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View Full Version : Back to 1974 and my first real camera


Anon01
26th September 2019, 02:23 PM
Back to 1974 (I think) I finally have re bought the camera I had, I have three 125asa 24 exposure films loaded, the 50mm arrived today (having sent a rubbish one back to Ebay a week back) and I am off out tomorrow

Just a little cleaning to do

:) :) :)

skellum
26th September 2019, 04:58 PM
My first 'serious' camera was a Praktika LTL3 in about 1977.
I don't shoot much 35mm now, but oddly I have thought of buying another Praktica just to remind myself what they were like. They were always seen as pretty basic, but they have outlasted some more sophisticated cameras for that very reason. One of my Minoltas is now misbehaving, and may cost more to fix than replace.
Enjoy your new camera Cannik

Anon01
26th September 2019, 06:24 PM
My first 'serious' camera was a Praktika LTL3 in about 1977.
I don't shoot much 35mm now, but oddly I have thought of buying another Praktica just to remind myself what they were like. They were always seen as pretty basic, but they have outlasted some more sophisticated cameras for that very reason. One of my Minoltas is now misbehaving, and may cost more to fix than replace.
Enjoy your new camera Cannik

Thanks

I think when you are 17 and in those days getting your first camera you don't think of how it is made etc, the one I have is in 100% perfect working condition, lets see how DSLRs are in 50 years from today

My Weston Euromaster I bought NEW is still perfect and accurate

At £12 for a perfect Praktica I have no complaints

Lostlabours
26th September 2019, 06:27 PM
I had the Super TL's predecessor/Big brother a second hand Prakticamat with a Pancolar back in 1972. It was the first camera with TTL metering on sale in the UK, although the Spotmatic was introduced earlier in Japan and the US.

The camera itself was OK the lens very sharp however exposures were inaccurate, it wasn't the metering it was the stop down mechanism on the lens giving inconsistent apertures With stop down metering that meant differences between the actual metered aperture and exposure aperture and it worked both ways.

It was replaced by a Spotmatic F, a different league.

Ian

Terry S
27th September 2019, 12:17 PM
It's interesting that so many people go on a quest to get another purchase of what ever their first camera was.

My first bought SLR camera was a Zenith SLR, from the town photographic shop. I used to visit the shop regularly on a weekend, as a school boy, just to look at all the lovely Paterson and lighting gear, which I could barely afford, even on my constant savings from my part-time job wage. I vaguely remember the shutter stop working on the Zenith quite quickly, with a repair being about half of the cost that I bought it for! I'm sure even then there were guarantees, but this obviously wasn't covered for some reason...?

My second SLR, after various 35mm compacts and a 120 Lubitel, was a chunky Praktica. It was very heavy around the neck, made a loud clunk when tripping the shutter, but the lenses were great and I could afford it!

The camera was used regularly and I then used the camera one year in my college course summer holidays to teach photography on an American summer camp. Numerous b/w films were put through it over a couple of months that summer. This was followed by about a dozen or so colour print films, to cover my three weeks of travel in New York and various parts of Florida, which included my first trip to Disney! Great memories, both in my mind and in the photos.

It kept going and eventually got used for a period of astrophotography and some B/W and some slide films. It finally got upgraded to a Vivitar SLR, as it took Pentax K lenses, which were more affordable to me than the other brands of the time. Sadly, it is now sitting in a drawer with many other cameras, each of which I try to give an occasional outing. Maybe it's about time for it's outing in the fresh air, to show me how far camera design has come along since and to see if it even still works?

Terry S

Anon01
27th September 2019, 02:06 PM
I think it only reasonable when you think about it, I have NO interest in any other cameras as I didn't own them.

If I were new to photography I would probably buy any film camera, but not so.

My first pro camera at 22 was the Nikon F Photomic FTN Apollo, four years ago when I bought a full kit £12k it was Nikon even though Canon in many ways are better