the same lenses. I upgraded the 75-300 with a 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens.

In 2004, I decided that I was missing too many shots because of the limited buffer and relatively slow AF capability of the 10D. My industry (oil and gas) was booming and times were good, so I bought a 1DM2.

I've been happy using it for almost four years now. I'm considering adding a new FF camera later this year and possibly an APS-C camera as well. The new Nikon's (D3 and D700) are quite tempting and most of my shooting friends are Nikon shooters. Still, I think I'm going to stick with Canon as I expect them to answer pretty effectively soon.

 

[proteus]

Funny but I seem to remember all my cameras, I guess because they got used a lot:

1974 Minolta SRT-101
1976 Minolta SRT-102
1984 Nikon F3
1999 Nikon Coolpix 880
2002 Nikon Coolpix 4500
2004 Nikon D70

I'm quite content with my D70 and will hold on to that probably for several more years. Always wanted a Leica or Hasselblad but couldn't afford it.

 

[extreme8]

I started with a 125 back in the day (remember flash cubes?), then graduated to a couple of 110's with the high tech electronic flash.
My parents bought me a Minolta XG-1 when I was in high school and I used that forever, adding some cheap lenses - zooms and primes - along the way.
I got into developing and printing my own pictures for a while and setup a darkroom in my parents basement - light tight doors, ventilation, drying cabinets, the whole deal.
When my son was born I bought a Minolta 700si. It also had the creative expansion cards like Marks. Really cool but completely useless if you actually know what you're doing.
I bought into digital fairly early on with a 3.1 megapixel Kodak DC265, picking that one because it had an Xsync jack for external flash. Cost me $650 plus the extra for the giant 32MB CF card.
As digitals improved I got myself one of the superzoom Kodaks, used if for a couple of years, and had it stolen from a hotel room in Daytona.
Since the days of affordable DSLRs was now upon us I bought a Minolta 5D since I figured I already had all of the lenses and flashes. Well there's nothing like pixel peeping to point out the flaws in your cheap zooms, and of course my flashes weren't compatible. Serious buyers remorse.
After about 11 months my Minolta failed (during a 2 week Disney trip, of course). Since Minolta was already out of the photo business by then, and Sony didn't have the parts to fix it they refunded my entire purchase price.
Extremely kind of them I think.
I took the cash, sold off some things on ebay and bought my Nikon D200 with the 18-70 and it's been my constant companion since. I've added to the lineup with some lenses since - 18-200 vr, 50 1.4, 17-55 2.8, and the 70-200 2.8.
I've also purchase a whole basement full of Alien Bee's, stands, reflectors, vagabond, backdrops, well you get the idea.
The D3 is calling my name, but I think a D300 is more realistic at this point and is probably going to be in my bag sooner rather than later.

 

[YEKCIM]

From first to latest:

The Early Years:
My mom's Kodak Brownie 127 roll-film camera
"Windsor" (Diana-type) 120 roll film camera
Kodak Instamatic 104 (circa 1966, probably)

M42 Screw-Mount era:
Praktica Super TL 35mm (circa 1973)
Fujica ST-801 (first brand-new camera purchase, around 1976)
Fujica AZ-1 (mid 70s)
Fujica ST-705W (mid 70s)
Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL (because it had a spot meter)
Some decent glass, including Fujinon EBC 50mm/1.8 and 200mm tele.
YashicaMat 124G (my brief, unsuccessful medium format foray)

Minolta / Maxxum era:
Minolta X700 and assorted lenses (early 80s), which were later stolen and replaced by...
Minolta Maxxum 7000 (2) and assorted lenses, most of which I still have (mid 80's)
Minolta Maxxum 7000i (2, mid 80's until 2006)

Digital era:
Canon Optura 30 with 2MP still capability (first digital, 2004)
Fujifilm S5200 (first dedicated digicam, 2006)

Nikon era:
Nikon D50 (two, first DSLR, purchased early 2007) and assorted lenses, ALL of which I still have!
Nikon D80 (replaced one D50, Nov 07)
Nikon D300 (any day now...)

Having WAY more fun (and spending WAY more money...) with digital than I ever did with film.

~Ed

 

[bnorm27]

I started with a Polaroid camera back in the early 1970's. It was a hand me down from my uncle. It had a bellows on front, and used one flash bulb at a time. It was tough ejecting those hot bulbs! I then moved to another Polaroid, that took a flash bar. I think you could shoot 5 pictures before you had to changed the bar. In the late 70's, I moved into the 110 series. I think the first was a Kodak, and I remember putting flash cubes on it (blue dots?). Right around 1980, I bought another 110 camera that had a zoom lens on it. I cannot remember the brand, but it took some great shots. Right after high school in 1982, I took some graduation cash and bought a Canon AE-1 Program. I also bought two lenses, that were not Canon lenses. I shot with that right up until Andre Agassi talked me into buying a Rebel. I also purchased two Canon lenses that I still have today. Around 2000, I bought my first digital P&S, a Kodak 4900. When it was dropped by my lovely bride, it was replaced with a Kodak Z750. A very nice P&S. I finally took the plunge last year, and went to a DSLR, a Canon Rebel XTi. It hasn't even been a year yet, but I am already eyeing up a 40D or 50D. We shall see. Great topic!

 

[dr_zero]

I group up with cameras my uncle flew spy planes in korea and once took dads camera up for some reason and it froze and the fought about it till the end LOL
Dad was a avid race fan and loved to take pictures at the races I remember getting to meet Peter Gregg it was too cool.
Back then I had just a instamatic and dad had a Yashica 35mm and medium format.
From the instamatic I got a Minolta rangefinder and used that for many a year

Then there was the disc cameras LOL

Dad new I wanted to get back to shooting 35mm but being a college student you dont have any money so he bought me a Nikon FG. That little camera was great I got autowinder and upgraded to a SB-16 flash a couple more lenses and I was in like Flynn!

Next was the Nikon 2020 and my favorite lens a 70-210 F/4 and a SB-22 flash

After the N2020 was another N2020 and a Nikon 6006 and another 70-210 F/4
can we see a pattern forming now?

Nikon 8008s was next up

Then made the switch to digital got a Kodak Digital then went to a Nikon L-12 for christmas and then got a Nikon D50 the cost of film was getting to me I was shelling out a couple hundred bucks for each big event my daughter went to so digital was the way to go. I got the D50 so I could use the lenses I had collected with the other bodies along the way.

Last camera I picked up a Nikon 4004 to play with.

Throw in a couple of polaroids and a couple of auto P&S Nikon of course LOL and you just about have my history.

 

[abbingtonmatt]

I have a canon A560..That's my first camera. Then a samsung i8..

 

[Master Mason]

My first camera was a Mick-O-Matic, it took 126 film and you pulled Mickey's ear to take a shot.

I then got a 110 kodak.

In 8th grade, I started using my dad's old Pratika, he had just upgrated to a Minolta.

In HS my dad bought me a Pentax K1000 to call my own, I used that from then until about 93, when having a small child made it very difficult for me to use the highly manual Pentax. I got a 35mm P&S and promptly stopped taking very many pictures. That one got broke and I bought a APS P&S.

About 2002 or so, digital had come down and I bought a 5mp Nikon P&S digital, it was a nice camera for what it was.

In 05, I stopped coaching my son's baseball team, and started shooting a lot of pictures and was very unhappy with the results I was getting, so I bit the bullet and went into a Rebel XT. I bought a few lenses and finally settled on the 2 I use all the time now 24-70 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8

I upgraded to the 40D in October of last year to get spot metering and a faster frame rate.

I would still like to get a 10-22 wide angle, and to upgrade my flash, but other than that I am very happy with my set up. And to that effect I am not even looking at the specs on the 50D

 

[handicap18]

Christmas 1981 I got my first camera at 11 years old. A Kodak 126. Used that for a few years. Then sometime around 84 I got a Kodak Disk. Sophmore year in high school I started taking photography and we used the Canon AE-1 Program. Also during this time period I would use my Dad's Pentax camera. I think it was the Spotmatic (though don't know which specific one) now that I look through Pentax's camera history. Though I don't recall ever taking the lens off. Apparently neither myself nor my dad knew about the screw mount. In the end, I think I used it a lot more than my dad did. It was this camera that really got me interested in learning photography.

In 1987 (maybe late 86) I got a Canon T80 SLR with a 35-70mm lens. Got a lot of milage out of that. It wasn't till recently however, that I found out there was also a 50mm f/1.8 and a 75-200mm f/4.5 lens made for that camera. It was part of the T series FD mount cameras. Not compatable with the later EOS and EF-mount lenses. It was only around for about 14 months.

Around 1989 or 1990 I went with Nikon and got an N6006 with a Nikor 28-70mm lens, Tamron 70-300mm and a Quantaray flash. I used that till it (along with the Canon T-80) was stolen Thanksgiving weekend 1996. This was my main camera when I worked in travel. Took it all over the Caribbean, the UK, 2 cruises, Mexico, Las Vegas, Aspen, Canada and a few other places. I took a lot of nice pictures with that camera.

In 1997 I bought a Nikon N70 (which I still have) along with a Quantaray 28-90mm and 70-300mm lens and Sigma flash.

Shortly before my oldest DS was born in 2002 I went digital with a Canon Powershot S30. I didn't use my Nikon much until we went to Disney in Nov 2005. I saw tons of dSLR's and used my N70 quite a bit. A little more than a month after returning from that trip I bought the Nikon D50. Now the little S30 gets almost no use, except for the occassional short video clip of the kids. I've been using the D50 for a little more than 2 1/2 years.

Hopefully, should things go the way I expect them to I'll be upgrading over the next week to 10 days. Most likely new camera body.......... Nikon D300.

 

[Gdad]

My first camera was an old Argus C4 which I still have. It was already ancient when I got it as a kid in the early 80’s but a lot of fun to shoot with. My father was into B&W photography and we had a darkroom in the house. It was pretty cool to go out and shoot a few rolls and then be able to develop the film and experiment with the equipment making proof sheets and prints. That was a big part of my life growing up.

When I went to high school a few years later I signed up for the photography class but they would not let me use the Argus for school since it was a rangefinder and not an SLR- which infuriated my father since he was kind of a purist with stuff like that. He would have probably bought me a twin lens Hasselblad to spite the guy if he could have afforded it- but in the end the photography teacher was victorious and I ended up getting a new Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens- which I used for the class and for probably ten years after along with a few cheap zooms I picked up along the way. I would shoot often- color slides once in a while- but B&W silver film was always the norm for a long time.

Then in the mid 90’s with a young family to chase after I drifted away from film photography as a hobby and new digital cameras seemed like the ticket. I am sure I had ten different ones in as many years and took less and less pictures every year. My enthusiasm for photography had nearly been eradicated after a decade of using P&S digital junk- I have week long family vacations from 4 or 5 years ago that I have maybe two dozen grainy digital files to show for them and it disgusts me. In all honesty it took loosing a family member and trying to find a few decent pictures of her to snap my head back on straight with this.

So about 3 years ago I made good on my promise to myself and- with pretty much no research at all- plopped down a thousand bucks for a Nikon D70s Kit at Circuit City. Not sure why I switched from Canon to Nikon- pretty sure I made the decision standing there at the counter I think because the 18-70mm kit lens seemed to feel less plasticy. But after picking it up we went out to the beach around sunset and snapped a few pictures. Here is where I will probably loose a few people but I swear I got chills the first time I heard the mechanical click of the shutter in my ear. I had a real camera again. I have upgraded thru various camera bodies and lenses over the last few years but nothing has given me a thrill like that first DSLR- and it pretty much instantly and single handedly rekindled my love for photography.

These days I am shooting a D700 and a D300- and an F100 that has some Ilford Pan-F in it from summer vacation I still need to finish shooting. My lenses are mostly decent stuff- some DX and some FX- some new and some a little on the vintage side (which coincidentally are my favorites.) My family has come to expect to be peppered with the camera at any given time- and offers little resistance anymore. My daughter shoots a D40 but I think her little sister has her eye on it- hopefully there will be some cheap barely-used D80’s on the market soon.

 

[Experiment_626]

First camera was a Polaroid One Step!

Second, some sort of 35mm PS.

Third, a Minolta SRT-101, and then:

Nikon N6006

Nikon D100

Nikon D80

SSB

 

[JR6ooo4]

I started photography when I got an old Minolta 700 and a few lenses from my great aunt. I think that was late 90's.

After just a couple of years with that setup and I moved into digital with a Sony F717. About three years more and I bought a Canon rebel XT, 28-135IS, 70-300IS and the 50mm 1.8.

Mikeeee

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

My grandfather was a big photography enthusiast and I grew up watching slide shows every holiday (taking the clock down off the wall, moving the lamp etc. to get a viewing "screen"). Long before I was born an aviator went around to small towns in MN and my grandpa jumped at the chance - and was out on the wing to get the best shots possible!

My best guess is that he supplied cameras to my parents. I don't know exactly what the camera was that I took my first picture with - but the first 2 pictures were of the horse trolley at DL! One of a black Percheron and one of a Belgian! I at least managed to get the front half of the horses in the pictures!

Then we had a Polaroid and how cool was that - instant pictures!

About this time my much older brother had set up a dark room down in the root cellar portion of the basement. Didn't everyone grow up with that? Of course I was the little sister that was just short of pesky - and not very interesting so I didn't learn anything from him.

My very own first camera was given to me by my grandfather - I would swear it was made my Sears and had a flash cube.

Next was a Kodak Instamatic of some sort with a flip flash, then a a Kodak 110 camera (with a flash on the camera - no more burning myself on a hot flash bulb), followed by a Kodak disk camera.

Finally, when I was graduating from high school in 1984 I took practically every penny I ever had earned or been given and bought a Minolta X700 with a 50mm 1.7 and a Tokina 50-200mm zoom. Eventually I added a Vivitar flash and a Sakar 28-80mm 3.5-4.5 zoom. This camera traveled to Mexico to photograph Haley's comet, to Europe after college and then finally out west when I moved to Nevada. Sometime in the mid 90's I tired of lugging all the equipment around - not to mention that I had no money to develop the pictures!

At that time I think I picked up an Olympus Infinity JR P&S and loved being able to toss that into any bag and started taking a few more pictures (still really no money to develop, but oh well). After a few years I got a Minolta Supreme Freedom Zoom. Wow - a zoom on a P&S! And it had a wireless remote. This was bought for a trip to WDW in 2000 I believe. I just got my last roll of film developed off of it a couple of months ago, although the pics had been taken over 3 years ago. (and yes, I now had the money to develop the film - just didn't get around to it).

Not long after getting the Minolta I was given a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera. What a different world. And you could rotate the lens around to take a self portrait. Still, it was fairly heavy so after a couple of years I got a Sony DSC-U30. To me that is one of the most amazing cameras I ever owned. Approx 3"x2"x1". I could put it in my pocket and have it with me all the time! Only 2.0 mp - but I never printed anything large anyway. And - it had a little mirror on the front for self portraits!

But eventually I decided I needed another zoom and bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-W70 - probably before another trip to Disney. It's still a nice camera to have along and with some video capabilities you can have a bit of additional fun with it.

Then last summer my nephew visited and had a Canon 30D. I once again enjoyed some SLR talk. Then - after seeing some of the pictures on the DIS boards of Disney I decided to start looking for a DSLR. It was on one of those looking trips to Best Buy that I ran across a hugely discounted Sony A700 and decided to take the plunge - then came to the DIS photography board to find out just what I had bought! I had thought that finally I'd be part of the majority (might have been first time in my life!) and get a Canon or Nikon, but nope, wasn't destined to happen. Anyway - I am very pleased with the A700 - IMO it's a super camera and that's where I am today!

Oh - and I think I could lay my hands on every camera that I've ever owned. I have to say that until this thread was started and I began listing what I had owned I probably would have said it was about 4 or 5 cameras. It was a nice trip down memory lane. And wow - I think I may have beat Mark in my post length! Now if I could match him in my picture taking I'd be happy!

 

[Chikabowa]

I started back in college shooting with a simple film Canon point & shoot. I upgraded my 3rd year when my parents bought me one of the first Canon Elf P&S digital cameras.

When I married my hubby, I started to play around with his Nikon F100 (I think...) film SLR.
I really wanted a digital SLR, and so for our first trip to WDW in 2004, my dh bought me a Nikon D100.
I shot with that for a few years, but the auto-focus broke after a trip to London, so I bought a D80 soon after our return when Nikon could no longer fix the focus. I decided to go pro the next year and then upgraded to the Nikon D3 upon the release of that camera.
I will buy a second D3 next year along with the D700 as back-ups and second bodies.

 

[My2Girls66]

I started out in the 70's with a Kodak Instamatic- 126. I remember the photos were square and I remember flash cubes and a flash strip that you had to flip over(?).
I wasn't all that into photography then just taking snapshots here and there. I did take it to Disney in either 1979 or 1981. I'll have to dig out those photos(they were terrible!) I went through most of the early 80's(my high school years-'80-'84) not taking many photos except I did take a photography class in h.s. using my dad's 35mm SLR. He had both a Mamaya and a Nikon but I don't recall which camera I used for class.
When my oldest DD was born in 1989 my dad gave me his Mamaya with 50mm lens. I used it for DD's 1st year then got tired of all the manual settings and went with a Nikon Zoom Touch 500 film p&s. Not too long after I bought that camera my dad ran into a guy in my hometown that had a bunch of Nikon 35mm slr equipment that he wanted to get rid of so he bought it. I ended up with an N8008, SB-24 flash, 35-70 and a 70-210mm lens. There was also an N4004 and a 75-300mm lens in the mix but dad kept them.
I used that 8008 for many years until I decided I wanted an onboard flash for those times I didn't want to carry the big flash. I bought an N80 body and still used all the other stuff I had from the 8008. Fast forward to around 2002- Nikon came out with a 4mp Coolpix 4500 swivel digital. My dad wanted it and bought it. He didn't like digital so he gave it to me to use. For a few years I carried both the 4500 and my N80 everywhere and used both. We ended up buying a Coolpix 4600(summer of '05 I think-which is still going strong-DH uses it when he hikes). In Jan. 2006, for my 40th I ended up getting a Nikon D50. It took me a while to get used to not using my N80 and film but now I love the D50 and the N80 went into retirement. For the 1st few months I had the D50 I used my old lenses- mainly the 35-70mm. During a trip to Italy, I learned about the crop factor as I was trying in vain to get a shot of the whole Trevi Fountain. When I got home I bought a Quantaray 18-125mm lens. Other than that lens I always used my older lenses. This year I finally broke down and bought the 70-300mm Vr lens and an SB-600 flash- love them both. We have also had a bunch of different point and shoots- film(a few Nikons, a Pentax and a Canon) and digital(the coolpix 4600, 2-L6's, a Canon A540, a Canon A560). My oldest DD has an N75 film slr she's had since '05 and the A540 is hers, also. She uses my D50 mostly- the N75 went into very early retirement.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

First, Gdad

Second, I'm definitely seeing some trends here - early exposure to photography and equipment seems to help with comfort level.

And I noticed a lot of people have had their cameras stolen.

My history is fairly simple. Like some of you, I used various Polaroids and 110's, cameras with strips of flash bulbs, etc. Was always the one taking pictures growing up. Spent a small fortune on film and processing. I don't recall knowing even one person who used an SLR except my BIL once my sister married, but they lived out of state.

In the early 90's, I'd gotten two puppies and got into training and agility work. I began taking a lot of pictures there, some of which were used for the trainer's brochure. I started to read about photography on my own. At that time, I contemplated buying an SLR but it seemed too overwhelming and completely foreign to me. I had no idea about lenses and such and I didn't have anyone I could learn from locally. So instead, I bought an Auto 35mm Nikon One Touch and later a Canon Sure Shot. Those two cameras got a lot of use over the next decade.

I bought my first digital point and shoot around 2003, an HP Photosmart 3.1MP. I went with HP because that was the type of computer I had, and the software seemed to make it all go together fairly easily. I loved, loved, loved that camera! My kids were young then, and I really enjoyed taking pictures of them. That camera came everywhere with me. I carried it in my pocketbook, and eventually the shutter broke from one to many falls. I then bought a newer version of the HP but was sorely disappointed. After 8 shots or so, the batteries died. My DD was pulled out of the crowd for a show at Epcot one day and I missed a lot of it because of the battery problem. I was p'd and decided I needed to find something better.

By that time, 2006, I'd discovered the Photography Board. I enjoyed looking at photos and sharing some halfway decent ones of my own. I also enjoyed reading what everyone wrote, particularly about SLR photography, but again, in some ways it felt like they were speaking a foreign language. F Stops, aperture, ISO - sorry, run that by me one more time, would you? I also was working on kind of a "Bucket List" of my own after having cancer. Photography was always something I wanted to learn, so I decided I was finally going to do it once and for all. Taking it slowly, I started with a bridge camera, a Canon S3 IS, so as to kind of "ease into it". The S3 thread here was a lot of fun and helpful for learning. I also bought a bunch of books and started reading them as well as other stuff on the net.

In March of this year, I finally made the plunge and bought my first dSLR, an Olympus E-510 w/ two kit lenses 14-42 and 50-150 (have since added a 24mm f/2.8 and want one more, a longer zoom). I'd spent months researching cameras and this was the one that appealed to me most and felt best in my hands. I knew I'd be carrying it around with me all the time and wanted something light, if possible. It also had a lot of other nice features. I also enjoyed hearing that click, finally, but as expected, I also felt pretty overwhelmed with it. Everyone here has been very supportive, though, and I feel like I have all of you to thank for even giving me the confidence to finally make the move. Learning is a work in progress, but I'm having fun and know I just have to step back a little sometimes because I can't possibly know everything there is to know in such a short time (though I want to.)

One thing that makes me very happy is that this is something I can share with my children and give them the gift of early exposure to this type of thing. My DD is probably a point and shoot kind of gal, but my DS is loving the dSLR. He likes learning the terms, and loves using it (asking if he can have it when I "get a new one"! ).

There you go, Kat. I might just have you beat for long-winded post of the day, LOL.

 

[wenrob]

Gosh, I can't remember all the camera's that have passed through my hands over the years. My Grandfather and Great Grandmother were picture hounds and the passion for recording family history was passed on to me. He gave me my first camera when I probably 9yrs old, a 126? I remember flash cubes very clearly. My next camera was a 110 and man, did I consider that fancy! I too, owned a disk camera and then a very bad, plastic 35mm. One thing is certain, there's always been a camera of some kind in my hand. When DH and I went on our first vacation together I bought a 35mm Pentax. Back then it was pretty high tech/high dollar but I wrang every cent out of it and two more over the years. I still have the last one actually and it's still usable.
I was scared of digital. What I saw were very, very bad pictures that were easily lost. I declared that they would pry my Pentax out of my cold, dead hands before I'd go digital. Then my SIL showed me some great pics she took with a Kodak Easyshare. I decided to give it a try and bought the best model they had at the time. Well, the freedom of being able to take as many pics as I wanted without having to save a couple frames for a particular shot was unbelievable. I outgrew the Easyshare fairly quick after that and dumped a bunch of cash on a Canon S2 IS. She was my baby until I bought my Nikon D40. I bought it because, honestly, I finally had the cash to invest in an SLR which I'd wanted to do for years and years. I'm only now beginning to 'get it' and if you interrupt me while setting up I'll forget everything, lol but I *heart* it. Some day I'll get a big girl's camera but for now I'm doing what has always been my objective, capturing memories and have fun with it along the way.

 

[jann1033]

first camera was an ansco cadet, flash bulbs and all when i was in elementary school, http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Ansco_Cadet_Reflex before that i remember thinking my dads' Kodak duaflex was soooo cool as a little tiny kid but not being allowed to touch it. http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/kodak_duaflex2.html hehe i got revenge since i have it now.
had a number of basic point and shoots, a Polaroid "swinger"( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaroid_Swinger really that was the name) some other flash cube and flash strip models along the way. took photography in high school and loved it ( especially with the big old speed graphic http://graflex.org/speed-graphic/ we used for studio shots) but never got a SLR till yrs later( 90's maybe?) since i always had something more practical to spend $$ on, which was a canon with a couple of third party lenses , it broke in 2004, i got yet another film point and shoot and used my daughters digital Kodak occasionally times till i got my first dslr, a rebel xt a few yrs ago. i was kind of like wenrob, didn't care for the digital shots i saw before that with noisy martianesque people and figured the dslrs were way to expensive for my wallet when the first came out...thinking i will probably get the 50d once the fanfare is over and the price drops a little after the release

 

[Michele]

I feel terrible that I can't remember the model #'s or even brands of all the cameras I have used, there were SO many.

It started when I was 11, on my family's trip to the Grand Canyon, I used an old brownie camera of my mom's. Then through the 70's and 80's there was a Kodak 126, a Poloraid, a disc camera.

As a wedding gift in '87, I got DH a Canon T50. We had 2 Vivitar lenses 28-70 and 70-210. I hate to say it, but we never really learned how to use it. In fact, I just got it out to look at it now and just found the ring on the lens to set the aperture. I never knew it was there. No wonder we always got such crappy pictures with it.

At that same time we also had other instant film cameras, don't remember the models but the last film one being an Olympus Stylus 140.

DH worked for the medical division of Olympus when we first ventured into digital. They offered special employee prices around Christmas 2001 and we bought an Olympus C-4040z.

Like others here it seems, our car was broken into on a trip to Kansas City and the camera bag was taken in 2004. We lost the C-4040z and our video camera. With the insurance $ we got our first digital SLR, The Rebel, 6 MP! DH thought he was a pro now!! However, never ventured out of auto.

I, however, felt this was too big of a camera to lug around with 2 little boys and picked up an Olympus C-5000z for myself.

Finally, in 2006, I started to frequent this board and ventured into using the Digital Rebel and trying to learn what taking pictures out of auto mode was like. I basically abandoned the C-5000 and took over the Rebel for myself. We went from taking 2700 pictures in 2005 to over 9000 in 2007. Most of those practice and trying new settings etc.


In Feb this year, I upgraded my PnS for a more pocket-sized model. Olympus FE-340. It is constantly in my purse so I will always have a camera on hand.

In May, the shutter failed in the Rebel and we just got a 40D last weekend. I plan to have the shutter repaired so we will have 2 DSLR bodies.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

There you go, Kat. I might just have you beat for long-winded post of the day, LOL.