being nosey again...

sineadw

I just realised its a year this week since I got my first camera. My mate was moving country, clearing out her attic and came across the old Cosina film SLR she had to buy when studying journalism donkeys ago. I nabbed it. It died on me a few months later, but not before I'd become completely addicted.

Just out of sheer unadulterated noseyness, and as an excuse not to do the mountain of washing up in my kitchen (runs and hides at computer) how long have you all been at this and how'd you fall into it?

Apologies if its been done a thousand times :rolleyes:

Paulw

I have my SLR just over 2 years now. I never had a film camera. I was always digital. I've gone from a ver simple Kodak DC3800, then to an Olympus C-750 UZ (great P&S camera and still works well), and then two years ago I decided it was time to really learn photography.

I take a good 2 week holiday every year, mostly to the US or Canada. I was seeing wonderful sights but was never able to capture them well. So, decided that a good camera was the way to go.

Now, I am really learning. I know my photos are slowly improving, but it's good fun for me, and keeps me occupied. I'm better off spending my money on that, rather than wasting it.

rymus

won a 35mm cheap as chips point and shoot camera in a raffle when I was 12. Got hooked and saved every penny to buy an EOS 5000 about a year later. Moved onto an EOS 500 later on after getting a good deal and then bought my first extra lens a few months down the line. Had been lusting after a D60 for quite some time, nipped into a camera shop every now and then to put dirty paw prints on the display case.

Finally, after growing up some more and discovering the benefits of full time employment, bought a 20D some years ago, then decided I needed a 30D and now the L lust has begun.

so.. around about since I was about 14/15.

Calina

I got my first camera when I was about 11. It was a little Agfamatic, took 110 film. I had it until I was 18 when I was given an Olympus compact which is still one of the best cameras I ever touched.

I took my dad's Olypus SLR over about five years ago I think. Not sure any more and the 350D came into my life one year ago.

I've been taking photographs for 25 years. Digital has completely ruined me though...the volume of photographs I'm taking is scary.

City-Exile

I started with a compact 35mm camera, when I was in National School. Taking pictures of rally cars, during the various events in Cork.
When I was 17, I got a loan of a Canon EOS Elan of some sort, from a neighbour. I was totally addicited to SLR after that.

In 2000, I was booked on a business ticket, for a flight with Lufthansa from Frankfurt. The flight was over booked, so I had to go in the jump seat. (Behind the pilot, in the cockpit)
When I got off the plane, I got around IR£400 in compensation for my hardship.
With that, I went straight into the Duty Free (was going onwards with a connecting flight) and bought a Canon EOS 300.

I was in my element!

In 2004, I traded it in for a Canon EOS 300D and this year, I bought the EOS 400D. I've got loads of pictures in storage, which I'd love to get digitised, but finding the time is another thing.

melekalikimaka

feb last year i thinks....

Morlar

City-Exile wrote:

so I had to go in the jump seat. (Behind the pilot, in the cockpit)
When I got off the plane, I got around IR£400 in compensation for my hardship.

Jammy git ! I used a borrowed disk camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_film) when I was a kid then a borrowed praktica film SLR in college then after realising how easy it wasn't to make money from - I put down the camera and got a real job instead. Then got a eos 300e in 2003 and then a 20d in 2004, and a 1ds a couple of months ago. So in answer to your question too long is the answer.

magicbastarder

my dad has always been into photography, and i bought an OM1 about ten or eleven years ago, cos he was an OM user too, and i could borrow his lenses. still using OM gear, among others.

Fionn

i have fond memories of my brother and me playing taking photographs of eachother with our parents box brownie and even taking it apart to see how it worked - quite interesting too
Every now and then we were allowed to take 'real' photographs with film and the have them developed and of course it was a great buzz to see them in glorious black & white later on.


The very first camera I owned myself was this



which came everywhere with me and provided endless entertainment had a attachment to mount cube flashes on it was great - that was in the 70's

ahh! happy times


after when i grew up, i sort of took a break from photography (kids/marriage/mortage etc.)



then later on during the mid 90's when i was overseas i bought one of these;



great little 35mm had it for ages, took hundreds of photographs with it, until one of my kids were emulating what we had done years earlier and wanted to know how it worked

so after an absence of 14 or so years i read something about digital SLR cameras in a computer magazine last year and got started with a Canon 350D which i've upgraded and added to since and i've once again been snapping merrily since.

unreggd

Ive had my P&S since I was 16

got my film SLR last summer for college, and gettin my first digi SLR soon


Its kinda weird how I got big into photography

One day I just realised I had fookall photos of me since I was about 13, and I was like, wha if I went missin, they'd have no recent photo of me t put on the side of a milk carton

and I had no photos with friends

So went and got me first digicam and the rest is history

rahtkennades

Morlar wrote:

Jammy git ! I used a borrowed disk camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_film) ......

Wow, disc cameras. Now that's seriously old-skool!!

I got an Olympus OM-10 (SLR) when I was about 12, but I was never able to afford to take too many pictures, and never had the space for a darkroom at home , so only started to take lots of pics when I got my 350D last year.

Still have the film camera though, I'm planning on adapting it for the telescope some time.

Paddy@CIRL

Started with some weird point and shoot film camera when I was about 9, picked up the fathers Pentax MG at about 13, then a Fuji 2.0MP P&S, went to a Fuji S5000, then to the 350D about three years ago, Now waiting for my 30D.

rymus

Disk cameras.. theres a blast from the past. I remember using one for a short time, think it was my parents camera. Just found the charger for my very first digital p&s the other day, a sony mavica 1.3mp floppy disk model. I'll have to charge it up and see if I can find a floppy disk to give it a whirl

thebaz

my gran gave me a film 35 mm , years ago whe i went to the US , New York was so great to photograph , played around with it for 2 years , have lost the camera , the memories and some great photos , along the way . Then about 4 years ago saw someone with a low res digital , bought an olympus c2 , 2 mega mixel, which wasn't great , about 2 years ago got an olympus 765 , which was great , and got hooked . I have a nikon d 50 , but i still prefer the olympus, as Paul says great camera , i love the lens . One great thing about computers , web repositories and digital, is you have no excuse now for losing photos.

Valentia

My late dad's Box Brownie (about 7) -> various Kodak 110 thingys -> Fujica STX-1 (1st SLR) -> Pentax ME Super -> Canon AE 1 -> Bronica ETRSi -> Canon Eos 5 (Film) -> Eos 10D -> 5D.......................

Morlar

rahtkennades wrote:

Wow, disc cameras. Now that's seriously old-skool!!

Yep - they were the 78's of the camera world alright. Style wise though they were right up there with delorean cars v 1980s chic. I wish I still had that one to be honest. Picture quality was crap as well due to the size of the negative and the uber crap lens that it came with but they always looked cool at the time.

Benster

Briefly: Started as a kid, used school cameras and then bought my own SLR in 2000. Been "at it" ever since...

My father has always been a snapper and I remember him letting me run about with his Ilford Sportsmaster 35mm when we went on a trip to Epcot and Disneyland, I was 11 I think. As I remember, he was impressed with the ones I took when he got them developed later on. Used a Kodak 110 cartridge camera (Dad's again) for years, and got a bit more into monochrome in school art class with their SLRs, big metal Olympus jobbies. Then when I had my own job, bought a Nikon F60 in 2000 when I got a bonus for doing some Y2K work. Used that for a couple of years and graduated to an F80 in 2002 and now a D200 just this year. I still use the F80 for B&W pics.

bovril

Bought myself a canon APS when I went to live in Boston about 5 years ago. Used to take an abnormal amount of photos with it (compared to what friends used to take). My Dad bought a 2nd hand Minolta SLR from a guy who did freelance photography for a local paper. He's one of those people who buys everything required to start a new hobby and never takes it up! I used to "borrow" this camera and I eventually bought my own film SLR about 3 years ago. I did the B&W course in the Irish Photography place in Temple Bar in the meantime and was fascinated by the darkroom. Eventually and reluctantly shelled out on a DSLR last august after months of torment. I have never looked back since and my bank balance has never looked as healthy as last August either!!

CONMIKE12

i got my 20d a year and 3 months ago. I had always liked taking "snaps" at christmas and birthdays with my P&S but had never considered anything further. i got the 20d cos my dad had a 350d and I really liked it , but wanted the next best canon at the time :-) . I went out one morning at 4:30 to the local lake to get the sunrise and when i saw waht i had gotten later on , on the pc , i was totally hooked , and have been ever since.

daedalus2097

Started off with a fairly rubbish 35mm fixed-focus P&S (Hanimex or something) at around 10 or 11 years old, loved it and used it for years and years. In secondary school got to use some ancient SLR (can't remember even what make it was, could've been Olympus) but never really got to grips with it as it didn't have a light meter, auto focus, even had a manual film advance. After that, a neighbour/friend got a Nikon F55, and that's where it got interesting! Learned it very quickly, loved the technology of it all and borrowed it a hell of a lot...
Went to college then and had little access to it for a year or two, and being a computer/engineer guy, loved the advances in digital cameras at the time. Had been impressed by the Mavica but the floppy thing bugged me. Ended up saving, working my a$$ off and buying a Nikon Coolpix 4300 - a savage camera which cost me a small fortune at the time. Had lots more options than the newer generations of compacts. Had that a couple of years before I drunkenly left it in a hotel room on Gozo (full of photos might I add). Got a Coolpix 5200 as a replacement, still a lovely P&S camera that I use today, but recently also said "sod it" and shelled out for a D80 and a couple of lenses. Still finding my feet in the "proper" photography end of it and haven't taken anything I really like for the sake of it yet, but there I am

Wow, that's a long post

magicbastarder

daedalus2097 wrote:

even had a manual film advance.

i currently have eight cameras at home. the only one which doesn't have a manual film advance doesn't take film.

leinsterman

Hmmnnn ... well as a passion I've said it to you but basically the three days during which this image was taken on my Canon Surehoot S400 (American version of the IXUS) -



Though I have to admit this is the image that really inspired me -



... and the place (Patagonia) that was the final spark for the shutterbug!

... so that would be Jan 03 2005

As regards camera evolution -

Actionman Camera:o - Kodak / Minolta Pocket Instamatic (about four of these, all thrown away) - (My sister's) Olympus trip (sold to me best mate when he went to college to study photography) - Pentax 35mm P&S (stolen while on hols in Koh Phan Ngan) - Minolta 35mm P&S (siezed up) - Canon Surehot S400 (dropped into a live volcano in Chile) - EOS500 (still using) - EOS 20D (still using) - EOS 1D Mk III (need to get the bloody chance to use it!!!)

I've had my own camera since about the age of 9 ... but I never really thought about it as a hobby until shortly after the aforementioned date in Chile ...

thebaz

Simon , was that top photograph taken with a p& s , isn't that what the ixus is ?

magicbastarder

leinsterman wrote:

my Canon Surehoot S400

that camera must be a barrel of laughs.

amie.g

As long as I can remeber I have always had a camera. First film then digital.
I always had an interest in it and taking photos whenever I went somewhere different. I bought my first SLR only a month ago and I am now getting the photos I always wanted, totally hooked. I'm learning all the time and like trying different things and I am slowly getting the confidence to do things to get the right photo.

el tel

My first camera was a 110mm job when I was 10, then I got a Nikon EM at 14 before moving on to a Minolta X700. After amassing every conceivable bit of gear for the X-700 I pretty much stopped taking photos altogether (even though I still have the previous cameras!). Now I just muck about and use a Canon Powershot S70 for digital snaps and will be getting a TZ3 next week which I just want to try out for a while (the 10x lens might be useful).

GristlyEnd

My uncle got me started in photography. Bought my first film camera, Minolta 400si (I think) from Ritz Cameras in Florida. This was about 14 years ago. Years later I moved onto a Nikon N70. Don't know why I changed over to Nikon.

Next was the Nikon F5. Beast of a camera. First digital camera was a Fujifilm something. Can't remember but the lens mechanism broke some years later. After that was the Nikon D50, then a D200.

Fajitas!

My dad was big into photography, won a lot of competitions in cork for portraits and landscapes. When I was born he used to drag me around with him, so I had an idea of photography from that. Fast forward about 15 years, I was working in a dog track doing photofinishes. I was also doing my LC, and really got into art, bought myself a 1.3 megapixel P&S in amsterdam which I used for reference more than anything else. Next year I was doing a portfolio course for art college with a block in photography. My dad gave me his 1000fn because he had sold off all his medi format gear. Worked away with that. Halfway through the course bought a 300D because I was able to do what I wanted with film, but liked the ease of my digital camera. Got into NCAD, started doing shoots for bands, other bits and bobs, got more and more into photography. And now I have 15 jobs lined out for me between now and September.

minikin

Halina 110 - won it in a national milk board essay competition when I was 9, had to go all the way up to some theatre/cinema in cabra to be presented with it by john o'leary, who was the big sports celebrity at the time but also a family friend... so no big deal!

Bought some dodgy 35mm fake slr from penneys in drogheda for about £6 shortly after... it's hanging on a nail in the attic... had four aperture settings: very sunny, not so sunny, depressingly overcast and 'irish weather'

Next i had the choice of buying a compact 35mm with motor wind on! or a zenith 11 with the brilliant 58mm f2.... from mahers photo chemist in drogheda.... best £25 quid i ever spent... still have the helios lens lying around, the body is in a thousand pieces somewhere.

from 1st roll in zenith on dodgy east german film complete with surge marks... thanks chemist!!!

Bought a fujica st705 body in sligo to go with the m42 lenses after that... didn't last kissing time, who could tell that rigging the film advance lever to a hoover engine wouldn't work.

then i was camera-less for a while, used to hire a canon 1000fn from the cabin in swords for school jobs - £5 a day Could probably buy it for that now!

Bought a battered canon A1 kit from an evening herald photographer when I started in college... still working today (will be worth it's weight in gold when this eos fad dies out)

went digital a few years back with a 300d, then bought a rake of lenses from b&h, then returned to the camera cabin about two years ago for a 20d and a brand new 1n hs... bought more out of desire than necessity!

In there somewhere i was also given a rolleicord, an agfa isolette (easily my favourite camera of the lot) and I got a mamiya 645pro for next to nothing...
I'm in counselling to prevent any further purchases... though I'd love a 500mm 4.5!

Stephen

I had a cheap 35mm fixed-focus vivitar point'n'shoot camera when I was about 12, and it lasted years. Its still knocking about the house somewhere. Cameras disappeared from my life for a couple of years and then when I was about 19 I got a used 1.3mp Sony Cybershot point'n'shoot with an 8mb memory stick which was upgraded to a massive 64mb shortly afterwards. That lasted a couple of years until I got a 5mp Nikon Coolpix 5600. The Sony was donated to my sister and promptly had its LCD shattered :rolleyes:
The Coolpix 5600 only lasted 18 months before it self destructed - seems mechanically fine but any pictures taken get a horrible looking horizontal grill effect.
After that went belly up I decided I was going to get myself an SLR. I had a holiday to New York planned for February, so where better to go than B&H
That's where I picked up a Nikon D50 (cheap as chips as it was just being discontinued at the time) and 2 lenses... and here I am today

nilhg

I never had a camera until our kids started to come along and at that stage all I could afford was a cheapo compact. After a (good) few years I caught the computer bug and it seemed a good idea to get a digital. A friend of mine was coming home from New York for Christmas and he got me a Fuji s5000 for about half the price of over here.
I was hooked, I could try all those things you read about in magazines and on the net and I could delete all my mistakes without it costing me a penny. That was a great camera and its still going strong.
It wasn't without its faults though, 2 second shutter lag being high among them and the day it took about 40 attempts to get this picture of my young fella feeding the elephant I knew I needed to upgrade.



A couple of months later a certain black bitch did the business at Newbridge track and very shortly afterwards I became the proud owner of my current Olympus DSLR .

thebaz

great elephant shot -- look like your sons going to pull the poor elephant into the trench !

Fajitas!

Lol, this thread made me wonder where all of those 1.3mp shots had gone...

Rooting for an old hard drive provided some quite funny results, which of course, must be censored.


One of the first gigs I shot, for what it's worth.

leinsterman

magicbastarder wrote:

that camera must be a barrel of laughs.

Well done you spotted the deliberate errors - Actually it was Powershot ...

leinsterman

thebaz wrote:

Simon , was that top photograph taken with a p& s , isn't that what the ixus is ?

It was taken with the 400 version of this -

thebaz

leinsterman wrote:

It was taken with the 400 version of this -

Just goes to show , that a good shot is a good shot , regardless of the hardware !

having said that i'm pretty dissapointed with my new panasonic p & s, and i suspect it will be my last , the old olympus 765 blows it away , depite the supposed leica lens -- the only positive with it, is its compact size -- ebay is calling !