From the Begining

I have lost count of how many cameras I have owned over the last 60 years but those I fondly remember are listed below.

As well as these, I have owned a number of point and shoot and always own a quality compact camera for when I am out and about and not wanting to carry an SLR. My current compact is a Canon G7X.

Back in the late 1960's I was also very keen on super 8mm cine film. I then owned a Dixons own brand camera with a Eumig projector and editing kit. An example is this of Margate in 1969

I then bought a monster Sony video camera in the 1980s costing over £1000 which was an expensive purchase then. The camera was huge compared to todays technology.

My real love for photography has, and always will be, still image but more recently I have 'played' in the video field with a Dji Drone through which I have learnt a great deal about video editing using the Davinci Resolve editing suite. Some examples of the video are here.

1960's

In the early 1960's I remember having a Kodak Brownie 127 roll film camera. It probably came from a village jumble sale or may even have been my Mum's. It was made of Bakelite.

My First Ever 35mm Camera.
An Agfa ISO - Rapid I. It came as a kit with a flash and blue flash bulbs.
A Christmas present from my Uncle Ernie costing £5 and 5 Shillings
In todays money, that is around £136.

1970's

Early 1970's I lost a little interest (probably due to girls) and moved to a convenient format being the Kodak Pocket Instamatic

Mid 1970's I moved back to a more serious camera,
the 35mm SLR Canon AE-1

1978

In 1978 as soon as it was released I purchased the Canon A-1
A 35mm Film Camera
The Canon A-1 was the first SLR in history to offer a full Program mode, allowing the camera to choose both the shutter speed and aperture and thus allowing the user to concentrate completely on getting the shot.
I was a very active member of a Camera Club when I purchased this but it was seen as something other than a photographers camera as it was automatic with little skill needed technically.
This camera was to be my pride and joy for many years.

1996

In 1996 for some reason I moved away from 35mm to the new format of APS and purchased the Canon EOS 1X which was a smaller format and smaller in the hand.

2004

2004 I purchased my first Digital SLR.
It had just an 8.2 Megapixel Sensor.
This started a faster journey to keep up with the best available resolution and sensor size.

2007

In 2007 I purchased the Canon EOS 40D a digital SLR
with a 10.1 Megapixel Sensor

2009

2009 I moved to the Canon EOS 7D another APS Digital SLR
This had an 18 megapixel APS-C Sensor

2014

2014 that got an upgrade to the Canon EOS 7D MII
This had the worlds fastest APS-C Camera with a
20Megapixel CMOS Sensor

2017

My first Full Frame DSLR came in 2017 with the
Canon EOS 6D MkII
This had a 26 Megapixel CMOS Sensor

2018

Then came Canons first full frame Mirrorless DSLR with the
Canon EOS R which I purchased in 2018
This was a 30 megapixel sensor

2022

Loving the EOS R so much I made what could be my final upgrade to the Professional level Canon EOS R5
This has a 45 Megapixel Sensor

Shortly after purchasing it I tripped over and badly damaged it.
Every camera that I have previously owned, I have never had a scratch on them when I have sold them in a condition 'as good as new', so I was gutted to be damaging what was the best camera I had ever owned and possibly the one that had to last me the rest of my photographic days.

I was so upset to have damaged the camera, that I purchased another body immediately whilst my heart was still aching and my wife Chris was suggesting I should replace it with a new one. She knew I would never be happy owning a damaged camera.
The repair cost £1500 but I now have two EOS R5 bodies!