Way back in about 1975, at age 8, I announced to my parents I wanted to take some photographs. My mother handed me her old Brownie 127. I don't remember how long I used it for, a few films at least, but I struggled with the roll film and lost some to fat rolls.
After struggling with the Brownie for a while, but not wanting to quit taking photographs, my father gave me his old Kodak Instamatic. I loved the quick loading and ease of use of the camera, from this also developed a love of the square format. I used this camera until my 14th or 15th birthday.
Next came my first 35mm, a compact Konica. This was a great little camera, the lens was sharp, auto focus and auto exposure were both very accurate. I took some good photographs with this camera but eventually came a yearning for more control.
Next was my first SLR, a Zenit E, built like a tank with a wonderful, compact lens. I remember being not to happy with the look of the lens, I wanted real - AKA bigger - one but it was amazingly sharp.
My 18th birthday brought me my first automatic SLR, I was taken to my uncle's camera store, given a budget and told to pick a camera. I chose a Konica FT1, shutter priority or manual, auto-wind and rewind and a great 50mm lens.
Having selected the FT1 my uncle gave me this camera to go with it, complete with a 40mm lens. I eventually added a Tamron 80-200 Adaptall 2 lens and a Soligor 24mm to the two bodies, a great combo that did me well for many years.
Eventually I developed a hankering for more features, aperture priority, auto and newer bells and whistles. For this I chose the Ricoh, it has all the modes, a faster wind than the Konica plus a built-in flash for indoor snapshots, this camera lasted until I bought my first digital
After many years of 35mm photography I bought a pair of Lubitels, the idea was to keep one at 6x45 and the other at 6x6. I remember being so disappointed with my first film, I was expecting amazingly sharp images, they were decent but not what I was expecting. This was when I learned that Lubitel was more about fun than image quality.
For years I had hankered after a pocket sized camera that I could carry with me at all times. As soon a Kodak released the APS system I jumped on this camera, I truly carried it everywhere and managed some decent photographs from it.