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Apologies for a late and long post
*****
The first cameras I used were Dad’s Agfa 35 mm
and another Agfa with a Bellow Lens on it.
Both were used in the mid-sixties.
Towards the very late-sixties, after I left school,
I had a love affair with Super 8 movie cameras,
which was great until I came home from
a three week camping trip up through
Central Australia (1975) realising that
thirty seconds of watching a home movie
of an inanimate object was not
the way forward for me, particularly
when I began planning a 1976 trip
to the U.K. and Canada.
I decided to buy a small point and shoot 35mm camera
and settled on an eighty dollar camera,
similar to the Yashica.
Because I was dealing with the shop quite a bit
I asked the owner if I could give it a try
before committing to purchase.
Presumptuous of me, wasn’t it?
After a ten second think shop owner
gave me this Yashica.
An hour later I had been from one side
of Warrnambool to the other and finished
the roll of twelve photos.
I was so pleased when my photos were returned
that I opted for the $36.50 second hand Yashica.
My logic being that if my camera were
to be lost, stolen or damaged better it was
a $36 camera rather than an $80 camera.
So began my love of 35mm cameras.
Sometime in 1977 a workmate asked me (and my Yashica)
to take his wedding photos in February 1978.
Just the excuse to purchase an Olympus OM 1 SLR.
Several weddings later and with saved pennies
I was certain I needed a backup camera 😉
Then of course I needed a better (OM2) camera…
*****
In late 1984 MGW came on the scene.
Fifteen months later any spare funds
were being directed toward a newly
acquired 300 acre farm.
This coincided with brides wanting more
than I could deliver or were just bridezillas.
One I will never forget allowed me
five minutes photo time before leaving for the church.
At this time two of three Olympus cameras
were requiring some form of repair
which always had a base price of $200.
Photography went on a hiatus for few years.
With our first born due in February 1989.
We decided to purchase a ($2,500)
Canon video camera for Christmas.
According to the retailer its selling point
was the ‘CCD device‘.
It took nearly 30 years to find out what
CCD meant…and I don’t think it mattered.
Now as a result of our Christmas purchase
we managed a 20 minute video
of our first born’s first bath at home.
Really mind numbing viewing 🙂
I think number 2 to was nearly walking
before he appeared on video…not really.
Twenty years ago for my 50th birthday,
came my first digital camera.
A Canon IXUS complete with a 32mb card.
Next was a Kodak DX7590 Digital Zoom Camera.
All of my Cairns photos were taken
with my Kodak DX.
I always had a hankering for Nikon cameras.
So with an empty nest and a
new experience of a steady income
arriving in my bank account each fortnight,
(I was teaching at a nearby correctional facility)
I found an excuse to upgrade to a Nikon D90.
Then another backup camera incase the D90
was damaged during our Botswana Safari
Two or three years ago I began to realise
the limitations of crop sensors…
…and began a long winded period of researching
Nikon FX cameras, before settling on the
Nikon D750.
A couple of reasons for the D750.
It was one the less expensive end of FX cameras.
It used the same batteries as the D7100
and it also has two memory card slots.
It also is possible to use the DX lenses on the D750.
The DX lens produces about a 12mb photo
compared to around 20 Mb FX format.
The D750 also as an automatic setting for DX lenses.
Camera club members who are Canon buffs
all say that the Canon equivalent of a DX lens
on a Full-Frame camera results in a broken mirror.
My latest acquisition is another Nikon.
It was waiting for me at Men’s Shed
when I visited for the first time this year.
The only thing it cost me was an eye roll
when I showed it to MGW.
She simply does not enjoy cameras as much as I do.
***
Money spent on cameras is my ‘beer and cigarette’ money.
Coca-Cola is my drink…30 cans for around $15;
verses 24 bottles of beer for $55.
I have never smoked; however a while back
I was talking to a retailer and totally shocked
to discover cigarettes were around $50 per packet
WoollyMuses 