My first SRL was a Soligor SR300-X (Minolta X300 clone) with a 28-70mm 1:3,5-4,8 lens, when most of the amateur photographers were starting to use compact cameras.
After trashing many films, I started making some decent image and I started working as well, so I traded my camera for a Pentax MZ-50 (with a with a Pentax 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6). The results increased, but I began forgetting how to use manual focus and started shooting aperture priority and, often, program mode.
I don't want to be boring, listing all the beautiful cameras I owned, but I have at least to mention: Nikon FM2, Niko...

My first SRL was a Soligor SR300-X (Minolta X300 clone) with a 28-70mm 1:3,5-4,8 lens, when most of the amateur photographers were starting to use compact cameras.
After trashing many films, I started making some decent image and I started working as well, so I traded my camera for a Pentax MZ-50 (with a with a Pentax 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6). The results increased, but I began forgetting how to use manual focus and started shooting aperture priority and, often, program mode.
I don't want to be boring, listing all the beautiful cameras I owned, but I have at least to mention: Nikon FM2, Nikon F5, Contax G2.
Then I bridged the gap and popped into the digital world by jumping on a Canon EOS 300D. The kit lens was very soft, but I found a very nice replacement in the Canon EF-S 18-135mm IS.
One of the best digital cameras I owned has been the Nikon D100, and that has been the moment in time in which my consistency in making discrete shots started. It was also a time in which my job gave me the most in terms of salary, so I could afford very nice lens, such as the Nikkor AF-D 80-200mm 1:2.8 ED-IF and the AF 180mm 1:2.8D ED-IF.
Only now, shooting Nikon D3, I have begun to rediscover the manual mode, and I finally found a decent composition maturity, based on a pretty good technique.
Now I am experimenting the approach to extreme wide-angle lens, with a Sigma 17-35mm 1:2.8-4 EX DG, and I'm learning every day new possibilities to express myself making photographs.