toys

Here are some of the cameras I have used at various stages in my life.

This is the first camera I remember using – or something similar to it. Growing up I hated cameras and photos – especially being in front of one.

In college I went on an exchange program to Kenya. I took along a camera like this and two rolls of 110 film for the entire trip (I told you I didn’t like photography back then.) But how can you go to Africa for two months and not take pictures?

I don’t remember how the photos came out, but do remember the camera falling apart. At the end of the trip, I traded the camera for two Masai spears – not real one, but the kind they hawk to tourists. I am not sure who got the better deal.
I went for several years without using a camera. Then sometime is the late 80s, I bought a Canon 650. From then on I have been berserk taking pictures.

Somewhere along the way I took a development class at community college and I was hooked for good – not just taking photos but actually being better at it.

I still have these two of these along with several lenses sitting in a closet in my parent’s house. I recently discovered several boxes of negatives and pictures I taken with this camera – I may at some point get these scanned.
This was my first digital camera. Of course when I bought it, I now no idea what I was going to do with it. It was just the next toy.

This has to be one of the most stupidest designs for a camera. I don’t remember being too impressed with it and don’t remember taking too many photos with it.
I took this little Olympus wherever I didn’t want to lug around a full camera bag with all my equipment. It did a great job as a back up camera.
So this isn’t really a serious camera, but it sure was fun. Especially with kids.
As the world was getting more digital, I started getting more analog. I bought a Mamiya 645 second hand and absolutely fell in love with it. Alas, it is kind of bulky to carry around and load. But boy oh boy do you get really great shots with it.
This is really my wife’s camera, but sometimes I am the designated photo taker and this was the only one we took along.
In time for my honeymoon, I bought this Panasonic -mostly for the Zeiss lens. A remarkably good camera for the time at at its price point.
My wife gave me for Christmas one year. She calls it a Brownie, but it is a Voightlander Bessa R2. This is the first rangefinder camera I owned. It is also much more manual than any of the other cameras. Getting used to it take a bit of time, but the picture quality in incredible.
In early 2006 I bought this video camera. I hadn’t been a big proponent of videos (and may still not be) but I thought I should try it out. The still photo part of this is pretty good.
This is the first of two cameras I got for being part of the Sony Ambassador program.
This is the second camera that I got for participating in the Sony Ambassador program.
The Sony Ambassador program was in part created to promote this little gadget. It is a wonderful addition. The device keeps track of where you are. The camera know when you took the photo. The Sony software combines this information to plot where you were when you took the photo.