Cameras, photography, digital imaging stuff

[ChrLzs]

As this stuff is my favorite topic/hobby/pastime, I thought I might start a general thread to discuss any or all aspects, ask questions, debate best cameras/lenses, even talk about digital imaging techniques and tricks, etc..

Feel free to join in or ignore me as you wish..! I thought I'd start with a bit of my photography history - maybe some of it will resonate or spark some discussion..? Whatever your camera/photography history, I'd love to hear yours too!

I'm .. well .. middle aged, let's say. Got interested in cameras at about 11, back when not that many folks had cameras other than the odd old Brownie or Instamatic, and the SLR (single lens reflex) camera was only just becoming popular with enthusiasts.

My favorite cameras have been, in rough order, a Minolta X700, a Fujica AX-3 and a Ricoh XR-10M - all Single-(interchangable)Lens-Reflex (SLR) cameras that used 35mm film. I was also employed by a studio to shoot weddings and portraiture on medium format (Bronica SQ and Hasselblad) and I still have a Yashica TLR, but the smaller and more flexible SLR's were much more fun and easier to lug around... I wasn't rich (still ain't) and used to improvise with cheap lenses, or long times saving up for the odd decent one.. And geez, film and processing was expensive!!

I did spend quite a lot on a 35mm slide projector with a very good lens to look at the 35mm slides I was taking. I'd discovered the quality of Kodachrome 25 and 64, and was just amazed at what 35mm film could do when you used a bit of care (eg tripod, good lens..)

Anyway, when digital came along, I was pretty disappointed at first at the very low resolution, and even more disappointed when it became clear that a digital system to match the enlargement capability of what I had been squeezing out of K25, would be hideously expensive... I bought a few digital cameras over the years including a Sony F707 then F828 (a much maligned but wonderful camera), an Olympus C8080, most recently a Canon SX130 IS. All nice cameras, but they couldn't match the image quality and depth of field control I was used to.. I sorta gave up on my beloved SLRs and the little collection of lenses I had (a motley mixture of Minolta MC/MD and Pentax M42 and PK mounts), and formed a wish list for what I wanted in a new digital system..

My wish list was as follows:

- resolution to match Kodachrome 25 (ie ~12Mp or greater)

- good low-light performance (which meant a medium sized sensor (about APS-C size or greater))

- a large enough sensor to also give lots of depth of field control (again, APS-C or greater)

- a viewfinder that was as good as an optical viewfinder on an SLR (if you've used a good SLR with a lens of say f1.7 or f1.4 you will understand what I mean) to allow quick and accurate manual focusing (and allow easy use in bright daylight..)

- access to a wide range of interchangeable lenses

- the ability to shoot good quality movies with manual settings, and while still using the viewfinder (this one eliminated most DSLRs!)

- affordable!

There were other things, but those were the key ones. I have waited a long time for a camera system that does all of that.

Anyway, that's enough for the first instalment - if anyone actually read all that, I hope you are not annoyed that I haven't yet identified the camera I've finally decided to get...

Please add to the thread in any way you wish!

PS - no, I do not work for any camera company or in any form of photography-related venture..

PPS - Sorry it's such a long, dry post. I was going to embellish it with a nice picha, but the Image Upload thingy is offline right now.. dang.

[LEGIONS]

glad to see your post I have also been playing a little while ...I am 53 and like yourself have toyed with many different types and have bought what I could afford at the time and I settled for a T2i with a 17-85 mm IS wide angle zoom and a 70-300 IS USM tele zoom and have had some really nice shots it is about learning light and shadows for me ...digital really is a lot cheaper than back in the day

[ChrLzs]

glad to see your post I have also been playing a little while ...I am 53 and like yourself have toyed with many different types and have bought what I could afford at the time and I settled for a T2i with a 17-85 mm IS wide angle zoom and a 70-300 IS USM tele zoom and have had some really nice shots it is about learning light and shadows for me ...digital really is a lot cheaper than back in the day

Thanks for joining in, Legions - love your avatar shot, btw.. The T2i (EOS 550 over here) is a very fine camera (pretty much meets my wish list!) - and Canon make very good sensors and lenses.

And yep, light and shadows and the quality of light is what makes or breaks almost every image. I love early mornings and late afternoons (the Golden Hours..). And I also think that while flash is a useful tool, more often than not it is over- or wrongly- used. maybe more about that later..

Have you posted anything in the Photography Challenge thread? - if not you should give it a go.