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Equipment: General information |
I got into photographing a long time ago. My first camera
was a beautiful Asashi Pentax SP (Spotmatic.) My parents
gave it to me just a few days before I took off for my first
trip on my own to Scandinavia. This was about 33 years ago.
The camera also was a present to motivate me for the photo
study that I had just started, because I wanted to learn
more about photographing and filming. I was completely under
the spell of making pictures of birds and wildlife for almost my entire
life. Unfortunately, I had to stop the photographic study
after 2 years because of army duties, and I still regret it
to this day. It never had really bothered me, but I often
felt really sad that I never had finished the entire study.
I liked the Spotmatic very much, and my short fingers
could handle this very nice little camera perfectly. When
the Spotmatic got really old, I changed to the Pentax MX
series. I could buy the body tax-free in the army, and the
good results I had obtained with the lovely Spotmatic helped
me decide to stay loyal to Pentax. I even bought a second
body and many more lenses. In the mid eighties after the
Pentaxes have been used very intensively for many years.
Then, I must confess, their best time was over. Most of our
pictures were made close to water, and the moist environment
of the outdoors had been detrimental to the bodies and
lenses over the years. In 1995 we switched to Canon.
The choice was difficult. It became a fight between Nikon
and Canon. Nikon has the wonderful option of using all old
lenses on newer cameras, but because we had to buy
everything new, it was not important for our choice. There
were two main reasons why we finally chose Canon: Firstly,
we liked the speed of the AF system more than any other
camera that we tried during our research. The second reason
was a technical difference between the lenses from Canon and
Nikon.
This is how we got involved with Canon. We also needed a
good camera to view our fly fishing trips and other wildlife
during our outdoor experiences. We started with the EOS 5 as
our new generation of cameras, and we were amazed about the
AF results. We never had used the AF before, and we had a
wonderful test in the Newfoundland wilderness. This was our
first intensive test with the powerful AF system, and we
were hooked straight away. After using the EOS 5 with great
results we also bought an EOS 1. The EOS 3 has been in mind,
but then the digital bodies came on the market. It was
confusing at first, and prices where very unstable, so we
tried the G2 at first and bought a D10 recently.
Now, almost 10 years later, I can proudly say that we have
made the right choice in Canon, and have no regrets. The
Canon service has been superb, and the price of Canon
equipment stays very stable, with excellent options for buying
high quality second hand material as well.
Asahi Pentax Spotmatic |
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