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A few words about my life with Photography
In The Beginning
I bought my first "real" 35 mm camera in 1970 while I was stationed with the US
Air Force in Thailand. It was a Canon Demi EE-17, and it took great pictures. The
Demi, was a half-frame rangefinder. "Half-frame" meant
that it used only half of a normal 35mm frame each time you took a picture. As a result, every 36
shot roll of film yielded 72 exposures. That was a big savings for a young GI on a
budget. Well, one
day while I was still in Thailand, my foot locker was broken into and the little Demi
was stolen with the film still inside. I never saw it again.
The Canon Demi EE-17
After that, I saved up my money and several months later I replaced the Demi with another rangefinder, the "Electro-35" made by the Yashica company. For about eight or nine years, I used the Yashica and various other rangefinders for all of my photo taking. They all worked pretty well, but like most things, as my knowledge of photography grew, I wanted more than a rangefinder camera could offer. So, finally, in the late 70's I started looking into buying my first SLR.
Stepping Up in the World
The Canon AE-1 Program
During the 1970s and '80s, Nikon made all of the best cameras and lenses.
But with the responsibilities of a young and growing family, I just couldn't
afford to buy into the Nikon system. Canon cameras were
considered to be good quality and were slightly
less expensive than Nikons. So, for
my first SLR, I ended up going back to the Canon brand and bought the very popular
Canon AE-1 Program. Along with that camera body, I also bought a stock 50mm 1.8 lens.
The AE-1 Program was sort of like buying today's entry level Rebel XT or XTI. It was a good camera, but still entry level. Eventually, more cameras and lenses would follow, but I finally owned a real SLR and I was happy.
Part of my 1990's Canon Camera Collection
When you buy
an expensive camera, you just don't buy the camera itself, you buy into a system
of products. Lenses, flashes, and accessories all play an equal part in
making good photos.
With time and more
experience, I became a total fan of the Canon product line. My father, who
always owned a nice camera, also bought into the Canon system and together we
owned lots of "FD" gear.
In the 1990s Canon introduced the EOS system to the world and everyone seemed to be dumping their manual focus camera equipment to buy into the new format. Suddenly, lots of us loyal Canon owners were faced with a dilemma.... Sell off perfectly good equipment just to buy the new gear or hang on to the older stuff and get left behind. It was a tough choice and one that a lot of us Canon camera owners weren't very happy to make.
Maybe I was buying yesterday's technology, but I used the marketplace confusion to snatch up some rather expensive FD bodies and lenses, all at fire-sale prices.
Sure, auto focus was a big advantage, but the camera world was changing pretty rapidly and I was still enjoying the FD system. So, why switch formats? Besides, it would have cost a small fortune to abandon all of the old gear. At one time, I owned nearly every FD lens that Canon made from a 17mm Fisheye to their 400 mm S.S.C. f 4.5 telephoto.
Around the same time that all of this was happening with Canon, I remember reading in Popular Photography how the Kodak Company was investing in some new technology. Eventually, if everything worked out, consumers would be able to make their own photo prints using Kodak Digital Kiosks. All that seemed pretty radical at the time, and I reasoned that if Kodak was investing in digital, where was everything else going? So, in the end, I decided to hang on to the older technology until something else came along.
Something Really Different
The Nikon Coolpix 3200
Believe it or not, my first digital camera was actually a small Nikon 3-mpxl point and
shoot. Soon after buying the little Cool Pix camera, I started looking
seriously into buying a digital SLR. This would be my first SLR purchase in 10 or 12 years and frankly, I could have gone with either Nikon
or Canon at that point. My loyalty to
the Canon brand wasn't much of an issue since I didn't own any EOS gear.
The truth be known, I was sort of leaning towards finally buying into the Nikon brand. I liked the fact that Nikon was loyal to their long standing customers by making most of their new models backwards compatible with their older gear. But my over-riding criteria was to just buy into the best Digital System around.
Well, after a lot of research, I was convinced that Canon finally had the superior camera system, and in August of 2003 I bought my first Digital SLR, the Canon 10D.
Today when you compare the two camera companies side by side, in my opinion, Canon is now superior to Nikon in many ways. I know faithful Nikon owners might disagree, but I also know several former Nikon buffs who have abandoned their older Nikon gear and now own Canon equipment. Of all the people I've talked to about cameras over the years, I know of no one who has ever abandoned the current Canon brand and switched over to Nikon. They may be out there, but I've not heard that story from anyone.
Below is my first Canon 10d digital photograph.
It was taken using my old FD 400mm S.S.C. lens.
Yes, I found an adapter to mount the old Lens
on to the new body, but there was a slight problem.
No mechanical control over the Aperture settings!
This shot of our cat Hemmy was taken wide open at f 4.5
A Whole New World
At the time, buying the 10D was a big decision, because I wasn't totally sure about all this Digital stuff and besides there was a huge learning curve. Megapixels, memory cards and what was all this talk about a lens correction factor??? To an old film shooter like me all this was brand new. But I was more than happy to learn.
As an amateur photographer, I can remember the frustration of seeing my images badly printed or treated with less than loving care by a string of One Hour "Professionals". In addition, when issues of quality arose, (and they almost always did when you shot print film) the photographer was often blamed for poor technique or bad equipment. Sometimes that was true, but many times, it was just a cover up for bad processing.
The answer for some was to shoot transparency film or build a dark room to make their own prints. Sadly, for many of us, neither of those "solutions" was a viable option. Things are different now with digital.
Digital Technology has Democratized the photographic world. Now, post production control of every image is within the reach of anyone with a computer and a $50 software program.
In this "What you see, is what you get" world, no longer are the tricks of the dark room reserved strictly for professionals and advanced amateurs with lots of time and money to spend. If you see it on your monitor screen, then most likely your printed image will look the same. And the best part is, I truly believe that shooting Digital makes you a better photographer.
The Canon 30D
Well, as soon as I bought the 10D I fell in love with it. The 10D
was then and still is, a great camera. But with technology ever changing, within a few weeks after the
10D purchase, the 6mp Digital Rebel was announced for about half the price. That
was OK though, because the 10D was a much better camera than the plastic bodied
Rebel.
Now, several years later, I've upgraded cameras once again. I now own the 8 mega pixel Canon 30D. It too, is a fine camera and has advanced the art of photography even further then the 10D. Well, once again, Canon has announced a new camera, the Rebel XT I, which has 10 mega pixel capture for about half the price of the 30D.
Goodbye to the Past
Over the past few years, since going totally digital, I sold all of my old film equipment. During that time, I managed to replace all my older FD lenses with a bunch of new EOS ones. While I still like buying gear, I don't plan on owning anything like the amount of gear that I once had in the old film days. Now, instead of owning lots of prime lenses, I've shifted my thinking over to owning only a few of the highest quality "L" zoom lenses. Zooms now compete with Prime lenses and owning the best glass means better photos.
So, less is more now, and I'm having just as much fun owning fewer lenses and cameras. Time will tell if that theory holds true for the future, but I think it will. Before I go, one last story.
Sometime during the late 1990s I wandered into 47th Street Photo in Manhattan, New York just to look around. Nothing much caught my eye until I spotted a little silver and black camera on a glass shelf behind the clerk.
"What's that" I said to the man.
"What's, what?" he said back.
"That little rangefinder camera behind you" I said.
"Oh that's an old Canon Demi" he said as he started to tell me all the reasons why I didn't want to buy it.
"Does it work?" I said.
"Yea, but you can't get film developed because it takes Two......"
"Yea, Yea, I know.... How much?" I said.
"How much for THIS!? .... I don't know, maybe $50 bucks" He replied
"Sold !" I said.
My "New" old Canon Demi EE-17
The guy looked
at me and just shook his head in amazement as I handed over the money and walked
out the door. Ya know, I hadn't seen a Canon Demi for nearly 30 years.
So, when I saw this one on the store shelf, I
just had to have it.
Now I can't prove it, but I'd swear this little rangefinder is the exact same camera that I lost all those years ago in Thailand. Well... at least that's what I keep telling myself.
The Demi still takes great pictures, and yes, you can even get prints made from it. When you get the roll developed, each 4x6 photo has two images on it! I still think that's pretty neat.
When I was selling off all of my other film cameras I couldn't bare to get rid of the little Demi EE-17. It's a part of my past and it's now the only film camera I still own.
Thanks for reading along.... Hope you enjoy the Gallery Photos
Good shooting.
Gallery 1 Gallery 2 Gallery 3 Gallery 4 Gallery 5 Gallery 6
Gallery 7 Gallery 8 Gallery 9 Gallery 10 Gallery 11 Gallery 12
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All photographs above are the Copyright of Gary Palamara except for the following...
Canon Demi EE-17 #1, AE-1 Program & 30D Photos are Canon Museum Copyrights
The Nikon Coolpix 3200 photo is copyrighted by the Nikon company
© 2006 - 2007