Peter Dexter
Well-known member
I was idly trying to recall the cameras I've owned. My father was the proud owner of a Nikon 35mm in the late fifties but have no idea what model. When I went to college my mother gave me her Rolliflex Twin Lens Reflex. In my junior year I opted to take Photography as one of my electives at Tyler. That year the college hired a new photography teacher who had some radical ideas about the teaching process. Up to his arrival the traditional approach had been to use the two and a quarter inch negatives from a twin lens reflex seeing as how it was nice and big for students to work with. The limitation was there were only twelve shots to a roll. The new guy said screw that. I want you all to buy an Olympus Pen W half frame 35mm (thats the model I recall but it seems to be a rarity now so maybe it was another model). His idea was that instead of agonizing over whether to take one of your twelve shots just take everything you see since you have seventy two shots then decide what to keep and what to toss on the contact sheet. Well it wasn't easy working with those half frame negatives but they were good enough to make 8x 10s. That professor actually presaged digital photography in a sense.
I don't remember what happened to that camera (nor the Rolliflex) and I used something else 35mm that I've now lost and forgotton during the seventies. In 1980 at the urging of a photography student girlfriend I bought an Olympus Om model but the one that offered interchangeable focusing screens because I wanted to use the ground glass screen instead of the split ring for taking close ups of wild flowers. Later on I bought a Tokina 500mm Mirror lens and took my first pictures of birds.
In the mid eighties I took up backpacking and bought a Minox 35 GT for it's light weight.
In 2002 I bought an Olympus Cemedia 3.2mp, my first digital camera.Then an UZ 750 followed by a Canon point and shoot with high zoom and in the mid 2000s my first DSLR, a Canon 40 D with Canon 400 5.6 lens for birds.
I now have a Canon 7D ll (for birds), a Sony a6000, a Lumix DMC LF1 and a Fuji underwater point and shoot.
What's your camera history?
I don't remember what happened to that camera (nor the Rolliflex) and I used something else 35mm that I've now lost and forgotton during the seventies. In 1980 at the urging of a photography student girlfriend I bought an Olympus Om model but the one that offered interchangeable focusing screens because I wanted to use the ground glass screen instead of the split ring for taking close ups of wild flowers. Later on I bought a Tokina 500mm Mirror lens and took my first pictures of birds.
In the mid eighties I took up backpacking and bought a Minox 35 GT for it's light weight.
In 2002 I bought an Olympus Cemedia 3.2mp, my first digital camera.Then an UZ 750 followed by a Canon point and shoot with high zoom and in the mid 2000s my first DSLR, a Canon 40 D with Canon 400 5.6 lens for birds.
I now have a Canon 7D ll (for birds), a Sony a6000, a Lumix DMC LF1 and a Fuji underwater point and shoot.
What's your camera history?