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I would characterize myself as a keen amateur, with no professional link whatsoever to photography. The fun to "catch the moment", coupled with unsolicited recognition from friends about my pictures was what drove me to expand equipment and time spend on photography. |
I remember the thrill at young ages when pictures came back from developing, often disappointed as they did not show "the moment", and will never forget when I looked for the first time through a SLR. I was at a dinner at the house of a long forgotten girlfriend, whose brother happened to own a SLR. I forget the make, but the feeling turning the zoom and focus, watching what actually will be captured, coupled with the noise and vibration after pushing the release button... I did not yet understand what actually happened, but one thing was for sure: I wanted a SLR. This was back in 1974 and I was 17 years old, with no own money. Immediately I started to solve my 2 main problems: what SLR should it be and convince a sponsor to pay for it. The sponsor was the easy part. With Christmas and 18th birthday lined up, my parents could be convinced that the prospect of moving me to serious photography was worth a try, as things that 17teen year olds wanted to pursue "seriously" do not pop up frequently. Remains the question: which SLR?
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After I theoretically studied the elements of a SLR, and the then available models, manual and/or automatic, aperture or shutter speed priority, one important aspect became for me quality of lenses, ease of use and strong build. I wanted to use my camera often, in the field and for a long time. I quickly fell in love with the CANON EF, a camera launched in 1973. As it had shutter speed priority, it had a unique big shutter speed dial on the right overlapping the body, so you could change the selected speed with the back of you forefinger. That was just what I wanted for my big hands. Full metal, it gave the feel of safety, and I did not have to fear it bumping into something and break immediately (it bumped often into something, but never broke). A couple of weeks later it was mine, and my photographic learning curve started. |
| Easy said, and without color manageable, in come my new friends from ILFORD. Film, paper, chemicals, a bathroom without windows and some investments in a reproduction machine, running water, a red light, here we go. I was quite happy with my setup, spend hours and days in the darkroom, managed to manipulate pictures and included other artistic features, which you could not directly capture with the camera. But I was limited to B&W, for color shoots I used positive film, as the result seemed more consistent, the lab can't screw up twice. |  ILFORD films, chemicals and paper |
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Positive film was fun too, as with a projector, connected to a recording Cassette player, you could "program" the time the picture was shown and at the same time add background music, changing frames of a Dia-show at (nearly) exactly the right moment. Lot of work to setup, but even today, over 20 years later, it still works, after hours of search for the cassette of course. End 1982, my photographic activities started to be reduced to the occasional "now you must take a picture" times, as I started to work, moved to Japan and married. |
| Video became the name of the game. Believe it or not, I owned one of the first Sony's with this small tape , back in 1983, and used it for a year or two. It was nice, first son born, but never I had this feeling as with photography, capturing the moment. Because with video, you capture all moments, just copying what you see. You stop concentrating on the subject, as you are fully busy checking through the little hole if the focus and battery power is ok, and apply the usual zoom in zoom out roller coaster wall painting. Watching the video at home never started the kind of conversation you had when showing around a couple of pictures, maybe because you have to concentrate on the sound and you were inundated with pictures, colors and zoom's. |
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Further transfers around the world, in conjunction with easier non-SLR cameras the whole family could use, continued to delay my return to the SLR world. Over 10 years later, still using occasionally my CANON EF and other non-SLR cameras (AutoboyJet, Yashica T4) from time to time, the digital still image age started without me really noticing. |
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This is the camera with which my digital life started in 1997. A Kodak DC210, 1 megapixel and being reported as "one of the best" consumer cameras. Well, it is a nice point&shoot camera, but I had soon to realize that in the digital world, "point & shoot" means "wait & point & wait & shoot & wait". The pictures on screen were at first, well nice, and with lack of comparison, I was happy and able to print decent A4 sheets of "flat" looking pictures on my EPSON. I never understood how others could put such great pictures on their websites (now I know that most are scanned film). I got more and more frustrated. Finally, in 2000, I was allowed to return to my beloved SLR environment. |
| You may ask why I had to wait that long? I checked around, but there was no affordable alternative. Kodak was the (nearly) only provider of true digital SLR's, but aimed at the true professional market, with prices starting at US$ 10.000 and no limit up. Now that's a lot of money for a keen amateur. But in July 1999 , NIKON announced the launch of the D1. Having surfed numerous web-sites and forums (which I strongly recommend and still do today) I learned to understand what revolution NIKON was bringing here for US$ 5000. The quality/price relationship, coupled with the potential of using the full NIKON lens line, brought the D1 in the center of digital attention, with professionals and amateurs, and if I say amateur, I mean the really keen or the rich amateur. Actually I was looking for a CANON, having lived with CANON since the beginning. |
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But CANON had no true digital SLR back in 1999, and they did not announce when and what they intend to do at that time. Also, why waiting? My old CANON FD-lenses would not be compatible with the new EOS-line and auto focus anyway. I was also worried that between announcement and delivery, coupled with production bottleneck, over a year might pass. So I went for the NIKON D1, the only girl in town. It was October 99, and full 6 month passed before I actually got mine. Pro-prioritization and waiting lists for the keen all added to the delay. Today (Aug 2000), CANON had its EOS D30 launched, although not yet fully delivered. Would I have waited for it, I would have lost 18 month fun, but saved US$ 2.000.
| Should I have waited? NEVER. In the digital world, prices are dropping like stones, its like with computers: wait and you get it cheaper! But the catch is that meanwhile you do not have a computer. Most important is the time you spend with your object, be it computer or digital camera. You learn so much by using and doing, increasing your own proficiency and learn limits with every frame you shoot, your limits, those of the camera and those of the digital world. So my recommendation to anybody considering buying a low end or high end camera: make your choice and go for it, do not wait, view the savings you are not making as investments in education. I saved some money on my first lens, and am not disappointed by the AF 24-120mm 3.5-5.6D, although it is not the best in town. |
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