My first camera

I got my first camera, an Afgamatic 2000, when I was 10, in 1973.

I still remember how the feel of it in my hand and how it felt to press the release. It came with a slinky chain, which you could get your skin caught up in, and an odd little foot to stick flash bulbs on.

It was a present from my grandfather. He gave it to my mother, but I think he secretly wanted me to have it. He probably couldn't justify buying me something that expensive. In any case, I used it a lot and nobody told me I couldn't. There was a lot of picture taking in our family anyway. I used it till it broke, sometime in the mid 80s and kept it for a long time after that. I just couldn't part with it and hoped it would mend all by itself.

When I was a little older I bought a Practica B 200, the only camera I could afford at the time. It came with a 50mm and a 150mm tele. It didn't last very long, the electronics in it broke and it started draining batteries. But I used it to take pictures at school, mostly of teachers, for an entirely illegal magazine we ran called Plons ('Splash'). It was a gossip rag with completely fabricated stories. We photocopied it on the school's only xerox, in the principle's office. I also used it to take pictures of sports events at school. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures of my friends with it.

Then came my Olympus OM 10, bought second hand some time around 1985. I had several lenses with this one, an 80-200 zoom, a wide-angle, a 50mm, a 70-150mm. All my early concert photography was done with this one and I used it to take portraits of my classmates in college.

I had a number of 35mm point-and-shoots next to the OM 10, a wonderful Samsung which broke way too soon. I then upgraded to their newer model - it wasn't half as good as the old one. I also picked up a second hand Sigma, my first auto-focus SLR, but it never worked properly and drained batteries. I have a lot of problems with electronic equipment in general -- sometimes I blame it on my being very static.

A few years back I got the Canon EOS 300 and it made me wish I had invested in a proper SLR sooner. Despite the fact that I've been taking photographs since I was 10, I've never been very good at it. The Canon made me take better pictures, I learned to play with depth of field, the images were sharper... I read up a bit on photography too, that helped.

Then came the digital cameras - my first one bought on a whim during lunch break when I was very bored and dissatisfied at work: an Olympus C2000. Fabulous camera, I wish there was some way to upgrade it from its 2.1 megapixels. I still have it, cannot get myself to sell it. The Canon Ixus (bought from some extra money I got around my 40th) I use now is lovely because it feels nice and is so easy to carry, but it's a bit limited compared to the C2000.

I've been bothering people with my lense for thirty years. Why? Because it gives me something to do while everybody else shows off their social skills.