What was your very first camera?

Mike Krumlauf

Mike Krumlauf

Award Winning Filmmaker
An interesting idea I though people might have fun with. I am interested to see what everyone started filming with when the film/video bug first bit them. For me, it was a JVC GR-DVM90U handycam. It was Christmas of 1999 and my father (who doesnt know how to use a camera to save his life) who bought the JVC for home movies, decided to give it to me because it was not getting the use he thought. This was the camera that made me realize that there was something to this filmmaking thing. I wasnt (and still in a way am not) really into telling stories but more just experiment and make something visually captivating. My first professional camera (more prosumer if you will) was a Sony DSR-PD150 in 2003 that North Central College's Football dept let me use on the off season and alas, my first prosumer camera i owned was a Panasonic DVX100A in 2005.. the rest is history.

I still own the JVC. Its in its case collecting dust in my closet. I feel like i should find a cheap charger for its battery and walk around Chicago with it and see what I make. Would be kinda neat.
 
First videos I made were with my dad's handicam (Sony I think, no clue as to the model). I bought some cheap JVC that shot HD internally in college, but I went through unreputable sources and when I got the camera the entire menu and all the buttons were in Russian. That left my arsenal pretty quick. Shortly thereafter the first prosumer level camera I (proudly) owned was the Canon XH-A1, like 10 years or so ago now. I think that camera produced some of the best images I've ever seen - I would love to see how it holds up today.
Adam
 
My first was Sony VX1000. 3CCD miniDV 1/3" high quality digital camera. I forget the native ISO but it wasn't very good.
 
My first "serious" Camcorder was a Canon Optura Pi which I got in 1999 I think. I later had a Canon Vixia HF100. In my early 40's I finally started paying attention to DSLR's again when the Canon 5D came out. My first digital crop frame was a T2i then a 60D and then a 5D Mark II, all within 16 expensive months. Along the way I picked up a Sony NEX 5 or something and loved the tiny lenses. After going all in on Canon with the 5D III and an NEX-7 (Which I think were my two favorite cameras in a lot of ways) I started moving more into the Sony camp, I loved the portability of the NEX-7 and had an A7S (Which I also loved). Today my main cameras are an A7RII an an RX100 IV. The RX100 is always with me and I love the quality I can get out of it in such a small package. I love the power and flexibility of the A7RII but really miss the design layout of the NEX-7 I must be one of the few that loved the Tri-Nav. It's easy to diss Canon if you shoot video these days on DSLRs but it sure was easy to get great photos out of the 5D and canon glass, they still win in ergonomics for me. I feel like I sometimes have to work a bit harder with Sony--although not so much with the A7RII.
 
My first camera was... like this one, and I still have it...

vintage-plastic-ansco-panda-camera-from-the-1950s-and-60s-f7dyr1.jpg


Oh... you mean 'motion capture' camera... Well I lusted for a windup Bolex... never could afford one. The Wife took was in a program that included 'media' for her BA, so I sold my 4x5 to get her a video camera, and we also got a Sony Beta machine that was sort of a high end consumer editing device... well it did have the ability to have a control module...

But it was the DVX100 that got me into capturing motion pictures regularly... with digital, and frame level editing with no 'rainbows' in the cuts... and I could afford it...

My current camera is the Blackmagic Pocket... great imaging and cheap...
 
Mark Williams said:
My very first camera was the Canon GL-1.
Click to expand...

Same one as my first foray into digital.

The first camera I ever owned was a Sony CCD-V5000, one of the absolute best prosumer Hi8 cameras they ever made. 3-chip, VU meters, manual audio level control and manual zoom and focus rings. I had a Sony EVO-9700 tape-to-tape editor to go with it. That was the first camera I'd ever owned, but prior to that I had worked with plenty of others (BetaSP, SVHS, U-Matic, JVC tube cameras).
 
My first digital camcorder was a Sony TRV38. Great camera that runs like a champ to this day. Next was the DVX100A. I shot with that for 10 years before grabbing a Panasonic AC90.
 
I was lucky, part of my families retail business was consumer electronics, so I was able to play with camcorders and stuff going back into the 80's. Have you ever tried to edit tape-to-tape with consumer VHS decks with nothing more than the lap counter and front mounted control buttons? God only knows how I pulled that off. My first professional camera was a Sony UVW-100B Betacam. I bought it during my last year of college. Seven cameras and almost 19 years later and it seems like an entire lifetime ago when I used to chase news and shoot local sports with that camera. I still have it in my office and although it has almost no monetary value, it's priceless to me.
 
Mine was a CCD Signature 2000 (Panasonic) VHS 2 lux, 8X zoom. Had a flying erase head so I also edited with it. Had ability to manual zoom, manual white balance and macro focus. Also could do time lapse. Used a long lead acid battery and could power the light that could attach on top. Shot most anything you can think of with that, across most of the USA, or at least tried to.
Next was a Hi8 Sony when most of the world was still shooting VHS and VHS-C. Then got a D-8 Sony and on to several AG series mini DV Panasonics. Now solid state HD and 4k.
I still have that first camera and it still works. :)
 
My first good still camera.
olympus-pen-ft-with-38mm1_8.jpg
First "real" pro video camera I used was in college:
tk76.jpg
Now own several but the best is:
FS7.jpg
 
FIrst video camera was bought in 1984 for $900, a Quasar VK744XE which recorded to a portable VHS recorder deck (about $1,000). I got a second recorder so I could edit, and did titles on the Commodore 64. Bought my second camera in 2006, a Panasonic AG-DVC30, followed by the Canon HDV30, XL-H1A, XF305, Sony FS7.

Mark
Video Enthusiast
 

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My first real still camera was a Ricoh KR5-Super ii. It uses k mount lenses that I still use on my Pentax K110d (which I should really upgrade one of these days).
 
The camera I used when I caught the film bug was an RCA Super-VHS camera (model number unknown) in a video production class I took around 1990.

The first videocamera that I owned was the JVC GR-S707U, which I bought halfsies with my dad shortly thereafter. It was around $1,000. It was the raddest prosumer camcorder at the time, in my humble opinion. First of all it was Super VHS, so it had twice the res of normal VHS. Second it was VHS-C, meaning it took the little tapes. They fit into an adapter to play in a VCR. Finally, it actually recorded Hi-Fi sound. Not that its microphone was that good, but that meant I had two tracks to work with. I had the original Hi-Fi track and the regular VHS monaural track, which I could overdub with music. I had a corresponding JVC Super VHS Hi-Fi VCR, and I edited by using the camcorder as the playback deck and the VCR as the record deck. I made about three-dozen short movies with this set-up, around the time I was in high school.

This is the camera. This is not me. It's a random picture I found on the Internet of this camera. But actually it looks like me.

5843467702_8473215103_b.jpg
 
These are the ones I've owned; used many others along the way. Doesn't include the equally numerous still cameras.

1957-ish - Bell & Howell Two Twenty 8mm (technically this belonged to my parents, but I used it from about age 12 or so)
1972 - Minolta Autopak-8 D4 (super 8)
1973 - Minolta Autopak-8 D10 (super 8)
1974 - Beaulieu 5008_S (super 8, single system sound)
1980 - Sony DXC-1800 w/VO-4800 3/4" deck
1982 - Ikegami ITC-350 (used with same Sony VO-4800)
1987 - Ikegami HL-79D (picked up a second VO-4800)
... long gap ...
2006 - two JVC DV5000
2010 - Panasonic HMC80
2011 - Panasonic AF100
2015 - Panasonic PX270
2015 - Panasonic DVX200

I still have the Bell & Howell, the four Panasonics and some bits and pieces of the Ikegamis.

- Greg
 
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