My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 100 with a broken flash, so I could only take pictures outside. I was about six or seven. My parents had to put me on a film allowance, I took so many pictures. Later in grade school I got an new Instamatic, then a fixed focus 35mm we got for touring a time share. By sixth grade I longed to focus, and I started saving my babysitting money. That summer I bought my first "real" camera, a Sears KSX.
I loved that camera. I bought lenses and amassed an impressive collection of Cokin filters. In high school I learned how to develop and print. I got a job to help support my habit.
The KSX was everything I needed in a camera, but the film uptake mechanism broke on me when I was in college...while I was doing an assignment for a photojournalism class, in fact. In need of a camera right away, I didn't shop around. There was a Pentax P3N at the first store I checked, my lenses fit it, I had to move on.
There was nothing wrong with the P3N. Sometimes I even got lazy and left the shutter and apertures settings on auto. When I spotted an old-school Pentax K1000 in a Pensacola pawn shop, though, I couldn't resist. In theory, the K1000 was going to be my then-husband's camera...he wanted to move beyond the point & shoot...but more often that not I gave him the P3N and used the K1000 myself. (I did turn my darkroom stuff over to my brother, though. He was headed to art school, and I had accepted the fact that I'm too impatient and too sloppy to ever do a good job doing my own printing and developing.)
Over the years I got very lazy even outside the darkroom...the camera bag was heavy, and I had a series of pocket 35 mm, and then an APS, that I could carry around more easily. Then came the digitals. I haven't actually focused a camera in years.
I love digitals...I love the instant gratification, I love being able to take 500 shots without buying film. But increasingly, I've been wanting more control. I've been frustrated by depth of field. I've wanted to do my own focusing.
My tax refund came in on Thursday, and I went shopping.
Expect this to be a photoblog for a while...well, once I've figured out how to use it in something other than the auto-everything mode. It's a snazzy camera all right, but it isn't my KSX.
Posted by Nic at March 12, 2006 02:52 PM | TrackBackOooooo, SD cards! I don't know what size would be most economical, but I know they're out in 2GB versions, WalMart sells the 1GB, and you can get the 64MB (I think it is) for about $15.00.
The prices keep dropping too.
Nice camera. I wish I had mad photography skillz.
Posted by: Ted at March 13, 2006 10:06 AMInterestingly, the only thing I didn't like about this camera was having to switch from CompactFlash to SD. Not only do I have the CF already, with my fumbling fingers and bad habit of sticking fragile things in my pockets without putting them in a case first, CFs feel more sturdy.
Posted by: nic at March 13, 2006 01:10 PM