Tools of the trade...
I'm often asked what camera kit I use so I thought I'd list it here so I could just point to a link with it all there. Truth be known I started out at 17 (in the late 60s) borrowing my father's Nikon Nikkormat FTN - he taught me the basics and that camera was the perfect start. Eventually I got a second hand one myself, along with a 50mm lens and, much later, a pretty battered press photographer's old 105mm from the early 80s when they still used lead in the glass. I've no idea why but the depth of that lens was just extraordinary. I wish I'd never parted with it because its less bettered and more modern replacement was not a patch on it. No lead but loads of new fangled coatings. Progress?
Over the years I changed camera bodies numerous times... F3, two F4s, etc. Then after a very short flirtation with an instantly forgettable Canon body of some sort, which I simply couldn't get on with, back to Nikon. Thank goodness I hadn't sold my Nikkor lenses!
My first digital body - the classic Nikon D90 - was a revelation. A new world. So much more control both in the camera itself and then, of course, in the processing in software afterwards. This really made my old darkroom in the bowels of my place in Islington, North London, seem pretty crude and old fashioned, not to say much harder work. Wasteful too, because I could never get a print the way I wanted the first time. Indeed, it usually took me a few goes. At some expense. So I quickly embraced the new digital approach and have never looked back. I know film is making a bit of a comeback, just like vinyl records, but I've never been able to see (or hear) the benefit of either. Give me the digital world every time.
I stayed with Nikon for several years more, changing up to a D7000 then a D800 before falling out of love with the brand during one of my trips to New Zealand pre-covid. The D800 was a truly superb camera but sadly the years have made their mark and now, with arthritis in my hands, the size and weight of an SLR camera had just become a pain. So on my return to the UK I felt I had to find a lighter and more manageable camera system. Mirrorless was the answer and Olympus the clear choice. They were ahead of the game then and I've seen no reason, to date, to change my allegiance. I loved my Nikons but somehow Olympus has put the fun back into my photography. I cannot put my finger on why. It just has.
I started with an Olympus PEN-F, a silver one, just to put a toe in the water. I couldn't put it down. Not only is it beautiful, it is also really practical and easy to use. I added a black one to my bag (for the wife really, but she never uses it!), so I can have a choice of two prime lenses on a shoot. Then I bought an OM-D E-M1-Mk2 followed by the Mk3 version, both outstanding, only to be outdone by my current squeeze, the extraordinary OM1.
So here is the current bag of goodies I now work with today...
Bodies
Olympus PEN-F Mirrorless Camera body (silver)
Lenses
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ pancake zoom lens (black) - PEN-F kit lens
Software
It's taken me a few years but I am very fortunate to have been able to put together such a powerful set of tools. Indeed, at long last I seem to have everything I need. Perhaps this is why recently I've been starting to experiment with drone photography. But that's the subject for another blog, I think. Stay tuned!
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