Long lost friend home at last!

[Old Timer]

In another thread here today Pentax cameras were mentioned. I got me to thinking about a purchase I made not long ago. In the other thread I noted that I rarely traded of sold camera equipment. As most of you know I am a Nikon Samurai and proud of it. I own 8 Nikons and have not had any other brand of 35mm camera since 1971. But what you may not remeber is that I entered the world of Nikon after my Honeywell Pentax H1a was stolen along with some other photo equipment from my car. Well I have been thinking about that old Pentax for a long time and regreting not still having it in my inventory. Well I got to cruising E Bay and found what I was looking for. Yep you got it a Honeywell Pentax H1a with 50mm Super Takumar lens. I had the winning bid and it now lives in my camera cabient with the 8 Nikons and assorted other equipment. It even had the detachabe meter. It was like welcoming home a long lost relative. I was wondering does anyone else still have or like me reaquired that first camera?

[ken1953]

Hi OT...great find...I've never reacquired a camera before, but I did a guitar. Back in '73, I had traded my first electric guitar for an electic box guitar. Several months later, the guy was selling my guitar and so I bought it back from him...hehe...I kept for about 15 years and gave it to a friend who needed one for a band he was joining...that was the last I saw of it!!! :-( But then a few years ago, I got my dream guitar...a 1999 Fender American Classic. My next one will be a Gibson Les Paul...
Oh wait...this is a photography forum!!! hahaha...
Ken

[Chunk]

The first decent camera I used was a friend's Pentax Spotmatic and I liked it so much that I bought a K1000 a couple weeks later (still have it). That was my film camera and I used it until aging eyes made focusing a real frustration and I kinda dropped out until I bought a digital P&S (Canon S30) a few years ago after finding this site. I also have a dinky little Minolta 16 that I purchased while in the Navy but never used it much because of a scarcity of film and development for it.

[Old Timer]

Ken I guess I had missed the fact that you were a musician. A man of many talents.

[Old Timer]

The first decent camera I used was a friend's Pentax Spotmatic and I liked it so much that I bought a K1000 a couple weeks later (still have it).

Oh yeah the Spotmatic. I couldn't afford one of those. I bought my Pentax H1a used at a little hole in the wall camera shop. I was a college student and money was very tight. A friend bought a Spotmatic at about the same time and I was very jealous, it had a internal meter!! The H1a taught me a lot about light and reading settings. When all you have is a hand held meter or a clip on like my Pentax you learn real fast.

[lightleak]

In another thread here today Pentax cameras were mentioned. I got me to thinking about a purchase I made not long ago. In the other thread I noted that I rarely traded of sold camera equipment. As most of you know I am a Nikon Samurai and proud of it. I own 8 Nikons and have not had any other brand of 35mm camera since 1971. But what you may not remeber is that I entered the world of Nikon after my Honeywell Pentax H1a was stolen along with some other photo equipment from my car. Well I have been thinking about that old Pentax for a long time and regreting not still having it in my inventory. Well I got to cruising E Bay and found what I was looking for. Yep you got it a Honeywell Pentax H1a with 50mm Super Takumar lens. I had the winning bid and it now lives in my camera cabient with the 8 Nikons and assorted other equipment. It even had the detachabe meter. It was like welcoming home a long lost relative. I was wondering does anyone else still have or like me reaquired that first camera?

OT,
I too am a Nikon warrior. But just like you I bought my F3 after my first love was stolen from me.
My first 35 SLR was a Minolta SRT201. I later moved up to a Minolta X700 when they first came out. I had the two cameras, about seven lenses and some other equipment all in my camera bag that, along with my tripod got ripped off right out of my house.
I went right out and bought the F3 then an FM2 and over time aquired many lenses and equipment from Nikon and never looked back. I'll die with a Nikon in my hands!
I've often looked for another SRT201 just for fun but never ran across one.

[Old Timer]

OT,
I too am a Nikon warrior. But just like you I bought my F3 after my first love was stolen from me.
My first 35 SLR was a Minolta SRT201. I later moved up to a Minolta X700 when they first came out. I had the two cameras, about seven lenses and some other equipment all in my camera bag that, along with my tripod got ripped off right out of my house.
I went right out and bought the F3 then an FM2 and over time aquired many lenses and equipment from Nikon and never looked back. I'll die with a Nikon in my hands!
I've often looked for another SRT201 just for fun but never ran across one.

Oh I feel for you. That was one of the worse feeling I ever had in my life, when I realized that my camera had been stolen. I was working for a newspaper at the time and I needed that thing for work. But the sense of violation is even worse than the lose. Keep checking E Bay. It will be well worth it to reaquire that camera even if you do like me and do nothing more than set it up and look at it.

[almo]

Well, I still have the first SLR I ever used. It was my Dad's before it was mine. It's a Pentax ME Super. A great little camera. A real tank. The first camera that I owned out right died about a year after I bought it. It was Canon Rebel G. I kept it around for a few years, but one day I just threw it in the trash. It pains me everytime I think about that, but you know what they say about hind sight. Anyway, I love my ME Super, it's my only film body, and it is a great one at that.


Here is my Pentax set up as a pinhole camera.

[mjs1973]

I still have my first SLR. Like Almo, it's a Canon Rebel G. It took a swim in the river a couple years ago and no longer works properly. I still have it, but I have thought about tossing it in the trash several times, but haven't been able bring myself to do it yet. I have thought about getting another one, but I dought I ever will.

[Old Timer]

I still have my first SLR. Like Almo, it's a Canon Rebel G. It took a swim in the river a couple years ago and no longer works properly. I still have it, but I have thought about tossing it in the trash several times, but haven't been able bring myself to do it yet. I have thought about getting another one, but I dought I ever will.

I think the greatest part of getting the Pentax was to just hold it in my hands. The memories and the images that flashed through my mind were well worth what I had gone through and spent to aquire it. Yeah hang onto that old Rebel G, if for no other reason the memories.

[srobb]

Interesting topic, OT. As you know from our talk the other day, I started out with an old reliable Pentax K1000. If I am not able to salvage the old Canon AE-1, I may just start looking on ebay to see if I can find another K body.

[Old Timer]

Interesting topic, OT. As you know from our talk the other day, I started out with an old reliable Pentax K1000. If I am not able to salvage the old Canon AE-1, I may just start looking on ebay to see if I can find another K body.

Yeah I remember you saying you were a Pentax guy in the Army. That K1000 was a real work horse for Pentax, one of the best. Hope you can find one in good shape, they should be going pretty cheap.

We're not getting any takers on the gathering. We may just be at the races on our own.

[srobb]

Yeah I remember you saying you were a Pentax guy in the Army. That K1000 was a real work horse for Pentax, one of the best. Hope you can find one in good shape, they should be going pretty cheap.

We're not getting any takers on the gathering. We may just be at the races on our own.

Hey, that's cool with me. I would love to have a few others there to join the fun, but we can't force them into it. Maybe we can still get Chunk and JS to come down. We still have a little time. They may just be shy. ;)

[mjs1973]

What about lenses? Do certain lenses hold a special place in your heart like the old cameras do? I have two kit lenses that came with my first SLR and I almost never use them. Of the two, I think I have used one of them twice in the last 18+ months. I posted them for sale at work this week, and I have a guy who is very intereseted in one of them. The extra room in my kit bag will be nice, as will the extra cash in my wallet, but it's still hard to let these things go.

[SmartWombat]

I was wondering does anyone else still have or like me reaquired that first camera?

Not quite, my old Halina 35mm was stolen years ago. Between the lens shutter, very quiet, ideal for candids but no meter. I found another at a car boot sale about 8 years ago but haven't put more then a couple of rolls through it.

I have the first camera I ever used, a Kodak elliptical brownie 127, my Dad never threw anything of his away, and clearing out the house after he died is a sysiphean task.

I rarely throw anything out, so somewhere I ought to have a Zenit-EM, my first camera.
I also have a pair of OM10s that I bought for £50 each with 3 lenses each !
And a couple of Exacta RTL 1000s, one with waist finder, one with pentaprism metering finder and a spare pentaprism head.
Father-in-law's camera is around somewhere, my wife wanted it after he died but has now gone digital like me.

I have all my old B&W darkroom equipment, and my father's B&W equipment !
Paterson 127 film tank, contact printer (127 contact prints are album material), safelight, chemical trays, even some 40 year old paper !!

I'm keeping Dad's but my old stuff has to go, there's no storage space for it here and we have to sell his house this year to pay the taxes

[Chunk]

Hey, that's cool with me. I would love to have a few others there to join the fun, but we can't force them into it. Maybe we can still get Chunk and JS to come down. We still have a little time. They may just be shy. ;)

I don't have any of my travel plans figured out yet so I'm not sure your gathering can be fit into them. Did you settle on a date? I think I'll write a message about gatherings on the Site feedback forum if you might be interested.

[tink]

That's fantastic Old Timer!! I'd love to own a camera liek that. I have a friend who has just purchased the same one and she uses it a lot for her professional b&w images!