Sir Thomas Beecham (allegedly) said "in this life, try everything once, except incest and morris dancing" - and I'd go along with that ;-)

Regards photography, I started at an early age, encouraged by my grandmother who was a keen and talented amateur. At secondary school I learned to use an SLR - old manual East German things, with hand held light meters, which was great grounding - and to do all the darkroom stuff.

When I could afford it, I bought an OM10 and used various OM bodies and lenses over the years. A couple of years ago I decided it was time for a dSLR and just loved the D300 as soon as I picked it up. The whole RAW thing is a bit like having a digital darkroom - without the smell and the mess, of course - and what's not to like about Photoshop ;-)

Recently purchased a Lumix LX5 and I'm very impressed. Full manual control if you need it (plus idiot mode for point and shoot) it has a lovely Leica f2 lens, shoots RAW, has a decent flash and will still fit in a jacket pocket. If you're looking for a handy backup to your weightly dSLR, look no further!

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