Ok I'll but on my FLAK jacket on and ask maybe a non LEICA question....

I didnt always have a Leica..Back when I mowed lawns for 12 bits; and gas was 17 cents; I used an Argus A2 camera.. My A2B sported a 50mm F4.5 Anastigmat; and had weird stops of 6.3 , 9 , 12.7 , 18 ..The shutter had T, B, 150, 100, 50, 25...The link shows the "newer" A2 that has the whopping 1/200 sec shutter that we all wished we had waited for.....The "meter" was an extinction meter...No software, upgrades or batteries; one just looked thru the various of SIX windows and found the last one just visible..Then the calculator on the top was aligned to the window..then the shutter and stops could be read.............Focusing was either in two positions either infinity to 12? feet at one bayonet position; and the other the closeup bayonet position like 12 feet? and closer!...The exposure counter read exposures taken; my friends Kodak Retina IIIc read exposures left...

After being weaned on Sam Browns Optics, Astronomy; & Photography books a la Edmund; I built a telephoto attachment for the Argus A2.....The first Objextive was a single element (colorfull!) lens; later on I invested in an Archromat from Edmund Salvage (now edmund ) ...This was the second Afocal rig ofor the A2B; the first was with my Kodak Vigilant 620..One would focus the homemade telescope in front; and set the camera to infinity.....I would hone this process by stealing mom's wax paper (ground glass); and get the infinity focus spot on at the film plane...

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 29, 2002

Answers

I believe the rubber bands are not from Wetzlar..Kellyt

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 29, 2002.

What a beautiful retro camera! They could market it as a ... but shush! My first 35, bought when I was 12, was an Olympus 35RC. Still an excellent rangefinder camera and perhaps the reason I still like this breed. Didn't have anything quite as fantastic as your telephoto, but did use huge old lenses from a dismantled epidiascope (kind of a "magic lantern" that projected pictures from books) as a close-up lens. Focus by guesstimation.

Your old f-stops used to be standard. My pre-WW2 Summar has them, or close: 2 2,2 3,2 4,5 6,3 9 12,5 18. (The Germans use commas instead of decimal points and vice-versa.)

-- David Killick (Dalex@inet.net.nz), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was the Ricoh 500G. I got it from my parents when when I was 13 years old. I really wanted an SLR, but it was too expensive for them.
I used it for 5 years until I bought a Nikon FE (at that time I really wanted a Leica but it was too expensive for me!). It should almost take another 20 year before I could justify getting a used Leica M4 w. a 50mm. I think my experiences with the Ricoh made the transition from SLR back to rangefinder very smooth.

BTW. My parents still use the 500G.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), May 29, 2002.

David; Naybe you were one of the North Islanders who almost saw me and my girlfriend fall off this 100m? cliff!



-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), May 29, 2002.

An Argus/Cosina dont remember the model, but it was the one that had (wow!) 1/1000 sec top speed as opposed to 1/500. M49 screw thread lens, stopped down metering. Those were the days......

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), May 29, 2002.

pentax super a with 501.7 lens. I always regret selling it (although It's worth a whole lot less now) - it was a good little camera.

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), May 29, 2002.

My first 35mm was a Nikon FG that I got for Christmas. I later accidentally gave the camera to Goodwill after somebody saw the camera sitting in the rear window of my car and said that I should hide it. I stuck it in the box of Goodwill stuff and promptly forgot about it. When I remembered and drove the 80 miles back to get the camera back from the drop box the whole box was gone. I made somebodies night.

-- Chad Hahn (thehahns@cornhusker.net), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was given to me in high school and was a Yashica Lynx 5000. The first camera I saved up and bought (please don't shoot me) was a Zenit E. It actually took some good photos, or at least it seemed so to me, but alas didn't survive a fall from a 3rd floor balconey.

-- Bob Todrick (bobtodrick@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

My first was a Kodak Signit 35 which I traded for a used Contax IIa. Both were fine cameras (and the Contax was a REAL Zeiss camera). I actually looked down my nose at Leicas when I owned the IIa. Too bad Zeiss stopped making cameras.

-- Bud (budcook@attglobal.net), May 29, 2002.

My first camera (41 years ago when I was 14) was my grandfathers Leica II (a converted Leica I). I still have it though the shutter curtains have parished.

-- sait (akkirman@clear.net.nz), May 29, 2002.

My 1st good camera was a 35mm Zeiss-Ikon Contina II. My uncle loaned it to me when I was 16. 45mm 3.5 Novar lens, scale-focus, an uncoupled selenium meter, and a beautiful mechanical feel. When at 18 I bought a Canon TL-QL, I gave the Zeiss back, my uncle still has it.

-- Mark Sampson (MSampson45@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

Voightlaender Vito IIB, bought used for $30 in 1954. 50mm (I think) f3.5 Color-Skopar lens. No rangefinder. My Dad had a bunch of bulk-loaded film, probably SuperXX, so I shot a lot of film, but did not learn to process it myself at that time. I sold it in college and did not get back into photography for 15 years.

-- Dave Jenkins (djphoto@vol.com), May 29, 2002.

My first good 35mm camera was a Zeiss Contessa, a folder, with a 45mm Tessar lens. I really learned to like that focal length. The camera's meter was inoperable so I had to become fairly good at estimating the exposures.

-- Art Waldschmidt (afwaldschmidt@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

I bought a Kodak Retinette 1A while stationed at Lincoln AFB in 1964. I later traded for a Konica 35 rfdr. When I shipped out across the pond, I bought a Pentax H1a. John

-- John H Osterholm (Barjo4@attbi.com), May 29, 2002.

Exakta Varex (1971), followed by a Pentax MX (1977).

-- George (Gdgianni@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was Kodak Baby Browie My first 35mm camera was Leica IIIf My last 35mm camera is Argus Automatic picked up a flea market of Cdn$2.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), May 29, 2002.

My first 35mm (after borrowing a friend's K1000 in college) was a Perfex Speed Candid that I bought at a swap meet for ten bucks. I still have it, although the lens is hazed over and the rangefinder is broken. Heavy, slow, no strap lugs, uncoupled rangefinder, extinction meter--of course I loved it.

It looks quite a bit like your Argus, Kelly.

-- Steven Hupp (shupp@chicagobotanic.org), May 29, 2002.

First 35mm camera of my own? A Mamiya Sekor 500 TL, bought as a kit with a 50mm Mamiya lens, a 135 Vivitar, and in an aluminum case. I still have it, and it still works, although the foam baffling is long gone. Before that, I used my father's Rolleiflex, and then the Nikomat he sold the Rollei to get. That still works just fine, too. My first ever camera was a Brownie Starmite. Also appears to be functional, although it hasn't had film since maybe 1966. But it introduced me to photography, and black & white developing and printing.

-- Carey Russ (careyruss@earthlink.net), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was a Japanese Yamato Pal 35mm which I bought in 1959 as a 14 year old. It cost about £13 which was a fortune for a schoolkid in those days. It was a 35mm rangefinder, manual focussing and with speeds up to 250th (I seem to think). It was quite small, about the size (and look) of a Leica 11. It also had a telephoto attachment which was a lens that screwed into the front of the prime lens (non-detachable). There was a suplementary viewfinder. I remember being absolutely thrilled with it as a kid and I got some decent results with it.

Does anyone out there remember or has seen this make of camera before? The young salesman (Ezra Watson)who sold me the Yamato later went on to build up a successful local business called Cleveland Camera Mart here in Middlesbrough. They do really superb colour printing. Regards, GY

-- G. Young (youngg@middlesbrough.pds.gov.uk), May 29, 2002.

My first 35mm camera was given to me by my girlfriend! It was her father's 1968 Nikon Nikomat FTn, complete with 50mm, 135mm & 24mm lenses, all in their groovy little leather cases. He was proud of the fact that it was an imported "Nikomat" rather than the more common Nikkormat sold here in the USA at that time.

I loved that camera! Still do actually. Works great, even after all these years. Heavy compared to my M6 though, but it takes great pictures. :^)

www.stevehoffman.tv

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), May 29, 2002.

My first 35mm camera was my girlfriend's (later my wife, later yet my ex-wife) Pentax Spotmatic w/50mm standard lens back at college in the early 70s. Loved that camera, I think it's the reason I got a Leica M6 (and won't get an M7, which is nothing like the Spotmatic).

After I split up with my wife, I got an ME Super along with the woman I was seeing at the time. That camera also disappeared when I split up with her. I decided that Pentax was unlucky for me.

Joe

-- Joe Buechler (jbuechler@toad.net), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was one that I purchased for my wife as an Xmas gift. She had been a photog in college and I wanted to rekindle those flames in her. Unfortunately, I became the picture taker for the family and now I've got the Leica disease. Boy is she lamenting not picking up that Nikon 6006N with 35-105. Still a great camera and my SLR.

-- john bosso (jbee193@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

Kodak Pony 135.

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), May 29, 2002.

First camera of my own - Polaroid Swinger

First 35mm of my own - Canon FX (predecessor to the FT but with external metering.)

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 29, 2002.

Mine was a Zenit E, a clunky Russian SLR that had a manually reset film counter, knob film rewind, shutter speed dial that had to be pulled up and set, speeds from 1/500 - 1/30 and B, manual stop down aperture Industar lens... fun features found on screwmount and early M Leica cameras. I am very comfortable using an M2 now largely because of that initial experience with the Zenit.

-- Fred Sun (redsky3@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was a Brownie Starmite, but I really wanted a Leica. My Dad had a IIIa that he later traded for a DS M3. He also has a Rollei MX-EVS TLR. He never let me borrow the M3, but I had free reign of the Rollei. Of course I did not know what a gem I had - I wanted a proper 35mm camera. My parents bought me a Canon FX with a 50mm f/1.8 a good SLR with a 1/500 top speed and external meter. I really craved a Cannon FT-QL. I traded the FX for the FT - a great camera. The FT died in a plunge into the Caribbean and was replaced by the AE-1 - a dreadful camera. I lost interest in photography. Interest was rekindled by trading the AE-1 for a T90 - one best SLR's that I have owned. Then I bought a M6. I did not get bitten by the M bug until later. When Canon went autofocus - I traded all Canon gear for a R6 and a 50mm 'cron. Later I added more lenses from 19mm to 400mm and a R7. Then my Dad gave me the old Rollei - I love that camera. A year ago my Dad gave me his M3 and lenses. After a CLA by Sherry Krauter - I am bitten by the M bug and the M3 is my go-to camera. I am trying to hone my skills guessing exposures with Fuji NPH and Ilford XP2 until my house remodel is over and I can recover my packed darkroom and Coolscan IV.

-- Doug Landrum (dflandrum@earthlink.net), May 29, 2002.

My father's IIf. Still have it.

-- Dick Baznik (reb10@po.cwru.edu), May 29, 2002.

Hi all,

Something you'd probably never heard of (at least in the US):

A "baby Lynx" made in French Morocco in the early 50's with a Prontor 1/300th of a second leaf shutter and a collapsible f/3.5 lens (it was in fact my mother's one).

No meter, no rangefinder, no automatic reset to frame 0 on the counter... Not even an engraved DOF table on the lens...

Good school but I went fast to borrow my mother's other camera a Czech built Meopta Flexaret III A (I still have it and it properly works), one the Rolleiflex TLR copies produced during the fifties.

Amazingly, the Meopta built lens was compared to a Planar 80mm from the Hasselbald C of one of her friend and found of equal if not better quality... However the ergonomics of this camera were poor...

Friendly.

François P. WEILL

-- François P. WEILL (frpawe@wanadoo.fr), May 29, 2002.

My father bought me a Nikon F photomic back in 1964 and I loved it.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), May 29, 2002.

Nikon FM + 50mm F1.8 Series E Nikon lens when I was 12 years old. Bought it with money earned from mowing lawns.

-- Ken Geter (kgeter@yahoo.com), May 29, 2002.

An Exa with Zeiss tessar lens, still have it.

-- adam g. lang (aglang@hotmail.com), May 29, 2002.

A Kodak Pony. Bought at a pawn shop for $2.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), May 29, 2002.

My first camera was a Nikkormat Ftn. I got it at the Camera Barn in NYC. My dad knew the owner and I think I might have gotten a price break. I was dating my future wife at the time and called her to tell her the great news. "Guess what I bought today when I was in the "city"? I asked her. She gave up after a couple of wrong guesses. When I finally told her that I had bought this new fancy camera, I didn't get the sense that she particularly sharred my enthusiam. It wasn't until years later after we were married that she told me that she was secretly hoping I had bought an engagement ring, not some dumb camera.

-- Tony Triolo (ttriolo@knology.net), May 29, 2002.

Canon GIII-17QL.

-- Chris Henry (henryjc@concentric.net), May 29, 2002.

Kelly, didn't have my telescope with me. Your girlfriend looks fun to go falling with. Hope you didn't land in hot water. If you come to the South Island you can try bungee jumping.

-- David Killick (dalex@inet.net.nz), May 30, 2002.

Novel looking climbing boots.

-- David Killick (Dalex@inet.net.nz), May 30, 2002.

Halina Paulette (briefly), followed by Yashica Minister II. The former was a PoS (Piece of Sh*t). The latter had a parallax corrected rangefinder, which I found very easy to use and which prepared me for Leica M.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), May 30, 2002.

My wife at he time thrilled me with a D/W M3 & Summarit standard lens which I borrowed but was scared of damaging or losing. I bought a Russian Zenith 3M SLR with Leica shaped body, LTM lenses, 58mm f2 & hand held meter, then searched all round England in Exchange & Mart for cheap accessories. It was great, with a plain matt screen & out of whack focussing on lens and camera, which I disassembled & taught me a lot. Great pictures; I sold it when I got into better cameras, & bought it back in a boxed lot at auction when the new owner died. The lens has recently begun dying from the edges in; sad

-- James Elwing (elgur@acay.com.au), May 30, 2002.