Reddit, what were your earliest practical experiences with Photography? what did you grow up with? what did you love and hate about it; the gear, the experiences, how did it effect you?
I was just thinking about both the difficulty's and ease of growing into photography in the digital age.
For myself my first 'real' camera was a Soviet era Zenit model E, in the early 90's, with a broken selenium meter, age 12, and I hated that thing, I still kinda do, no metering, no split prism, just a poorly ground glass focusing screen that merely shows greater to lesser extents of fussyness as a focusing aid.
Most of my time spent with that thing was asking my dad "what's this?" to which half the time the reply was "250 f16" He withstood about a whole two years of that before buying me a cheep Praktica with a spot meter and a split prism, that's perseverance!
I ended up making more use of (borrowing) his Minolta 7000 Dynax In my later teens, which was probably partly responsible for a decreased interest in Photography in my late teens (that, and mostly being a teenager) as my dads own interest also declined, when I look back on it now, I think I can see why, while very advanced for its time the Minolta detracted somewhat from some of the decision making processes of Photography, it was was far easier to let it do auto everything than it was to chose or think about anything, not having it in front of me I recal it has about 5 main buttons and a toggle switch to control near everything, not very intuitive, but more impotently: also removing a naturally induced pause to contemplate.
For me that probably took a lot of thinking out of the process, but for my dad, a guy who had grown up shooting Speed Graphics's and Yashica's, he probably hated the fact he didn't fully understand it.
It took me from my late teens to mid-twentys before I decided I wanted a camera again and bought my first digital camera, after which I practically had to relearn everything all over again, most of my model E shots are better than my 2005 digital shots (focus not withstanding ;)
After re-finding my footing, I still to this day shoot ~>50% of shots with my dslr on Manual, spot metering, choosing exactly where I want shadows, highlights or mid-tones to fall, old habits are dying hard.
I suspect the learning experiences of people born just 5 or 10 years later than me are infinitely different but no less informative...
Posted Sep 3, 2012, 1:24 AM UTC
I can't remember all the way back, but I'd have to say that the first camera I could call my own was a Mickey-Matic. They were 110 cameras made by Kodak and sold at the Disney parks. I had one, my brother had one, and we almost never got our film developed because it was just so expensive.
My stepdad had an AE-1 that I wanted to learn to use, but never got a chance. At the time, I didn't even know that the lens was detachable; in fact, I don't remember whether he had more than one lens. All I remember was seeing the numerous controls and wanting to learn what they did.
In the meantime, I had a few other 110 cameras, and a 35mm point-and-shoot or three (plus a seemingly-never-ending stream of disposable cameras), but I never really got into photography all that much. I did, however, love playing with the one-dollar tiny 110 cameras, the kind that are barely large enough to hold a 110 film cartridge, and with viewfinders that are just a flip-up piece of plastic. These things made Holgas look like pro gear, but they were fun to play with. (Still, I almost never got my film developed, because... expensive.)
Fast forward about a dozen years. I'm in college, and my mom gives me a Christmas gift of a HP PhotoSmart m305, my first 'real' digital camera (not counting a quarter-VGA-resolution "JamCam"). It's 3.1MP, and I loved it. I shot everything with it. In fact, I even shot my brother's wedding with it. (That's a story in itself. Suffice it to say the wedding was set up in a hurry, and on the cheap, because the bride had cancer.)
The m305 did a great job at capturing images, but didn't exactly give me much control. So, on the advice of Corey Haines, I upgraded to a Canon PowerShot A590IS from eBay. A whopping 8 megapixels made my images that much clearer, plus I had the full P/Tv/Av/M mode set to play with.
(I gave the m305 to my dad. I still have the A590IS, but I don't use it much anymore.)
Once I got a Real Job, I realized that I wanted to take my interest in photography to the next level. Most of this was prompted by a coworker who moonlighted as a 'professional' photographer. (He's brilliant behind the lens, but has no business sense whatsoever.) Anyway, since all of my coworkers had Canon DSLRs, I bought a Rebel XT from eBay and started practicing.
When I upgraded to a Rebel T2i, I sold the XT to a coworker. Later, when I bought a 60D, I sold the T2i to the same coworker, who gave me back the XT. I still have the XT. (I upgraded from the T2i to the 60D for two things: manual audio control and an articulated screen. I rarely use either.)
I remember those 110s. They came free with purchase of just about everything. I like the powershots, they focus well into microscope eyepieces.