Have you always been a Nikonite?

I am curious, I see from a lot of our new members that they are venturing into DSLR photogrpahy for the first time and have chosen Nikon. What about those of us who have been photographers for a while?
I thought it could be fun to see what everone else has used in the past, so I'll kick off:
Practika BCA electonic - 35mm
Pentax Z10 - 35mm
HP - 2Mp digital
Konica Minolta Z2 4Mp
Fuji Finepix S8000
Fuji Finepix S9600
Nikon D40
Fuji Finepix S2 Pro (now backup camera)
Nikon D2x (main camera)

Along with these I did own a twin lens camera smaller format (126? roll) and an Instamatic film camera as well as a couple of cheap and nasty 110 film cameras.

So what have you had? what guilty secret do you still have in a cupboard? Any Canon users? LOL sorry couldn't resist

Over the past 51 years I have used:
A Kodak box camera, 110 roll film, 2 1/4x 2 1/4
Argosy C-4, 35mm roll film
Yashica twin lens reflex, 2 1/4x 2 1/4, 120 roll film
Yashica C-2, 2 1/4x 2 1/4 twin lens reflex, 120 roll film, 135mm interchangeable telephoto
Konica SLR 35mm, three interchangeable lenses
Konica SLR Power drive 35mm, roll film
Kodak 5"x7", bellows, sheet film camera
Two different Kodak 4"x5" sheet film press cameras
Nikon 3800, DSLR
Nikon D80, and two lenses.
Nikon D90, and now five lenses.

I started at about age 7 with a Brownie, then the following,

-Argus 120 twin lense reflex
-a small plastic 120mm, can't remember the make.
-Kodak instamatic-instant film like the polaroid (it took a months allowance to afford 1 pack of film!)
-Pentax k1000 (Dad saw me going in the wrong direction with the instant camera!)
-Ricoh 35mm, can't remember the model, but was newer then the Pentax
-A small nikon P&S 35mm
-A 3mp Fuji
-Olympus 5 mp superzoom
-Cannon A590 - my son now uses

And finally my D3100. To date the best camera I've owned was the Pentax k1000, due to my time with it and results achieved in the film days. I really like the D3100 and I'm sure it will someday be my favorite once I spend more time with it.

My first camera was a Nikon EL2. It was formerly my dad's, and I inherited it after digging it out of a box in the attic. It didn't work very well, but I remember having fun as a kid taking photos with it...though many of the pictures I took never even got developed.

• Nikon EL2
• Polaroid SX-70
• Kodak Disc 4000
• Sony H1
• Sony H3
• Sony a330
• Nikon D90
• Nikon D300s

I've been interested in photography ever since I was an early teenager.

Here's mine:
Kodak Easyshare Cameras, one that I got at 17 from my parents for Xmas and then moved up to a newer one about 4 years ago. Don't ask me what models, can't even remember lol
used a Canon 35mm SLR that was my friends back in high school, got interested in SLR's
my nikon D40 nearly 4 years ago, with an 18-55mm kit lens (and added the lenses I have now, 3 more)
recently nikon d80 and loving it

I have always loved to take pictures, of anything and everything. I get it from my dad. My Nikon D90 is the first SLR I have owned because before that I didn't know how affordable they were becoming. My first camera was some 110 film something or other that I used to death. Then a digital p&s piece of crap I think it was fuji film that I carried everywhere. Then I had a Sony 10 mp p&s it was ok until it broke after about a year but I carried that everywhere too. I have used many disposable film cameras, a 35mm point and shoot that my parents had. Then I got into the SLR when I bought my D90, my dad gave me his Vivitar 220s film SLR with a broken light meter and some various lenses, then I managed to jam the camera after only using 1 roll of film in it. Now I also have a Nikon FG20 film camera with a few manual lenses, and my friend is letting me borrow her Argus seventy five TLR, and I bought the required 620 film for it, but I am nervous about loading the $11 BW film into it.

Anyway I chose Nikon because a good friend of mine had a D70 and let me play with it and convinced me that if I got a Nikon we could share lenses. I have tried a few Canons since then but I just don't like how they operate but I am sure that is because I am used to my Nikon.

Started with a Nikomat FT2, moved up to a F2 (still have them both) when digital came along I went through many point and shoot Canons. Then I ended up with the Canon G5 (which I loved), up graded to the G10(still have it). I also have a Canon SD900. I then went to the Nikon D3000, moved to a D80, D200, and just got a D7000.
I also own a Olympus OM10 (and lenses) a Nikon110s & a Pentax ESPIO 115M. (film cameras).

Pretty much, yeah.

Photography was the family business growing up. We used a *ton* of FM2 and FM2N bodies. Those things were workhorses - and would work fully manual if necessary.

Over the years, I also used F3, F4, F5, 8008 and our enlargers even had Nikkor lenses in them.

Have used any number of Nikon point and push digitals, and got back into photography a few years back with a D60, then upgraded to my D90, and now use the D700 as well as the D90.

This is my senior photo, from back in 1997 with my F5 and 80-200 2.8. I shot a lot of frames with that camera!

Oh my, I have had go back in the memory banks for this one. When I was probably about 10 or 11 my friend ans I biult our first cameras out of 2x4s. About 5" long. Painted them up like a Polaroid, with a hole drilled through the 2x4 for the view finder and a place on the back that was milled out with hand drawn pictures on paper for the 'instant film.'
From that moved up to a cheap 126 film camera that I got as a reward for selling Christmas cards.
In 1972 my parents bought me a Minolta SRT 101 with a 58mm f1.4 lens. That was a good camera and used it a lot until I bought a Canon A1. I bought a Sigma 35-70 zoom with that camera and still have them today. I also bought a Canon FTb with a 50 f1.8 lens as a back up to the A1. I also have a Kiron 70-210 f4 zoom and a Canon 300 f4 and a SunPak 522 flash.
My wife bought me a Kodak p&s digital camera which I did not like so I traded it and a few bucks for a Sony P52.
After I got some money for car accident I decided that I wanted to get into a dslr. Canon or Nikon? I choose Nikon because it had more features than the Canon and a few dollars less money. I now shoot with a D200 with 18-55 lens, 70- 300 both Nikon and a Sigma 24-70 f2.8 and a Sigma 70- 200 f2.8. The 70-300 does not get used too much but the other three, especially the 70- 200 gets used alot during basketball season. And a SB800 flash.

Sounds like a lot of memories being brought back for people on here, nice to know that many of us have been addicts for a long time. My instamatic took 126 roll file, the twin lens took 110 roll film, don't think I ever knew the make of it. I think my dad got me interested he had the twin lens and the instamatic before I did, I remember with fondness an airshow we attended where the red arrows were due to display near the end, my dad and his mate both wanted to get a shot of part of the display where two planes cross each other. His mate had an ME super with a borrowed motorised drive on the bottom, both happily shot at the display and we went home happy, I think I was about 6 or 7, when they got their prints back dad had taken one shot during the crossover run and managed to get both aircraft crossing, a bit blurred due to the movement but he had 'that' moment, his mate had blown a full 36 shot roll and missed it, he had one just before and one just after, don't think he ever stopped feeling hard done by for that shot. LOL. Don't know why I remembered that but thinking of the cameras I have used brings that to mind.
I hope that thinking back to what started you onto the long, hard, frustrating, rocky, expensive and eventually rewarding road in photography has brough smiles to your faces, thanks for sharing

My first camera was a home made box camera. A shoebox that was lined with tar paper and had 2 pencils stuck through the top as 35mm film feed and take up spindles.
That would have been back in the mid fifties. Keep the snickering down to a dull roar please.
Next would have been various Kodaks until the mid 60's. That is when the 35mm's burst into full bloom.
Rather than go into my past cams, I just give a quick list of my current 35's.
Minolta XG9, XG1, 3000i, 5000i, 8000i
Canon AE1 Program
Olympus iS-1, iS-3
Sony MVC-CD300 digital
I am pretty sure that I have a few others hiding around here somewhere, but I just can't remember them right now.

Pete


BTW: I will be getting my new D3100 kit tomorrow!!!

Not at first.
I owned a few cameras. I watched my father mess with his Pentax slr film camera and became interested at about age 8. My fist one was a little 110 camera given to me by my sister. My second camera came after my father passed away and his Pentax a 1980 model became mine. Sadly it sat in a shed for a really long time and was found in sad condition. we sold that to a collector and with that my spouse bought me a Pentax zx-60 35mm for Christmas that next year. that is when my passion grew from fun to hobby. My first run with digital photography soon became an addiction.
Sony dsc p&s
Samsung p&s
Pentax slrk100d 3 lenses. With this I wanted more power
Pentax slrk20d 3 lenses and flash, loved this camera but it was too heavy to pack on hikes and elsewhere. This camera gave me a reason to take a DSLR course.
Canon Xs did not like this camera we just were not compatible at all
Nikon D5000 2 lenses 2 tripods and 1 flash love of my life.
my current purse camera is the canon power shot SX120 IS

I started with a Kodak twin lens with 620 roll film. Got my first ansco film developing outfit.
Then I bought a nikormat and then a Yashica mat 124 (120 roll film). I started helping out the local wedding photographer so that became my summer job for a few years.
Hasselblad 500 cm, leica m3, studied in a college in Montreal for 2 years, got myself an assistant job in a studio in Montreal. Did advertising, a little fashion, mostly studio work.
So it was 4x5, 5x7 and I even shot 8x10 transparencies in those years.
I exchanged the Hasselblad for a Pentax 6x7, and got a Canon F1 for the Montreal Olympics in 1976 (had the official suit and pass for all events as a photographer).
Then I switched careers and forgot photography for about 20 years.
Got myself a Canon Powershot 100 (elf) in 2000 for a study trip I did in Japan, then in 2008 another Canon S5 in 2007 for a cycling trip I did in Italy and that's what got me hooked back into digital photography.
I then bought a Canon Rebel that I gave my daughter, got a Nikon D80, sold it to a friend, got a D90, D7000 and just a month ago a D700.
Everytime I get a new camera, I think this might be the last one...
Anyway, I really love the D7000 and D700. I've kept the D90 for probably sentimental reasons (+ I'd loose too much if I sold it)

My first camera that was mine, not borrowed from my dad or from school, was an Argus C3, that was about 1975. Then in '77 I got my first Nikon, a Nikkormat FT-3, but within a few months Canon introduced the AE-1, and I traded the FT-3 for an AE-1; HUGE mistake. Within a couple of weeks, the AE-1 died, and when I attempted to return it to the store from where I purchased it, they did not have any in-stock, and I was told that they would have to send it back to Canon for repair, and that would take somewhere from a few weeks, to a few months as there were many, many issues with the new AE-1. Well that would just not do, I needed a camera IMMEDIATELY for school, so I walked out, leaving the dead AE-1 on the counter, went to a different store a bought a Nikon FM, and rest, as they say, is history.

I will admit that over the last 30+ years I have occasionally went over to "the dark side" and dabbled with other brands; there was the Contax RTS-II in '86 or '87. The Zeiss glass was simply amazing, but also amazingly expensive, so back to Nikon. In '89 I was shooting for the S.F. Giants, and others in the Bay area, and Canon loaned me some of their new EOS cameras and lenses to try. While shooting a practice session for the inaugural NASCAR race at Sears Point, I had a Canon RT with a 400mm lens set-up for remote firing in turn 6 (no longer used during NASCAR races) when Richard Petty missed a downshift and detonated his engine/transmission, sending parts and pieces everywhere. The shrapnel killed the RT and put a big dent in the hood of the 400. You should have seen the Canon rep's face when I gave him back the gear .

At the time of the Rodney King riots in L.A.(1992), Minolta had loaned me a couple of Maxxum 9000's and some lenses for evaluation. Not bad gear, but not Nikon. Then early in 2007, Canon was making a big push to get the Nikon pro shooters that had not already switched to Canon to convert to the EOS system, and they offered many a direct swap of two their new EOS-1 MkIII's, up to three pro lenses and a pro speedlite for our old Nikon D2H's, lenses and flashes. I tried the Canon's, and while the image quality certainly was better than my D2H, I just did not like the feel and handling of the Canons. Some photojournalists I know took the deal, but every one of them regretted it when just a few months later, Nikon announced the D3.

There have been others over the years (Hasselblad, Bronica, Pentax 645, Crown Graphic 4X5), but in terms of 35mm/DSLR, with the noted short term exceptions above, its been Nikon for me for the last 34 years. In that time I've owned: FM, F2A, F2H, F3HP, F3P, F4/s, F5, FM3a, D1H, D2H, D300, D3 & D700's.

Since I started using Nikon, the following Verse sums it up best: "I am not a fast photographer & I am not a slow photographer, I am a Half Fast Photographer"
Joe Cottone sr.