GrahamNfk

Welcome aboard. They're all very friendly, but beware of all of 'em

My bad for not clarifying this from the start, really. While I consider myself a cr@p photographer, I am at least an experienced cr@p photographer, so I'm well aware that the best camera is the one you have in your hand. But the reason I need something 'better' is many-fold, including but not restricted to: I take pictures for a living, insofar I sell second-hand things on Fleabay, Gumtree and my website. Mobile phone pics of items illuminated with a half milliwatt LED and including half my front room results in little more than selling expensive things for 99p at the end of an auction. Because of that I use two off-camera flash guns, a paper backdrop, all inside a big square homemade light tent. That's why I must have something with a hotshoe or PC socket. I also disitise larger-than-A4 artworks, so need to (eventually) use a macro lens or enlarger lens to digitise these large flat fields. That really requires an interchangeable lens facility. I also want to digitise 40 years worth of Kodachrome on my Ohnar copier, a job it does better than any scanner I've used (or read about). That's a T2 mount, so again interchangeable is a requirement. It pleases me to take decent portraits of the dogs, hence I like to use my old 58mm Helios for the job, usually opened up to F2 or 2.8. I can't afford a bridge with an f2 lens My videos are a great way to drive traffic to my web site, but having no budget for multiple cameras and camcorders is why I'm seeking the holy grail of a digital with decent video quality and external mic for the sound (tinny built-in mics just don't cut it). I used to sell lots of machine tools online, but these days I just can't get the levels of macro required to convey the condition of the cutting faces of used stuff, because I need to achieve near-1:1 close-ups. For wafting out on my bike doing landscapes and photos of my old bikes though, my phone and Kodak are great and though the Kodak's a bit pants, we've learned to live with each other and workaround our respective shortcomings

bookmarked, thankyou

Agree Korky. My Sony phone does a bloody marvellous job of landscapes, and the Kodak is almost adequate. All the dog photos I do on either though has everything in focus out to almost infinity which wrecks the portrait. Close-in on flat subjects is only sharp at the centre with blurry edges. It's just about the right tools for each job I suppose, and I'm just trying to get as close as I can to what I want to do. I massively regret selling the Samsung GX10 last year and the Sony camcorder. Between them they did everything I needed. But it was the cameras or the bailiff, and I ain't as daft as I look (shuddup, just don't say it)

That's really decent of you, thanks I've looked at Canon and quite liked the 1100d (which would fit within proposed budget) but the absent mic socket and EVF fell short of my desires. Image quality was impressive, even though all the reviews seem to slate the kit lens.

Completely agree that the camera won't make me any better and may well show up my shortcomings more. But it's just SO frustrating not being able to do the things I want to do. At the moment I can do 80 percent with the little Kodak bridge. But that extra 20 percent is killing me (not literally, obviously). The macro I want to do has to be flat field, and close-up supplementary just aren't cutting the mustard (I'll show you when I get it right and it will all make sense). At least with an interchangeable, things like old enlarger lenses can come out to play. Much as I'd like to not buy a camera, it's just going to make my teddy accumulate too many air miles

I really want to get away from relatively tiny focal lengths for those occasions I want to isolate things from the background. It frustrates the hell out of me when I don't have the option. Interchangeable is going to have to be the requirement, I want to get more into macro at some stage, so one day a decent macro lens will be on my shopping list. What I need is the thing you pointed at above, but that's my car budget for the next three years.

Yep, might as well be a million quid from my standpoint

I blame you all, of course. If you hadn't been so encouraging, I wouldn't even be thinking about it The limitations of elderly small-sensor cameras are starting to become frustrating, due in no small part to the tiny focal lengths involved with resultant massive depth of field, even wide open. It won't happen soon because it's going to involve lots of self-control and some tight-fistedness in the savings department, but I thought if I set the goal now, I have something to aim for. I've set a list of requirements and have set about creating a short-list, and would welcome things I haven't thought of: Must-have built-in features: 16MP and up (to give more room for cropping in post) 'Large' sensor (m4/3 and up) EVF (my eyes do much better with those) Rear 'live' screen. HD video capability with 4Gb not 2Gb limitation (I make 'how to' Youtube videos quite a lot) External microphone socket (for the Youtube vids) Hotshoe (standard type, not weird ones for proprietory flashes, so I can trigger my old flashguns) Desirable features: Adaptable to M42 lenses without a 'glass' adaptor Backwards compatibility with 'film era' glass Second-hand So far my short list comes down to the Sony SLT-A58 which ticks all the boxes for must-have and desirable. But now I'm getting brain-ache looking at hundreds of spec charts and would welcome hearing about anything you boys and girls know of that would fit the bill. Traditionally I'm a Pentax kinda girl, but they've pretty much priced me out of the market these days. Budget will be "ALARA" (As Low As Reasonably Achievable).

Yes, you're right about the factories, I'm forgetting my history. The lenses could be significantly improved by taking them apart and putting them back together correctly. A chap I used to talk to from TOE told me they rebuilt everything delivered to the UK because it largely didn't work and gave me hints and tips on re-aligning the lenses. I have some stories to tell of TOE, but I need to check I won't get stabbed with a poison umbrella first...

Congrats Colin, it's an image that perfectly illustrates Boxing Day.

Ooh, milky water, my favourite

Only if you buy me flowers

Many of us will have been "saved by the Soviets" with their range of decent quality heavily subsidised photographic equipment during the 'cold war' era. If it wasn't for the Russian's copying some really rather good gear, we'd have been stuck with lower quality equipment to 'get going'. I thought it might be interesting to hear what Russian gear you bought and how you felt about it at the time, and indded maybe you still have it? I'll get the ball rolling; My first 'proper' camera was a Fed rangefinder, shortly followed by a Leningrad 2 meter. It served me well for years and years, and eventually I added a couple of lenses to it and a Helios multi-finder. In the darkroom my negs were enlarged on a UPA5 'enlarger in a briefcase' that had a form of autofocus (you adjusted focus screws at either end of the column, and from there it would remain in focus at any enlargement). later I added a Zenit ET (badged as a prinzflex) and a rather awesome 58mm f/2 lens (Helios 44). The 58 was a rip-off of the Zeiss Biotar (I believe) and I had a 37mm Flektogon copy. Both were so good that I still have them and neither has let me down. One of these fine days I hope to get hold of a dSLR that I can use them on again. I have lovely memories of the Soviet gear, which I still believe was underrated purely because of the price.

Stunning, just stunning. More lone trees!

If only it were that easy :/ Took me twenty years, and I started just after the weddin'...

I love that Graham (wot might become unpopular)

Nice tree, love it

How about a small ad in the local rag?

Now that does sound like a good club, Bugmeister. I think it's the two-weekly competitions that spoil clubs, and kind of encourages people to compete against each other and be "better than everyone else". I think you've hit on a formula that would benefit every club and society in the world, regardless of what the club's about. I did something similar with bikes. All bike clubs were centred around racing, time trials and having the latest and greatest carbon fibre and unobtainium machine. The one dedicated to old bikes was just too analogue for it's own good, and communication with other members are the quarterly magazine. So I started a loose affiliation of old-style cyclist who do it for the joy. It has a forum that feels much like TIPF. Lots of friendly banter etc. Our annual and occasional bike ride have a strict 12mph speed limit and require a teashop or pub stop at maximum two hour intervals. Anyone caught racing is immediately treated with scoff and derision. So that's the answer - start your own club. Probably easier than it sounds

Facebook was made for being abusive. I use it for 'brain farts' and post whatever comes into my head first. Certainly a good way of thinning-out the 'friends'

Ahh, there's a whole nostalgia thread to be had on Soviet-era gear. I may start one

Oh, err, I rather like those

Last one I joined and left was in about 1982. Like you, I found my age seemed to count against me. There were just too many cliques. The medium formatists, the slideists, the Nikonists etc all seemed to be in battle with each other, but not in a constructive way. Visiting judges on competition nights were often jeered and derided and were "obviously an idiot" etc. That said, I don't want to tar all camera clubs with the same brush. There must be some out there that are the analogue equivalent of TIPF, but remain well-kept secrets. My last night there was a studio session, so I took with me all the things I knew they hated; a Lubitel 2 loaded with Orwochrome, a flimsy telescopic tripod that waved in the breeze, and a Dixons own-branded 35mm SLR (it was a badged Zenit basically). I remained on the books for the remainder of my membership just so I could use the darkroom, which they thoroughly inspected after each use. On the last occasion I left a 12x16" print of my backside in the dryer. Childish, perhaps, but I enjoyed it.

Wow, they're stunning, beautiful, often eerie. I dream of taking photos like those.