# a short history



## Daniel Tiger (May 21, 2009)

Hi all,

Just a little bit on how long I have been taking pictures. Got my first camera from my aunt Peg maybe 1965 for having the best grades compared to my brothers and sister, although I do have 2 sisters. It was a Kodak Instamatic with the big drop in film cassettes, had to buy the blue flash cubes for it, received the Instamatic 110 a few years later for grades again. Was hooked in a big way by that time and had one with me at all times. High school and collage took pictures out the wahzoo, can’t find the negatives any more but I think there around some where. In collage I my first real 35mm camera for a class in what else Photography, it was a Petri FT II really enjoyed that camera, only extra on it was a depth of field preview. My wife had trouble using it so I did all the picture taking until we upgraded, Canon AE-1. At that point my wife took as many pictures as I did. Have all my 35mm negatives. Was away from taking pictures a lot of the 80’s cause of working 2nd turn mostly holiday pictures and such those years. When my wife said it was to heavy we went light weight, a Canon Photura, a really great all in one camera did not need any accessories although everyone thought we were video taping. Still have that and the AE-1. When I bought a computer in ’05 my younger brother gave us a point and shoot 3mp Kodak he received as a Christmas bonus from his work. Have a nice flatbed HP scanner that I used to scan many of my parents pictures with that lead me to Photoshop to clean up and restore some For Christmas presents 4 years ago and got me thinking about a good DSLR which I finally bought 3 months ago, a Pentax K-x kit with an 18-55 and a 55-300 lenses. Have only taken 200 or so pictures and I am glad I made the move. The pictures are so great looking and easy to work with in Photoshop the final product is unbelievable. Can’t wait to get better with it.

Dan


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Hi 

Thanks for sharing.

I still have my first camera, a Kodak twin 20, about 1960.

BG


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## Daniel Tiger (May 21, 2009)

Hey BG,

You must just have me by a few years.

Dan


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

Yes, just a few. I don't do anything more than snap shots anymore, as I has no desire.

But I still have cameras dating back to the early 1900's, as I always liked them.

I learned how to use a good camera back in High school. It was a 4x5 inch
Speed Graphic Camera.

BG


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## Daniel Tiger (May 21, 2009)

Never had the chance to use a large format camera. Largest came from my older sister's Brownie, I think it was 620 or some such film size.

Dan 58 here


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

I remember well the old Kodak 'Instamatic' with the '126' cartridge, it was my 1st camera too :laugh:

I've still got my ol' 'Praktica BX20' 35mm kit, complete with 35-70mm zoom and 70-200mm zoom lenses, filters, 'doubler' and all sorts of 'toys' for it, buried in my wardrobe - It's not worth a lot, but it has a lot of happy memories associated with it :grin:


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

ha ha - I too had a Kodak Instamatic as a first camera - think it was the VW or Model T of the consumer camera world at the time.
Sadly my last film camera (a Minolta 35mm SLR) was stolen (along with my car) a few years back and I didn't replace it with another - bought my first digital camera instead - a 2.3MP Pentax which I still have somewhere here.
At the moment I have an Olympus DSLR and am thinking of upgrading to a Canon 550D - partly for the HD video capabilities, partly for the still capabilities.


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## Basementgeek (Feb 7, 2005)

The big old "Press" camera were fun if you needed to make a really big enlargement. It would give a 4x5inch contact print.

I have still cameras that range from 8 mm to 122 film. The 122 is neat as it is probably the earliest version of what we would call a data back. You actually could write on the film while the film was still in the camera. 

BG


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