I have been interested in photography since I was a teenager in the mid 60's when my father introduced me to contact printing in a small blacked out kitchen. He produced little 6cm contact prints in various shades of grey. I was hooked. He lent me his Agfa Isola 120 roll film camera - a not especially good camera, although I suspect the pleasing lack of softness in the lens may have been more due to my eagerness to press the shutter to capture that defining moment.

This love affair carried on for a year or two until I went to University in the early 70's to study electrical engineering. After a brief gap of a couple of years I started to yearn for a camera again. I was an impoverished student, but surprisingly, before the days of student grants I had a few savings from summer jobs and so a point came when it was either a new tape recorder or a new camera. Fortunately the camera won. The tape recorder came a few years later when I was finally earning.

My first camera was a Zenit B plus a standard 58mm lens. This was followed by a Mamiya 500TL, a Practika L and then for about 15 years I owned a Pentax KX and Pentax ME. I then succumbed to auto-focus system via a generous company bonus and bought, over the next few years, a Minolta 600 Si Classic and a Minolta 500Si as a second body for B&W (awful auto focus - great if you held it horizontally, the picture had black and white lines in it and it was sunny) – that camera didn’t last long. It was replaced by a Minolta Dynax 5 – small, light and capable of generating excellent results and was my favourite camera for many years.

Around 2000 I made my last chemical print. From then onwards my darkroom became a 'lightroom' and the family could see more of me even if they weren't allowed to talk to me! Film was scanned in a Canon FS2710 film scanner and then input into the computer and finally printed. Epson printers throughout. Epson 1200, then 1290 plus 1160 for B&W using Lyson inks then the R2400 which I use now (as of May 2008) for both colour and B&W. Great A3 prints but not cheap to run.

In 2005 the digital bug finally bit me. I bought a little 6M pixel Fuji E550. It had a great lens and was capable of really excellent results and printed up to A3 without any problems. I had it for three months and the week before I went on my annual holiday it had a complete sensor melt down. It was repaired under warranty and worked faultlessly ever after but see later.

July 2005, the company I worked for 35 years or so underwent tremendous change and restructured, it was suffering under difficult market conditions and was also downsizing. The redundancy package available to me was excellent so I decided to take the plunge, take it a little easier and seek pastures new - not photographic though! With some of my redundancy package, after a lot of agonising, I bought a Nikon D50 digital SLR and Nikon 18/55 and 55/200 lenses plus a Sigma 10/20 wideangle zoom. Despite the D50 being 6M pixels it easily produces A3 exhibition prints, even from partial frames.

October 2006 - my Fuji E550 was stolen from my daughter who used it whilst working in the USA. It was replaced by a Fuji E900. 9M pixels rather than 6M pixels and a sexy looking black and silver body rather than the previous drab grey and silver. Was it better? Initial results looked good but I wasn't convinced that the dreaded 'purple fringing' was as controlled as on the E550.

May 2007 - my sexy Fuji E900 produced super photos as good as the E550. One thing the E550 could do which the E900 couldn't was take infra-red photos. Ironically Fuji introduced around this time a specialist version of one of their 'bridge' SLR look alike cameras and this was designed to be IR sensitive using the same sensor as the E900. I must admit if I had realised this at the time I would have probably have bought a Canon compact.

August 2007. Sold my Nikon 55/200 and bought a Nikon 18-200 VR lens. Super lens and the stabilisation works superbly.

January 2008 my new Fuji E900 had a sensor melt down. I now went off Fuji cameras for life! I bought a Canon Powershot 720IS 8M pixel and stabilisation (35mm to 200mm equivalent 35mm focal length). A bit too much plastic but its waht you get at the price but was capable of superb A3 prints even from the jpeg files. Would have preferred the Canon G9 but this was twice the price.

June 2008. Still with my D50. Only 6M pixel but still capable of producing superb A3 exhibition prints.

October 2010, splashed out and bought a Nikon Coolpix P7000. Used it for a holiday in Hong Kong instead of my normal DSLR kit. Going out without a DSLR is a bit scary but gives an different perspective on photography. Excellent travel camera. Great camera but was let down by poor firmware (V1.0) lens shutter jammed on holiday (a common fault if you believe the forums)- took Nikon 6 weeks to fix! Now a lot better with latest firmware (V1.1) but still has its focussing moments. Not quite the Canon G12 'killer' Nikon had hoped for I suspect. The V1.1 firmware has still room for improvement. Will we see a V1.2 firmware drop - i hope so but I'm not holding my breath. Performance seems strangely lacking considering its the latest Nikon technology. Perhaps the camera was released a little too early in the development cycle just so it could compete with the G12? Despite that it produces cracking images. After several months (May 2011) I just have found out it has a secret feature - its a great Infrared camera. Add a R72 infrared filter, buy a cheap filter holder from Hong Kong via eBay (quarter of the price of the Nikon one) and it takes ace IR photos. Some new IR pics will be posted in due course.

May 2011, as its my 60th year, I spoilt myself and I now have a Nikon D5100. Essentially the same sensor, electronics etc. as the D7000 but in plastic body and a lot cheaper(relatively speaking). The D50 is now in mothballs. Initial results look good. But it takes me 6 m+ to get to grips with any new cameras or lenses.

July 2011, Looks as if the prospect of a firmware update for the Coolpix P7000 is receding fast as Nikon Rumours have news about a forthcoming Coolpix P7100 camera. Presumably they'll have sorted the focussing and menu speed issues that have bugged the P7000. My infrared imaging project with the P7000 is proceding well. Have noticed a slight hotspot in the image centre which wasn't evident in earlier shots. Suspect its an aperture dependant issue. Its easily fixed by using a round feather edged mask in Photoshop and altering the centre brightness. It has a slight colour shift as well but again easily fixed. Will be posting some IR photos soon. Tried my D5100 with the R72 and the results were not usable.