Hi! My name is Craig and I'm a manual lens-aholic.

I've been inspired by photography for years but only got round to buying an SLR [a GF-1] in Jan 2010, mainly to get some nice shots of my kids but the kit zoom it was bundled with was too slow to get the shots I wanted.

Browsing through Flickr I saw lots of M4/3rds owners were using legacy lenses and getting great results. I knew of a film camera sitting in a cupboard at work which had been unused for years. Turns out it was an OM-10 with a dusty Zuiko 50mm 1.8. I bought an adaptor off Ebay, liberated the lens and the I was bitten by the manual focus bug.

My Dad used a camera in the early '80's so I asked if he still had it, a search through the loft produced an old Zenit which came with a Flektogon, a Sonnar and a Helios 44 - the Zenit returned to the loft but the glass goes with me everywhere still - they are pure gold!.

As time went by I felt an urge to hunt down some Takumars as I'd read about their awesome reputation, which turned out to be deserved - real smooth bokeh. Accidentally I aquired a set of Konica AR glass - which are compact, sharp and cheap [but live in the cupboard under the stairs mostly].

Next came some Canon FDs which are cheap because they don't adapt to anything else as well - they are nice, but plastic. They have a strange way of fitting to the camera too so they are relegated to the same cupboard.

I'm a massive fan of my Helios 44-2 the swirl is awesome.

I really wanted a viewfinder to help with focussing quickly and at last [April 2011] I won a G1, it had fallen off a tripod and damaged it's casing, it still works perfectly and was the best £80 I've ever spent!

I've joined flickr in order to improve my own technique by pinching your ideas - sorry. Love your work! Don't be offended if I don't do the tit for tat "you favourite mine so I'll favourite yours" - I just haven't the time. Feel free to leave criticism or just take a look and move on ;-)

I'd been getting more and more frustrated by the crop factor on the micro 4/3rds system, I'd love to go full frame, maybe I'll win the lottery one day but a used Canon 450D fell within budget so I've moved a step closer [or should that be further away?]. Focussing is a bit more hit and miss without the live view zoom but I think the picture quality is better and I'm loving the effects I can get shooting RAW and processing using Lightroom3

I really wanted to go full frame so I could use the old lenses in the way they were intended so I looked into the cheapest type I could find - which turned out to be a Canon 5D Mk1

I sold the Canon FD & Konica AR glass and hunted down a bargain in Jan 2014 - Wow, it's quite a lump! The mega pixel count is the same as my G1 and 450D but the jump in IQ and field of view means I won't be going back!

Had a worry when the mirror hit the Takumar 50mm 1.4 and fell off but Canon carried out the repair under the historical warranty recall free of charge. Since it's return the mirror must've bashed twenty five or so times without further mishap and the Takumar has become my favourite 50mm - sharp to the edge - unlike the Helios 44 which really drops off, shame as I loved that lens on my 450D.

The other lens proving to be a winner is my Dad's old Flektogon, I'm just starting to explore what I can do away from the portrait shots and this lens is going to give me some great results.