I bought my first camera, a 35mm compact, with my first pay packet from a school holiday job.

I bought a Practica SLR with 35mm and 135mm wide angle and telephoto lenses and separate flash gun as soon as I got my first student grant.

I started to do my own b&w enlarging in my parent’s bathroom which had to be done at night and ocupied the only bath.

In 1972 I could afford a Topcon Unirex, the first semi-automatic SLR, this had 28mm, 50mm, 100mm and 200m lenses, this lot cost almost a month’s wages. At about this time I started colour processing using the AgfaGavaert process, (I have only jrecently disposed of all the old papers and chemicals I used to use).

In 1974 I started taking slides (not wishing to process the 1000+ photographs I was expecting to take on a 12 week trip around Noth America and so I could present slide shows).

In 1980 got a Cannon A1, the most sophisticated camera available at the time. I had 28mm, 50mm and 70-150 zoom lenses.

I was a member of the local Phoenix Camera Club for a few years in the early 1980’s. This gave me a renewed interest in photography but I dropped out when they moved away to beyond easy cycling distance.

I bought a compact digital camera in 2004, (quite a sophisticated one, a Traveller from Aldi), this gave me a renewed interest in photography. I do some computer photo editing and have a high-resolution scanner so I can digitise and enhance some of my favourite prints and slides. These are gradually being put on the photo gallery.

In 2007 I bought a slave flash. This isn’t conected to the camera. It works by sensing the pre-flash of the camera, waiting for the pre-programmed delay between camera’s pre-flash and main flash then firing itself. This is useful as it canwork with any camera, is much more powerful than a built-inflash, can give better lighting as it isn’t close to the lens and can be pointed or bounced.

In 2008 I bought a “bridge” camera (between a cpompact and a SLR). It is a Fuji Finepix S8000fd. It has an 18x zoom, has most of the features of a SLR without the weight and complexity of interchangeable lenses. It’s extra capabilities again gave me a renewed interst in photography. One problem is its bulk means I’m less ikely to have it with me!

I have found that this camera can focus on a 35mm slide in its super-macro sertting so have started digitising some of my 35mm slides.

In 2010 I bought another Aldi Traveller compact camera. This has a lerger screen and is quicker than the earlier one but has fewer facilities.