My Cameras

I bought my first camera, a Kodak Brownie 127, around 1960. Despite the very basic lens and design – the only user controls were the shutter release and film advance – this camera produced some reasonable photos thanks to the relatively large 6 x 4cm negative images of the 127 format. A 1970’s Santa Pod picture featured in my photostream shows what was possible.

The Brownie lasted for 20 years until I bought my first 35mm SLR in 1980, a Chinon with fixed focal-length lenses. The novel versatility of this camera prompted attempts at “artistic” pictures, such as the multiple-exposure “freeze-dried toad” composition – something that can now be created much more easily in Photoshop.

In 1993, I upgraded to a new Canon 35mm SLR with my first zoom lens. This travelled the world with me on holidays, producing pictures that now evoke fond memories.

I initially delayed buying a digital camera while waiting for DSLR’s to become more affordable. Eventually, I bought a Fuji “bridge” camera in 2002 as an interim purchase, and I found that the compact size and extended zoom more than compensated for failure to match SLR capabilities; additionally the high-resolution electronic viewfinder enabled me to examine menus and stored pictures without resorting to the reading glasses now increasingly used with advancing age.

In 2007, although DSLR’s were by now inexpensive, I bought another bridge camera – my first with image stabilisation. This Olympus model is smaller than the Fuji, though has a zoom lens equivalent to 28-500mm – more than matching the two separate zooms of my previous 35mm SLR. Both ends of the zoom range are frequently used with landscape and animal shots.

As for the photos featured in my Flick photostream, I make no claims for their technical or artistic merit – they are merely pictures of subjects of interest to me and, I hope, to others.