What Was Your Special/First Camera?
Kodak Retina I (type 148)
Tell Us the Story of Your Camera
My first REAL camera was a little gem found buried deep in a box in closet when I was younger. It was a fabulous Kodak Retina I (Type 148) 35mm. Manufactured in Pre WWII Germany in about 1939, the camera belonged to my Grandfather, and had been with him during his tour of duty in Europe during the war.
It then went to my father, who had taken the little thing to Vietnam with him.
I had originally found the camera in the early 1980's and was facinated by it. (this was a time when the standard cameras for a young teen was the little 110 point and shoots)
I could go out with my dad and his Practika SLR, and what seemed his infinate supply of lenses, tripods, gadgets, and flashes, and feel just as "cool" as he was because I had that kodak.
Somewhere in the later 80's I had gotten a Minolta Maxxum 7000 with money from my fast food job. The Kodak had been put away and generally forgotten for years until the untimely death of my Father.
After his death, I found the kodak again, and gave it a special place to honor the fact that the camera had been used by three generations, had been through 2 wars, and actually survived my teenage years.
This year is the Cameras 70th birthday, and it still functions beautifully, shooting with the puppy can still be a challenge as there is no rangefinder, it does not use TTL, and the focus ring is only set up in a "guideline" format, where the range of focus is set up like "3'to 8', 9' to 15', etc)
Everynow and again, I take it down off the shelf and shoot a roll of black and white film through it.
If it was not for finding this camera in box in closet in the early 80's I seriously doubt I would be more than just a casual photographer with a cheap little pocket digital.
The Kodak also spurred my interesting in collecting and restoring classic film cameras, and my collection ranges from the late 1890's through the first digitals all the way up to the most modern digital SLR's, and pretty much every important stop along the way for photography.
Advice
- Classic film cameras can be very fun and very addictive.
- BEWARE of buying them blind from ebay from sellers who say "to my knowledge this camera works, I know nothing about photography or cameras, but this was from an estate auction"
