Hey Paul,
You may be right on this. I did have interchangable lens cameras though dating back to 1976 and my first SLR, a Konica SLR-T (not to be confused with the T3).
And when digital got good enough for me to consider, it was also too expensive for me to consider more than p&s. That is what got me a Casio QV3000. When the internal flash died with a Best Buy warranty in place, I upgraded to a Oly E10. I would not have spent $2K on a E10 at once. But split apart by nearly a year I could justify it to myself.
The result is I am back in to photography. I am not back though to spending gobs of money on equipment. I did that once with a pair of Canon A1 bodies, glass, flash, etc. Most glass did not get used and my kit was too heavy. It rarely got used and without a darkroom, it just was not the same.
Over the years my priorities have changed and
good enough is all I am after. I don't do it for a living but I do desire adequate quality. Hence I don't buy ProMaster (though it might be okay) nor do I buy L glass (it is GREAT but $$$). I fall the group that buys Tameron [me] or Sigma.
When I purchased my flash, I did months of research. In the end I purchased a Metz 54 with the Canon shoe. It is a wonderful flash and I have no issues with it. Could I have gotten something less expensive? Probably but my research said for my needs the Metz is the item to get.
This last weekend, my local shop had dropped the price on Transcend 512MB 30X CF cards to $130. It hit my threshold and I purchased one.
I've been toying with the idea of some L glass. I just can't seem to open the pocket book to do it. Why am I considering L glass? Because twice in the last month I could have used a 2.8 lens or IS. Will I break over and get L glass? Probably not at this time. My style of shooting does not demand it and I can use that money for vacation, IRA, etc.
Through this rambling I hope others will see that there is more to life than buying photography (or computer) gear. We have to use it and get the most out of it we can. Something with all the bells and whistles means nothing if we don't use it.
Thanks and take care,
...
If people were honest in this forum the vast majority of people
here would admit that before DSLR's they had never owned a camera
with a interchangable lens before and that the became interested in
photography by using a P&S digital camera and
sharing,emailing,discussing photos. Many of these people are not
really that interested in photography at all but rather interested
in the technical aspects of digital photography and the equipment
itself in essence they are the digital photographic equivlent of
computer geeks that is more interested in the gear itself and its
operation then actualy producing something with it. Its a trap even
I find easy to fall into and in fact there is absolutley nothing
wrong with it. People collect cameras who do not take photograph's
its a similar thing. These type's of people know that they don't
need L glass but simply "want" it and I say good for them. If
digital photography converts just one single person into the next
Ansel Adam's or Herb Ritts regardless of how they started out in
the hobby then in my opinion its worth the thousands of people that
just like playing around with camera's.
--
TonyK
