Before DSLR
Years (and years and years!) ago, I remember getting my first (sensible) camera - it's was a... I can't actually remember what make it was, but I know it was red and took 35mm film! You pointed it at what you wanted to take a picture of and you pressed the button. Regularly, the film ran out and you had to part with a fair amount of money, and wait a few days to get the prints - with which I was almost universally disappointed! Great start, huh. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Incidentally, this was all while I was an early teenager.
I have a bit of a desire for having technical gadgets about (people who know me will know this to be one of the worlds greatest understatements). So when I got my first proper job and had a bit of money floating around, I set my sights on a digital camera. This was back in 1998, and I managed to get a good deal on a Kodak DC200 - all 1 megapixel of resolution, an LCD screen about the size of a small postage stamp, and a hungry desire for batteries - all for £300! I absolutely loved that camera - it was a revelation to not have to get an instant image and not have to pay for the pictures!
Shot with my DC200 back in 1999
Some years later (about 5 years later I think), I got a cheapy Fuji Finepix A202 point and shoot - around £100. It was smaller, lighter, faster at taking pictures, a whopping 2 megapixels, took half as many batteries and even did basic video (but without any sound). It was alright - a massive step forward from the Kodak, but you'd expect that after 5 years of development - but I was starting to get interested in something a bit beefier which offered more flexibility.
This was with the A202, August 2003
Enter the Fuji Finepix S7000. £300 or so, I got one of these in 2004. 12MP (interpolated - Fuji use a funny array of sensor elements to go some way towards increasing the perceived resolution of the sensor, so the native resolution of the S7000 was 6MP), CF card, faster review, a burst rate of a few shots a second, optical zoom (this was the first camera I had with optical zoom), decent video capability... Lots of great improvements - you could even shoot in raw and it had aperture priority and shutter priority modes. Over the 3 or so years I owned the camera I got an adapter to allow me to use 55mm filters, bought a polarising filter and Cokin A holder and an ND grad, and really, really enjoyed using the camera.
My first DSLR - Canon 400D
The next logical step up was a DSLR, and I spent most of 2006 thinking about getting one. Finally, at the beginning of 2007, I went out one day and decided to get one. I couldn't really afford it, and the wife was not overly impressed with the whole idea, but against my better judgement at the time I went ahead and got one.
At the time, I was looking at the Nikon D80, Canon 400D and the Sony Alpha 100. I didn't really want the Sony one as they were a minor player in the market at the time, but it was getting reasonable reviews and I didn't want to rule it out. I went into the Sony centre in Poole and asked to have a play with it, where I was greeted by a snotty little git (excuse my bluntness) who basically told me to get lost. So, that was the end of the Sony! Had he known how much money I've parted with in Canon's direction over the last 3 years, the Sony oik might have reconsidered!
I went into Jessops (oh dear, I hear you say - I had a lot to learn!), and they were much more helpful - within 5 minutes I was playing with both the Canon 400D and the Nikon D80, and spent about 20 minutes taking various shots and just seeing how they felt.
In the end, the decision was financial. I preferred the feel of the Nikon, but I knew that the next line up of Canon's (at the time, the 20D or 30D) were at least as good so there was an upgrade path. For around £650 I could get the 400D with a 70-300 lens and a filter. The D80 would have set me back nearly £800 without the telephoto zoom. I was already seriously risking the wrath of my wife at the time, so I went for the Canon on the basis that with my level of experience at that time I would learn as much and take just as good (bad?!) shots with either model.
So I left Jessops with a big carrier bag, £650 lighter and ready to start taking some photos!
I'll continue this after some sleep...
My Journey - Equipment - Part 2
My Journey - Equipment - Part 3
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