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Photography
A bit about the gear we use
Gifts for all occasions at
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Current info here, history at the bottom of the page
March 2006
March 2006 has seen a new addition to the camera collection, in the form of a Panasonic DMC-FZ30, 35-420 optical zoom, image stabilisation and 8 megapixels. It won't take good pictures on it's own but hopefully it'll help Dave to take better pictures, witha bit of luck they might even make it on to this website eventually! Have a look at it on www.dpreview.com if you're interested.
May 2005
During April and May 2005, the entire Olympus set up consisting of 3 OM2 bodies and a range of lenses, flash gear and bags has been sold on Ebay, so there's nothing left but to keep expanding the digital collection. About the time the last camera went into the post, the Canon S50 stopped working when a circuit board failed and the lens jammed. A quick call to www.buyacamera.co.uk who had supplied it revealed it had a free 2nd year warranty, which was useful as the Canon 1 year warranty had expired a week earlier. In less than a couple of weeks, the camera had been posted off, fixed and returned, great service and better than expected in this day and age. Luckily, a couple of weeks earlier the Canon Ixus 40 had dropped through the letter box following Dave's decision to stop missing pictures, by always having a camera in his pocket.
Dave became interested in photography as a very young boy, when he was occasionally allowed to use his mam's 'Box Brownie' camera on summer holidays. Black & white film, 8 shots to a roll and loading the camera had to be done in the dark, it was still fun and we've even got a few of the pictures left! A few experiements with various cheap plastic cameras during school holidas eventually led to buying a second hand Olympus OM2 in 1980 and the real interest started. An OM2N was added a few years later, several lenses came and went, the best being a Tamron 35-135 zoom. In 2003, an accident in a camera shop led to a free replacement for a damaged OM2, in the form of an OM2SP. We don't go to the Jessops shop in Hull after that incident, although the UK service manager did sort them out when Dave rang her up to explain just how good (not) the service had been ...
Karen had never been really interested in photography but occasionally used whichever Olympus Dave wasn't using. She didn't like carrying the bulk of a big SLR and experimented with several compact and APS cameras, before settling on a digital Canon A40 in 2002. Since then, she's been more interested and she's taken many of the pictures which appear on this site.
2004 saw Dave finally decide to go digital, with the purchase of a Canon S50, 5 megapixels and more buttons and adjustments than any SLR. It's great, and there's a plan for a digital SLR in the near future. In April 2005 Dave bought a Canon Ixus 40. It's shirt pocket sized, which is why it was bought, it can be carried everywhere so hopefully there'll be less of those 'I wish I had my camera with me...' type incidents.
Pictures and text are copyright © Dave & Karen Petty- All Rights Reserved, please don't copy anything without our permission. Thanks, D & K.