My favorite camera

Someone asked recently what my favorite camera was. Without hesitation, I answered, "my Kodak Brownie Hawkeye". I was given this camera when I was 5 years old and it is why I became a photographer. Over the years I have had many current favored camers; my Nikon FTn, my Nikon F3s and currently my Nikon D7000s. I also collect cameras. It all started with that Kodak Brownie. The Hawkeye is a fixed focus, fixed aperature, fixed shutter speed, 2¼ inch square format camera with an optional flash attachment. But it takes sharp pictures on 620 or re-rolled 120 film and the contact prints are sharp, fine-grained and have high contrast. Over the years I've had many more capable cameras, but what the Hawkeye did was magic—it made me a photographer.