I've been a keen amateur since I was 16 years old (1981) when I bought my first 35mm film manual Minolta SRT101 with 50mm f1.7 lens for about £100. Since then I acquired Minolta XD7, X500, X700 film cameras & various Minolta & Tamron lenses from 17mm upto 500mm mirror.

 

In 2001, I went digital with basic compacts like Canon Powershot A60 & A610 which gave good images & later transitioned to Fujifilm Finefix bridge cameras including S5600, S6500fd, S9600 & S200EXR which offered much better performance, & value for money.

 

2011: decided to upgrade from bridge to DSLR, starting out with Minolta Dynax 7D & 5D cameras , which could re-use most of my existing Minolta lenses with adaptors. Then I got a Sony A300 with Sony AF 18-55mm & 55-200mm kit lenses, followed by a few older lenses: Minolta AF 28-105mm, Minolta AF 100-300mm & 2 manual focus lenses: a Minolta MD 50mm macro F/3.5 & Minolta MD 100mm macro F/4.

 

2012: acquired Sigma AF 400mm F5.6 Telephoto & Tamron AF 10-24mm Wide angle lens, & one of my favourites, the Tamron AF 18-250mm lens. The desire to have slightly better body lead me to getting a Sony A700 which is a nice older pro. spec. camera, with very rugged build quality. I was lucky to also find an original Minolta right angle viewfinder magnifier for specialist shots.

 

2013: bit quite but added the battery grip for A700.

 

2014: acquired 4 great additions: Tamron AF SP 17-50mm f/2.8, Tamron AF SP 70-200mm f/2.8, Minolta 100 mm f/2.8 AF Macro & last but not least Minolta AF 500mm mirror lens. With all those lens I needed another body, so got another Sony A700 & battery grip.

 

2015: acquired Samyang 8mm f/3.5 manual focus fish-eye which is amazing & a feature packed Sony A77 (upgraded version of the A700) with battery grip as my main camera.

 

Around this time, in parrallel with the A-mount system, I also ventured in the E-mount system with Sony NEX-5N & NEX7 mirrorless cameras with Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens & also several A to E-mount, & MD to E-mount adaptors including LA-EA1 & LA-EA2, to allow older A-mount / MD lenses on the E-mount.

 

For a few years, this equipment was split over 3 different camera bags to suit the occasion:

 

Bag 1 - Sony A77+BG, Tamron AF 18-250mm, Tamron 10-24mm, Tamron AF SP 17-50mm f/2.8, Minolta 100 mm f/2.8 AF Macro, Samyang 8mm f/3.5.

Bag 2 - Sony A700+BG, Tamron AF SP 70-200mm f/2.8, & Kenko 1.4x teleconverter.

Bag 3 - Sony A700+BG, Minolta AF 500mm, & Kenko 1.4x & 2x teleconverters.

Bag 4 - Sony NEX7, Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6.

 

After the Covid pandemic, I became keen to expand my lense collection further, as it seemed a good idea at the time. Many of these would reside in my lens cabinet for required access as needed, & not meant for camera bag use.

 

2021: acquired Tamron Adaptall-2 300mm f5.6, & a Minolta MD 135mm f2.8.

 

2022: acquired Minolta MC 300mm f4.5, Tamron AF 70-300mm, & Tamrom Adaptall-2 17mm.

 

2023: acquired Minolta AF 100-400mm, Tamron AF 16-300, Tamron Adaptall-2 300mm f2.8 (model 60B), Tamron AF macro 90mm f2.8, Tokina AF 11-16mm f2.8 AT-X, & Sigma APO AF 1.4x TC.

 

Also around this time, I got a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera & several lenses, Sony 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, Sony 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3, Sony 16mm f/2.8 & Samyang 12mm f/2

 

From 2023, I scaled back working camera bags to just 2, one A-mount & one E-mount, picked according to the occasion:

 

Bag 1 - Sony A77+BG, Tamron AF 16-300mm, Tamron AF 10-24mm, Tamron AF SP 70-200mm f/2.8, & Samyang MF 8mm f/3.5.

Bag 2 - Sony NEX7 / A6000, Sony 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6, Sony 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3, Sony 16mm f/2.8 & Samyang 12mm f/2.

 

I've concluded the Tamron AF 16-300mm (18.8x zoom) is an amazing walk-around lens of great image quality, much better than the original Tamron AF 18-250mm (13.9x zoom). In addition, the Tamron Adaptall-2 300mm f2.8 (model 60B) in conjunction with Sigma APO AF 1.4x TC produces incredibly sharp images at f/4 max. aperture.

 

Artistically, I like to photograph anything that has aesthetic appeal - be it natural or man made. I like the beauty & structure of most things, & look for geometrical shape, form, pattern, texture or colour in my compositions, whether it's capturing landscapes, architecture, or abstract. I have an interest in space, astronomy & watching the skies for anything special or unusual.

 

I started going through my back catalogue back in 2015, scanning in all my old negatives so I can rediscover & rejuvenate some past events, but had various delays. I hope to share some of the better older pictures as soon as they are available.

 

From around 2017, my interest in astro-photography grew after I bought a Meade 8in SCT telescope. The Sony A6000 has become my main astro camera as it has same size 24MP APS-C sensor as the Sony A77 but is much smaller & lighter for any equipemnt setups, whether with camera lenses or piggy-bagged on rear of a telescope or spotting scope.

 

Thanks for reading.