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Your First "Pro" Camera?


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It's a bit quiet over here--perhaps a new topic will stimulate someone to post--so here's the question: What Was Your First "Pro" Camera?

 

For me, it was the Nikkormat FT2:

 

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/htmls/models/images/75nikkormatft2.jpg

 

I purchased it during my college years and started out with B&W film. My father had been a photographer in his younger days and had some equipment sitting around so he set up a darkroom downstairs. I learned to process film and print my own pictures... a great experience.

 

I think every photographer should have the opportunity of shooting film. It teaches you to be conservative, since you only have 24 or 36 exposures on a roll of 35mm film. And there's no way to instantly find out if you "got the shot." :laugh:

 

Anyway, after that I moved on to color transparency film... from Kodak, Agfa and Fuji.

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Apart from some early traditional photography experience, which I value too, but more because of the (partially) non-digital quality, I recall clearly my first semi-pro (for the time) High Definition Video camera: the Sony HDR-HC3E . In 2006, that was pretty much new. Pro HD cams were even not so many around at all yet, and this one could actually make 1080i that worked.

 

I pretty soon afterwards has also a good monitoring note book that would connect to this cam over firewire with mpeg-2 :

 

http://www.theover.org/Diary/Ldi39/dsc00349bm.jpg

A Dell Precision M90 with a pro Quadro card that had 1080 decode ability, and an actual 1080 HD screen, which was the first notebook in the world to offer this!

 

From 2006 on I learned a lot about applying prior knowledge to this early HD setup.

 

TV

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It wasn't pro but my first camera was an old Canon that my dad used before I was born. It must've had great glass because that 35mm almost always took great shots. It wasn't SLR, and the lens was fixed. By the time I got it, it had a quirk I made some good use of. There was rust on the shutters, so if the shutter speed was too slow, they would stick open until you turned the shutter speed to something faster. I got some great shots of lightening that way (unfortunately I have since lost those rolls).

 

The camera was stolen when our rental house was broken into in '97 or '98, along with my QuickTake 200, my first digital camera. I haven't shot on film since.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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My first professional digital camera was a Canon 7D, purchased used in 2012. About a year later I sold it and bought a new Canon 6D, which has been my main digital body ever since. I bought my first professional film camera (and my all-time favorite camera) a few years later, a Hassleblad 500C/M. It's interesting how growing up in the analog to digital transition of the 90s and 2000s has led some photographers my age back to film, while older generations have mostly moved on to digital cameras.

 

I think every photographer should have the opportunity of shooting film. It teaches you to be conservative, since you only have 24 or 36 exposures on a roll of 35mm film. And there's no way to instantly find out if you "got the shot." :laugh:

I took a black and white photography course in college (2008) and it was a great experience. It was always exciting to develop a roll of film and discover that all the pictures actually came out and I didn't totally screw it up! And the magic of making prints, seeing them appear right before your eyes in the developing tray.

 

 

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It wasn't pro but my first camera was an old Canon that my dad used before I was born.

 

Something like this?

 

film24_b.jpg

 

Naw. Searching through some images online, It *may* have been a Canonet, perhaps like this one.

 

193007.jpg

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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My first camera that could be construed as "professional" is probably one of the cameras that I still am using, the Nikon D610 DSLR. Every camera before that was a "pro-sumer" (Nikon D7000) or less.
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Yeah, no doubt. That one had some pro features such as dual SD slots and things like that, which have since become a little more standard. Pro features like proper weather sealing and such are awfully nice to have, and I believe my two full frame cameras do have better weather sealing as well as considerably better low noise capability.
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I bought an Olympus 35mm back in 1978. Don't remember the model but it was a decent camera. For digital, the Canon 5D mark I. It was a nice step up from the cheaper Canons I had been using, but it came at a time when work was running me over and I probably shot less that 1000 pictures on it before upgrading to a 5D iii a few years later.

This post edited for speling.

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