Hi,
My name is Mark Walden I live in a little town called Burntwood in the UK and I have been interested in photography for more years than I care to remember. Over that past years my knowledge of photography has increased with the help of a camera club that I am a member of. My 1st camera was a Canon AL1 which at the time was fantastic piece of equipment and gave me a good start in learning the basics of photography. After a while I found that my eyes were not the best and brought a Minolta 7000 which was the 1st auto focus SLR which I thought was brilliant and helped me get my pictures a lot sharper, after this I moved up to the Minolta 9000 still a auto focus camera, but the pro model which gave me more control over the pictures that I wanted to take the only draw back was the weight as the motor drive that attached the the camera body took twelve yes 12 AA batteries. Then my best mate brought a Canon EOS 600 and the difference in the quickness when on auto focus was dramatic, so dramatic that I sold all my Minolta equipment and purchased a brand new Canon EOS 50E and lens to match, this cost me a small fortune as it meant getting rid of all the Minolta lens, flash guns and other bits and pieces and I am sure that most of you will know that you do not get a lot for 2nd hand gear.
The 50E served me well for a number of years until the introduction of digital cameras. I then purchased a Canon EOS 10D and found that the pictures I got are inline with what I would expect from a camera that cost me nearly £1300 a the time. Now it seems funny that I paid this kind of money for a camera considering what you can get for the same amount of money now a days, but I suppose that it was new technology at the time and thats what you pay for. I now use a 20D of which I have 2 body's and I have to say that the differrence in the 10D & 20D is quite considerable especially in the motor drive. The two 20D body's that I purchased were refurbished items from Canon and both of them together cost me a lot less than what I paid for the 10D.
I also use a Canon USM 100mm macro lens, Canon 100-400mm IS lens, Canon 28-135mm IS lens, Canon 17-40mm L lens and a Tokina 300mm f2.8 which is the last lens that I brought in July 2006. I wanted to get a 300mm f2.8 lens for a long time, but could not warrant paying over £3000 for the Canon and so far the pictures that I have taken have been very good quality, but the lens will not get a really good work out until I go to Scotland in March 2007 and Kenya in October 2007 both trips which have been organized through the camera club.
As for printing I used to do all my 35mm film printing in the loft at my old house spending hours and hours and coming out at the end of the night with one picture that was just okay, but now with digital it is nice to sit in a nice warm room with the light on and without the smell of chemicals. I used to use a Epson 1290, but this gave up the ghost at the end of August 2006 and made me purchase a Epson R1800 which is a great printer. I did think about buying the R2400 which one of the guys has at the camera club, but thought that £320 was quite enough at the time to spend on a new printer especially when I needed to upgrade the PC that I have. This has now been upgraded to a Philips MT2700 which is a fantastic piece of kit especially now I have purchased a new screen to go with it (a Samsung SyncMaster 320px) which is a 32" flat LCD monitor which due to it's size is fantastic for Photoshop.
The Camera club that I am a member of is Trent Valley Photographic Society and we meet each Thursday night from 7.30 to 10.00 at Slittingmill Village Hall which is Nr. Rugeley. The club is only a small club having around 30 members, but we are a very friendly group and only to happy to welcome new members and give them lots of advice. We are also a camera club that use the cameras that we have brought and do not sit in a darkened room looking at slides all night after all many of us have scrimped and saved to buy the equipment that we have so why not use it.
The club also has its own lighting system, digital projector, slide projector and dark room which are all available for members to use on club nights. We have a wide and varied programme throughout the year including still life nights, model nights, monthly competitions, digital nights & social evenings. Anyone interested in the club can take a look at the website at the following.
www.tvpsonline.co.uk
