Kodak 126 Instamatic Camera and Kodachrome 64 film cartridge.
I just learned today is National Camera Day. Who knew?
This Kodak 126 Instamatic cartridge camera was my first camera. It was a gift from my parents when I was in high school. I used print film cartridges for about 3 years. It was not until I was in college that I made the switch to slide film cartridges.
It is a very primitive camera. It has a fixed focus and fixed aperture lens. It has a shutter speed switch with only two choices, daylight and flash. It was assumed you would never use it indoors or at night without a flash. I did not take a lot of pictures. My first two rolls of slide film lasted from August 1968 to the summer of 1969. 20 photos in about 12 months is not a lot of pictures. The photo on those two rolls included two summer camps, some college dorm life images, and my very first photo of the young woman who would become my wife. I used this Instamatic camera for about 8 years. You can still buy aftermarket cartridges for these cameras. See the link below.
Topcon SuperD camera with a 58mm f/1.4 Auto Topcor lens.
My parents gave me my first 35mm SLR camera, a Topcon Super D, in May of 1974. I suspect the reason they gave me a much more capable camera is because the photos I took of their grandchildren with the Instamatic camera were not always the best quality, especially in low light. The Super D is an all manual beast of a camera with a manual focus lens. I could put in high speed film and use a slower shutter speed and a wide open aperture to take low light photos without a flash. My photos of our children in low light conditions were much better and my parents were happy. I used the Topcon for 10 years. The fast 58mm lens was my only lens. I never did acquire a telephoto or wide angle lens. I saw everything at 58mm.
In August of 1984, some low life scum kicked down the back door of our house and stole my Topcon camera. What made me mad was the vacation photos I lost on the unfinished roll of film that was still in the camera, like our three children in the historic jail in Poncha Springs, Colorado, and our young daughter with her very first trout which she caught in a mountain stream in Colorado.
I took the insurance money and bought a Canon F-1N and a 50mm lens. The salesperson who sold me this camera changed my life as a photographer. After several months I broke down and bought a 70-200mm telephoto zoom lens. A few months later I bought a used 28mm wide angle lens. I put a lot of slide film through this camera from 1984 to 2003. I also acquired an inexpensive Canon AE-1 backup camera that I bought at a pawn shop.
Canon 5D Mark III DLSR camera and lenses
I bought my first digital camera, a Canon 10D, in 2003. For quite a while I shot both film and digital cameras side by side. It took a while for me to trust digital cameras. A Canon 20D camera came next, followed by a Canon 5D camera. My current run around, do everything, digital camera gear is a Canon 5D Mark III camera that I bought in 2012, along with 4 lenses: 17-40mm, 24-105mm, 70-300mm, and a 15mm semi-fisheye lens. I also have some other lenses for unique photographic challenges like distant wildlife (100-400mm zoom lens) and ultra-closeups (1X-5X macro lens). Sometimes I also bring along an Olympus digital audio recorder.
Links
Re-loaded 126 film cartridges for Instamatic cameras
It All Started with a Stolen Camera – the person who changed my life as a photographer