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What made you choose your camera brand or model?


8toes1961
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Along with a D3 and D200. Have 2 Canon D40s and rebel or 2. Been collecting cameras from 1972. Have had every body and lens from Argus to Zeiss. In the film days always shot Nikons. From a SP to F5. When AF started to be good, was not happy with the early Nikons. Did many camera shows from Boston to Washington DC so was always buying and selling. The week Nikon discounted the FE2s was doing a show in NJ late 1988. Had a buyer who wanted to swap out his 6 month EOS 620 with a 24 to 105 lens for a FE2 with MD12. at the time the Canon kits was current at 900.00 used, my Nikon kit was worth around 600. Was impressed with the EOS system so I switched. Lol, Kodak invented digital photography but could not figured out how to make money with it. I had 56 Kodak dealers in my district from Larchmont N.Y. to Trumbull ct. High point of Kodak was summer of 2001. Even by then was using a Nikon D1 I got used for 2500.00 from one of my customers. Unfortunately my dealers were in the Gold coast and many of their customers had the means to by a 500.00 digital camera. Most found that now they couldn't sell 20 rolls of film for a vacation to Italy. No more profit of developing the 480 photos. Now the customer could come in and print out the best 60 to 80 photos. No more realtor photos as they found the digital file good enough. Now out of the 56, only 3 are in business less than 16 years later. Kodak got rid of us in 2008. Too young to retire and now work for a large law firm in CT. Lol, stopped doing wedding photography when my last child finished college in 2010. Got tired of fighting people using iPads while trying to shoot. Today went to the largest balloon lunch in New England. You couldn't believe the amount of people using iPads and tablets to take photos.

 

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Along with a D3 and D200. Have 2 Canon D40s and rebel or 2. Been collecting cameras from 1972. Have had every body and lens from Argus to Zeiss. In the film days always shot Nikons. From a SP to F5. When AF started to be good, was not happy with the early Nikons. Did many camera shows from Boston to Washington DC so was always buying and selling. The week Nikon discounted the FE2s was doing a show in NJ late 1988. Had a buyer who wanted to swap out his 6 month EOS 620 with a 24 to 105 lens for a FE2 with MD12. at the time the Canon kits was current at 900.00 used, my Nikon kit was worth around 600. Was impressed with the EOS system so I switched. Lol, Kodak invented digital photography but could not figured out how to make money with it. I had 56 Kodak dealers in my district from Larchmont N.Y. to Trumbull ct. High point of Kodak was summer of 2001. Even by then was using a Nikon D1 I got used for 2500.00 from one of my customers. Unfortunately my dealers were in the Gold coast and many of their customers had the means to by a 500.00 digital camera. Most found that now they couldn't sell 20 rolls of film for a vacation to Italy. No more profit of developing the 480 photos. Now the customer could come in and print out the best 60 to 80 photos. No more realtor photos as they found the digital file good enough. Now out of the 56, only 3 are in business less than 16 years later. Kodak got rid of us in 2008. Too young to retire and now work for a large law firm in CT. Lol, stopped doing wedding photography when my last child finished college in 2010. Got tired of fighting people using iPads while trying to shoot. Today went to the largest balloon lunch in New England. You couldn't believe the amount of people using iPads and tablets to take photos.

 

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I hear you.

 

weddings are hard enough work without everyone getting in the way. I also have a pretty nifty collection.

 

Used to hate hearing

 

"oh my camera is better than that"

 

Or

 

"that's a great cameramust make taking good photos easy".

 

I also worked in retail selling photographic gear.

 

Now days not physically capable of doing a lot (no way I could do a wedding).

 

I never used a tablet or camera to take a photo till I got my new pup, now I do use my phone a bit as it's just so easy to post to Facebook etc for his breeder to follow than having to shoot-download-post.

 

Take my g1x pretty much everywhere with me though.

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First was Pentax ME because it was small & AP.

Olympus XA3. Would have loved the XA but couldn't afford it. A brilliant design.

Minolta SRT (2nd hand) because I fancied manual camera.

Now Nikon D3100 because my son & I both had a couple of Canon Powershots (different models) but they both developed identical faults when just out of warranty. Got little joy from the company & so I was concerned about reliability.

I see that a few contributors have mentioned Instamatics. That reminded me of a time many years ago when my wife & I were travelling from Nice to London on a train with couchettes. As we pulled out of Nice we were pleased to note that we had the compartment to ourselves. A few minutes later an older woman joined us. She was an lively Londoner & boy could she talk! Despite the disappointment of not having the compartment to ourselves we quite liked this character. She insisted on taking our photo and then told us how she came to buy her camera. It was a 'high end' Instamatic 110. She admitted not knowing much about cameras and she had just accepted the sales guy's recommendation. She took her camera on holiday and was amazed at level of magnification that the camera viewfinder gave. She did find that she had to stand a long way back from her subjects. She didn't like having to use her thumb to release the shutter. She sent her film to be processed & received 24 close ups of her left ear.

She'd been holding the camera the wrong way round & looking backwards through the view finder.

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I sponsored a high school yearbook class for a number of years. The school had an array of poorly kept film SLR cameras of various brands. When I started, I didn't know ANYTHING about photography and had only used "point-n-shoot" cameras. I took a course in basic photography and used a Pentax K1000 that the school had which was in the best shape of any of the school cameras. I eventually bought my own K1000 (used) and used it for years. I was a reluctant cross-over into the world of digital photography - finally convinced because of finances. (We could do our own b/w developing in the school darkroom, but when we went to a color yearbook I ended up paying [out of my own pocket] for most of the color film and all of the color developing commercially.-- a VERY small budget is part of the the world of teaching in a small public school.) Going digital just made sense. I also needed a camera that I could use with a fast lens and powerful flash for the football game shots which were always a problem. I purchased the Nikon D50 because the camera shop had put a great sale price on it because a newer model had come out. It was a good price AND the shop gave me a good deal on a quality Nikkor telephoto lens and a strong flash. I still can't believe how lucky I was to get this particular deal. The camera is great. It's been about 11 years since I purchased it and I no longer "do" yearbook (or teaching, for that matter). I've had other digital cameras, but that Nikon D50 is still my go-to camera. I'll have it with me on my first cruise to Alaska - sailing in less than 2 weeks. I can't wait.

Edited by awesomeblossom
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When I met DH, he had a Nikon SLR film camera.

We got a hand me down Nikon D70 DSLR from his father. I used it until we burned the sensor.

I bought a D5500 early in 2016. I love it, and have added four lenses and look to get a fifth this year.

I've had Sony, Nikon, and Fujifilm point and shoot cameras, but I prefer to shoot with the D5500. I use a Lowepro Fast pack for my camera gear.

I also have a GoPro Hero 3 action camera.

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An attempt at an abbreviated version of a very long story...

 

If memory serves, I grew up with a series of Polaroid and Kodak Instamatic cameras.

 

At some point in time, I more or less inherited my father's Zeiss-Ikon folding 35mm, which still took amazing pictures into the 1980's, but eventually its mechanical shutter acted up on a trip to Panmunjom, and I went shopping for a 35mm SLR. The exact sequence of events fails me, but my soon to be girlfriend then fiance then wife had a Minolta X-700, and the PX at Osan AB carried the Minolta Maxxum 7000i (this would have been 1990, so only a couple of years into its lifecycle). That, with a couple of what were really kit lenses and an external flash traveled with me from Korea to Germany and back to the states. Eventually a couple of pocket cameras snuck in.

 

In 2001, we were moving yet again, and I wanted to document some household furnishings. If memory serves, I picked up a 2ish MP HP digital that used CF cards, but that started the slippery slope into digital, going through a host of mostly compact cameras, mostly from Canon, until I finally got interested in a DSLR, both because of a renewed interest in photography, and to take photos of expensive toys like fountain pens and watches. The Canon T2i hadn't been out long, and again, the local PX had a T2i kit, and much to my wife's chagrin, I'm sure, the Canon rep pointed me at B&H for things I couldn't get locally...

 

The odd thing now, with the challenges of traveling by air, is I'm probably about to reset again and go mirrorless, and almost certainly Sony...

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I'm 54 and started when I was about 8. I've had many film and digital cameras over the years. I currently have a Nikon D5600 and D500, GoPro 5, and a couple waterproof cameras. My newer go to camera is a Nikon Coolpix P900. I bought it for our Alaska cruise last year. I did not want to haul around a bunch of lenses, especially my 400mm. This camera is simply fantastic, I love it. The optical zoom is incredible 83X or 2000mm. Image quality is very very good, battery life is about 300 shots or 90 minutes of video.......I wish it had 4K. In February we are leaving for a 14 day cruise on the BA. I'll be bring the Nikon, GoPro and I'll be buying an Olympus tough TG5. I also have a little Nikon Coolpix SS9900 which is very good.

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My first real camera was a Nikon EM SLR in 1986 bought in Miami when I was working on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. I still have it but haven't used it in about 20 years. I don't miss having film developed.

In the intervening years up until 2012 I used a Canon pocket camera (once they were invented and I can't put a date to that). I still have the S880 Canon that in 2012 after a couple of cruises spurred me to seek a better resolution and bought a Canon EOS Rebel T3i which has brought me immense pleasure ever since. I vacillated between Canon and Nikon before buying and read as much about each model in an entry level price range with a budget around $650. The Canon fared well in comparison tests with whatever Nikon was comparable at that time (Dec 2012). I saw a lot of people using Canon and took the plunge. It came with a kit lens 18-55 and Amazon were offering a 55-250 EF-S zoom for $100 more and they may have offered a free set of steak knives. I had a rewards Credit Card whose accrued points brought me a 10-22mm EF-S lens and so I was invested in the brand.

Over the years of owning this camera I started to get interested in taking even better photos and have lately caught "the Bug" and so now shoot RAW and have taken online courses in Photography and Photoshop as well as endless free lessons in using Lightroom (all since my last cruise in January). I have invested in an Full Frame Canon camera (6D Mk II) and some L Glass so I can barely blame the camera if my photos are crap.

I wanted a hobby that would exercise my brain and I think I may have found it.

Norris

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  • 2 weeks later...

I started my professional photography career in 1996 working in the automotive print publishing world. Because all the guys at the magazines I worked at used Nikon gear, I gravitated toward Nikon. It was a great fit because they mentored me with equipment they were very familiar with.

 

Over 20 years later and a switch from shooting film to digital (2004) and a small fortune in camera equipment gets me the results I'm after!

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Back in the old girl days your 10 year old Pro body as was just as good as a new one. Plus resale value held up. Now a 1600.00 body from 2013 is worth less than 400.00. Getting crazy. Hardly need flash today.

 

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Lol. FILM DAYS. Purchased a F4 for 950.00 used 6 years and got 575.00.

 

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Back in the old girl days your 10 year old Pro body as was just as good as a new one. Plus resale value held up. Now a 1600.00 body from 2013 is worth less than 400.00. Getting crazy. Hardly need flash today.

 

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Tech is a blessing/curse. Newness and shiny specs are tempting and expensive. Personally, I feel that a piece of tech only becomes obsolete and replaceable when it can no longer do what you need it to do. I also spend a lot of time laying on the floor in a darkened room waiting for the upgrade urges to pass when Sony drops the latest game-changer...

 

 

Dave

 

P.S. How much was your last phone worth compared to it's original cost when you bought the S8? :)

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Tech is a blessing/curse. Newness and shiny specs are tempting and expensive. Personally, I feel that a piece of tech only becomes obsolete and replaceable when it can no longer do what you need it to do. I also spend a lot of time laying on the floor in a darkened room waiting for the upgrade urges to pass when Sony drops the latest game-changer...

 

 

Dave

 

P.S. How much was your last phone worth compared to it's original cost when you bought the S8? :)

Note 7 was 875.00. Just ordered Note 8 at 950.00. But I do love my tech. Lol, paid 2k for Nikon D1 in 2000. Worked at Kodak until 2008. Got a great deal on the D1 as was 5k 8 month's before, from one of my dealer's on a like new trade in. Most people thought that because I worked for Kodak I never went digital. Lol, had the 1st real dslr.

 

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Like some you I've made the switch to mirrorless. I'm currently using s Canon EOS M6 with the 15-45, a 55-200 and a 22 mm prime less. Easier on my back but not my wallet.

 

 

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So true. Kinda crazy for the mirrorless. Have 3 lumix, 4 Olympus and 2 Sony's. had a Fuji but not impressed, sold that one quick. Love to use my old manual lens on them.

 

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