Whats your brand?

[rudd]

Christmas 1999 due to be married April 2000 with big expensive honeymoon to Mauritius the inlaws bought me and fiancee a Canon EOS 500N (Silver and black) 35mm kit.
Came with Canon bag, canon strap, batteries, film and two EF lenses of 28-80mm and 80-200mm.
Nice kit to have at the time and so good Canon became our camera manufacturer of choice.

Around 2003 after our first child came along we went digital with both Canons and the worlds first sub £1000 DSLR the Canon 300D.
A no brainer as it can accept New EFS lenses and EF lenses and came with an 18-55mm EFS lense.
A later add on was the battery grip underneath that doubled up batteries and gave extra control when side shooting.

2006 Wife hauling around two children and wanted something small - purchased a Canon IXUS 750 and case - lovely little piece of kit.

Last week youngest started college and one subject is photography. Before this she knew her stuff passing GCSE photography.
She has an inherited Panasonic lumix FZ72 X60 Bridge camera and a borrowed BNANR Vilia (Russian 35mm) but the 35mm is not digital and the Panasonic is a pig to use (Father in law had on a tripod mount for distance birding pictures).
Also does alot with iPhone 11 and attachments (fish eye / macro)

Once she understands all the settings and how to use wants to use the 500N 35mm - no problem.
For two weeks has used 300D minus the grip but it is old, slowish and has no instant wifi transfer or video capacity plus hugh great memory cards that will not fit her mac.

When she bets home tonight ghere is a brand spanking Canon 250D waiting for her.
Reward for passing all GCSE at high level and compensation for missing Berlin trip / Prom and last big family holiday in Mexico - oh covid!
It takes both EF and EFS lenses, has small SD card, instant wifi to smart phone transfer, 4K video, flip out hinged !cd screen etc etc.

Did look at Nikon D5600 but nothing in it v. the 250D and also took long look at mirrorless.
Fuji and Sony offerings better than Canon / Nikon with mirrorless.
Another factor is the colleges has alot of its own Canon EF and EFS lenses.

So there it is - we like Canon and I expect alot like Nikon!

Whats your brand and why?

 

[Arry]

I used to be an Praktica & Olympus user with film with a TL 3 as my first SLR and an OM1 as my second... then I got offered an OM10 at a knockdown price with a pair of Olympus mount sigma tele and wide angle lenses... once digital came along I was given a few cheap and nasty point and shoot cameras but for my 50th my lass bought me a Nikon D40 with the stock lens and a 200mm zoom... simce then I have added the 18-200mm to save swapping about between two lenses... that said the 18-200 loses a bit of definition at full length but I can live with it.... and again nowadays with the cameras on smartphones getting better I rarely use the Nikon as the phone is always in my pocket

 

[squimp]

One of my good fishing mates is a top pro photographer and he still uses Canon stuff. He has been courted by Nikon for the last few years but has stayed with Canon.

on a recent (early March) foreign trip an American mate of his turned up with a new top of the range Sony. They ended up fishing together as the Yank couldn’t fish very well or work his camera, that way Matt could give him lessons. As it turned out the fishing was rubbish so he took lots of pics to test the camera. By the end of the week he was convinced that the Sony was better than his top of the range Canons. He now owns the Sony.

Personally my interest in taking photographs myself has dwindled over the past 15 years - probably because I have an inferiority complex from fishing with one of the best ! His pictures are SO good, I can’t compete.

I loved my Pentax film cameras, then moved to Canon SLRs and recently tried (still have) A Fuji mirrorless set up. I’ve not really enjoyed a camera since my Pentax MX and then ME super. I must flog the Fuji set-up.

I now only carry a decent Panasonic compact most of the time. It takes good fish shots if I really need them - but I take very few fish pics these days. I caught a pretty big perch yesterday, I weighed it but didn’t take a picture.

 

[rudd]

Yes Fuji and Sony mirrorless seem to be ahead of Nikon and Canon.
I dont take many fish pictures any more but if I do use an i phone 10

 

[squimp]

Check out mattharrisflyfishing.com

 

[TrickyD]

Not much into photography, but the digi cameras I've had have been Panasonic, as it's a company I know and trust, no other reason.

 

[nejohn]

My 1st proper camera was a Pentax but soon moved over to Nikon and used them in various guises both with work and for personal use since about 1980, I currently have an old F2 35mm and a D800. But I also have a Panasonic lumix which slips in my pocket which is very good, however since getting the Sony Xperia 1 mk2 the compact camera is now almost redundant as it is the probably the best camera I have used in a phone

 

[roachy]

My brand of choice is Nikon, purely because the first camera i bought around 3 years ago was a Nikon d7100, when upgrading it didnt make sense to invest in new lenses when i had lenses that were good enough already for what i need.
My current camera is a Nikon d810

 

[davylad]

I'm a Canon man, 5D series, although one of the best 35mm cameras regarding image quality I had, was a manual Cosina. The one lens I always wanted but couldn't really justify buying one, was 300L f2.8, had to do with a 70 - 200L f2.8 which was and still is fantastic. It just didn't have the reach I wanted.

 

[commieboy257]

Started off with a Zenit E in 1980, cut my teeth with a manual light meter, manual diaphragm lenses etc.
1982 got a Pentax K1000 and added lenses until I had to flog the lot in 1987 to pay the rent.
Had a few compacts for family use, best being a Canon.
Then in 2005 bought a second hand Nikon F301 and my love affair with Nikon started.
In 2006 I bought a second hand Nikon F3HP, basically a press/professional slr and started collecting Nikon glass, my favourite lens being a Nikon 20mm for architecture stuff.
At this time I played around with a Yashica Electro 35GT compact, a rangefinder camera with 15mm lens that I can't remember the name of, a Nikon L35AF compact that had one of the best lenses I have ever seen.
Eventually sold the F3HP, the cost of film photography was getting out of hand and bought a Lumix Z38 bridge camera which sits unused on the shelf.
I still ahve the F301 and a FG in my drawer, one fitted with a sublime Tamron 35-105 zoom but they are just paperweights because they don;t get used.

@nejohn I covet your F2, do you have Nikon glass of the era to go with it? Fancy posting a pic of it?

 

[RedhillPhil]

Cameras eh?
The first SLR that I bought was a Rolleiflex SL35 - a genuine German one as opposed to the later Singapore ones. Rolleiflex SL35 - Wikipedia
This would have been circa 1975. A bit later I bought a Tamron 85-210 zoom, Tamron being the only people who made an adapter for the unique Rollei bayonet mounting. After the invention of E-Bay a Rollei bayonet Zeiss 35-85 was added.
Fast forward a bit and the Rollei was swapped for a Pentax ME super, then another one. I fitted a motordrive to the first one and put a 35-80 lens on it and a 200 lens on the other.
Then I lost interest.
About 2010/11 when I was still working (actually it wasn't work, from 11/93 until 09/12 I gave Mr. Eurostar old rope and he in return gave me money) they had some sort of a deal going with Panasonic which gave us a stupidly huge discount on their equipment.
So, for 99 sovs I acquired a Lumix DMC FZ45 which I still have as it does everything that I desire - camera wise!

It seems amazing now that one camera covers about a 35-600 zoom range, focuses itself, shows an instant result and also takes video pictures. Who'd have thought that in 1975?

 

[Not Now Kato]

When I was 11 Mum & Dad bought me a Box Brownie Flash, (I still have it), I even made a telephoto lens for it utilising elements taken from a microscope mounted in the cardboard tube from an Izal toilet roll. A few years later they bought me an Ilford Sportsman rangefinder camera which lasted me quite a long time, (sadly I no longer have it).

I bought my first SLR, a second hand Asahi Pentax S3 with 50mm Takumar on HP, with the deposit coming from my first weeks wages. The guy from HN Brook in Doncaster spent at least 2 hours taking me through the various types of camera available with relevant advantages and disadvantages of each type. You just don't get that type of service any-more! I added lenses to that and was extremely happy for many more years.

I loved the mechanical nature of the cameras at that time and even started developing and printing my own stuff. A Mamiya C33 Professional 2 & 1/4 square format was added along with a post WW2 Contax 111A which my Dad picked up for me at a car boot sale for the princely sum of £2, complete with a Triotar 8.5cm portrait lens.

But then I got seduced by automation, damn you AP! and have gone through several iterations including Mamiya ZEX, Minolta Dynax and a number of Nikon's before finally settling on Fuji cameras who's lenses, (the most important component in photography), are close to the equal of far more expensive Leica offerings and better IMO than most Nikon and Canon glass. I now shoot a Fujifilm X-20, an X-Pro 1 and an XT-3 plus more lenses than I can shake a stick at. I've added a Pre WW2 Contax 111A with 5cm Sonar to my mechanicals, and of course my Box Brownie - that one will never leave me.

Here are a couple of them, ancient and modern....

 

[SeanB]

Very nice