charles_escott_new

I don,t understand a lot of this thread. When I was 8 years old I took a snap of my mother sitting in a deckchair in our back garden. She is not looking at the camera or smiling, she appears tired and lost in her own thoughts. It reminds me of my father working 6 days a week in Saville Row, getting home at 9 and my mother working full time and then coming home to the cooking and housework. It sums up a massive part of my story and has never been bettered in 60 years of photography despite being tiny and out of focus. It was lost in a house move 30 years ago and could be seen as my Rosebud, but I can recall every detail of that picture and will do so to my dying day, I hope. The important thing was to have taken it. All the best, Charles.

I can understand why wedding photographers insist on a dual card slot . How many professional wedding photographers are there? Is the figure likely to be a very, very small percentage of the customer base for enthusiast cameras?. If Canon and Nikon don,t sell any of the new cameras to these pros will they care, if they are sold out for the next year to everyday shooters?. Don,t most pros use high end dslr,s rather than mirrorless? Charles.

The original A7 that I still use wasn,t stabilised, not long before they sorted that out. My first A7 was sold as a base for adaptors, now Sony lenses have taken over from classic lenses. The A7 mutated in to different specialised cameras, I would guess history will repeat itself. If you need full frame mirrorless you probably already own a Sony, stay with it and in three years time you can choose between excellent systems by Sony, Nikon, Canon and Panasonic, great for those people surely.

I wonder how many of us with dual slot cameras walk round with just one memory card in place.

Thank you Mr.D, which Leica model do you suggest would allow me to shoot like Cartier-Bresson? As a callow youth I wandered around London with two Nikon F cameras around my neck with a 35 and 100, I was convinced I was Burrows, Page and Ut rolled in to one, although possibly in less danger. As a step down from that , today I shall continue to photograph Pamber forest with my D4 fitted with a Lomo pinhole lens, great fun for a £20 lens. All the best, Charles.

This putting the bad word on good cameras went on before the net. 40 years ago I shot with an OM1 and bought an OM10 as a backup. I found it a really useable camera but even then there was a lot of talk about it being sub-standard, not as good a second string as an FE2 or FM2. It has never failed and never been serviced apart from foam replacement. The OM1 went back to Jessops for seized film advance several times, I think they used it as an office football. Mr. Turner, I knew it was a mistake never to learn photoshop, all the best, Dorian Gray.

Mr. Supriyo, thank you , you get it. Brilliant to draw attention to bridge cameras, the real photographers faint at their mention but I found a Panasonic bridge of such great use that I had to give it away to my niece as it was making my other cameras redundant. I admire your pictures and bet you have plenty more good ones from this camera. All the best, Charles.

Mr. Peri, I love that picture and the thought bubble, it always makes me smile. At my very advanced age I would love to be called a fanboy, I have been a fan of photography for 60 years, and was thrilled to move from my box brownie to my tremendously advanced Ilford Craftsman, which was a fake TLR. The first upgrade of many. I guess my post was a bit nuanced, which is difficult to convey here, but it was something like don,t bother about what others say, choose and shoot what you want, the Nikon will be a success in time. Today I took some macro shots with my Quattro, Mr. Willemse is absolutely correct to say use the gear that works for you, if I listened to others I would not be able to see the screen in broad daylight, jpegs are rubbish, only use on a tripod, impossible to hold the camera,(how did we manage before stabilised gear?), I might as well put it in the bin, amazingly the shots were ok for me, that lens and sensor is something. One of the only good things about growing old is a diminishing fear of appearing ridiculous, as you would know if you observed my choice of headgear. A lifetime fascination with photography isn,t the worst way to fill in the gap.All the best, Charles.

Mr.Wogears, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, I am fascinated with camera equipment as well as really enjoying taking snaps, I thought the site could be a broad church to accomodate us fanboys. Yes Mr. Willemse, you have me bang to rights, I am a fan of Leica and until I choose otherwise I can pass for a very old boy, but I am not sure if a true Leica fanboy would own up to possession of an X 113. I do take a few pictures, today I used my Instax to photograph a neighbours child and giant sunflower that she had grown for her reception class competition. She seemed happy to take the prints.Thank you for replying, all the best, Charles.

Watching the attempted demolition of the new Nikon reminds me of the first reaction to the Sony A7 line. Given the praise now heaped on their latest incarnations it will be interesting to see how the updated Nikons fare in 4 years time. Have you a camera that was hammered on release but which has been a good tool for you? I have two such, a Leica X type 113, and a Sigma DP3 Quattro. The Leica was labelled a camera for Leica fans unable to afford the real thing. Slow auto focus, never bothered me, no viewfinder, a cheap Olympus ovf for their 17mm lens solved that, and a lens that changed from its 1.7 to 2.8 as you got close, no problem. Nice build, great glass and yes a nice feeling that you own a Leica assembled in Germany. I would like an M10 and a couple of lenses but that is way out of my league. A Q made sense, good value for a full frame body and lens, but still pricey and I prefer the 35mm lens of my camera.I can regain a bit of Leica cred by carrying my M2 or a couple of Barnacks but I would have to say ,very quietly ,that the X113 is my Leica of choice.Any defence of the Quattro I,ll leave to see if anyone is interested. Please join in with any examples of cameras or lenses that you like to use that have been slated by the internet critics. Perhaps I should start saving for the Nikon mk.4, all the best, Charles.

One of the joys of this site is the sense of other-ness you get from some posts. I really enjoy hearing about places like Montana that I have read about in the books of the great James Lee Burke but will never visit . The wildlife sounds amazing.I agree with you about country living although I suspect our experiences are rather different. My village is 1 mile from a small town with supermarket, shops, churches, library, and 2 miles from the Roman city of Calleva Attrebatum, such is the diversity of this little island. Kites, buzzards, deer, badgers but no grizzlies! All the best, Charles.

I love shot 1 but shot 2 is fantastic, really flying out of the frame. Pretty fabulous bird life to see on a shop run, I was going to say local but for us 26 miles takes us in to the next part of the country. We are lucky though to be able to sit in the garden and have Red Kites flying above as an everyday experience. A recent re-introduction of these 4 foot wingspan birds has been the greatest success. Next is the attempt to bring the Eagle back to England, now pinned in its Scottish fastness, we have boars back in the local forest ,wolves next? I have bought a long lens for birding with my Nikon D7000 but I think you got the better deal, although your skill must be a big factor. Plus macro! I wonder how many other good older Nikon lenses we pass over because they do not have the latest specs, all the best, Charles.

We all knew the new Nikon would be slaughtered,(unfairly), by the net, they could turn things round in one move. No-one would worry about the lack of a second card slot with a pink-un in their hand.

The colour thing has a regional aspect, in Brighton the pink one flew off the shelves like hot cup-cakes.

Excellent photos Mr. Herbert, given your skill could you have taken these on almost any working digital camera? I remember feeling uneasy about using my old D50 when the top guns were using the whizz-bang D90, until someone mentioned that large photos on the wall at MOMA were taken on a D50, and I believe are still on show today. I have a Panasonic G80/85, with a nice collection of primes which does everthing I want in stills and video. The G9 may be an advance but it is also heavier so I shall not upgrade. One of the main attractions of MFT was a lack of weight and bulk, now this is being lost. I am not averse to heavy cameras being the proud owner of a Dynax 9, an F5 and a D4, I would like to see the bag that would carry that lot!. If you start with a design and then add features at every yearly upgrade the nature of the camera changes. In a pro camera that is acceptable but in little carry- rounds not so much, in my view.Anyway as Mr.Herbert might say too much talk, more photos , so I am off out to my birthday lunch taking with me my Instax SQ6. All the best, Charles.

Amazingly ,two of these first generation models are still available new from Clifton Cameras, an excellent company, the A7 at £799 or £899 with kit lens and the RX100 for £329. Are the latest models really worth several times that price? Staying with the price factor I believe Mr. S when he says that the MP is a fine camera, please tell us more about using it and how it is better than a mint M2/3 at £800, I am genuinely interested as the owner of a fine M2 and not likely to experience a new Leica for myself.Thank you for any help.All the best, Charles.

Mr. Ghantous, thank you for such an interesting post, for me investing in better lenses seems to give me more benefits than upgrading, but I am sure you are correct to say that most digital cameras improve through the series. This seems less clear with film cameras, where does my M2 come in the Leica pecking order, which is the top dog in the Nikon pro line, is the original Rollei slr or 35 the best? I know it doesn,t matter, just put your best lens on the camera of your choice and have fun. All the best, Charles.

Amazing,that,s me at the back.

Mr. Halliwell, you are my style guru, from now on it is pink for me. Perhaps we could meet up and walk arm in arm in a miasma of pink. My wife refuses to let me wear a pink t-shirt I bought in the sales so I have long been looking for a like-minded friend. Others have suggested I use a phone instead of my Nikon 1 and I have done in-depth comparisons which prove conclusively that my Nikon is superior to my 10 year old Blackberry. Good luck to Nikon on the launch, every one of their cameras that I own is a good-un. All the best, Charles.

You are correct Mr. Vongries, looking at my photo equipment I appear trapped between 1950 and 2018. That is enough, there is freedom in stepping off the treadmill.The Instax SQ6 is my last new camera, what a way to go out! All the best, Charles.

Thank you for replying, as someone very interested in religion I can see that my use of the word soul was rather silly, can I call it authenticity or rightness? I have largely stepped off the upgrade cycle, my Nikon and Panasonic cameras cover me for everything I want to do digitally. From my first digital camera, a Nikon D50, I,ve not felt that I couldn,t take reasonable shots and yet I kept upgrading. Those first series would even now be capable of great work with an expert photographer. I was interested that Mr. Vongries makes a distinction between film and digital, allowing that film cameras have it, but not digital. So my M2 has it but an M8 doesn,t, he may be right, I,m still thinking about it. I guess I can explain why I like these first cameras by looking at my first Mini car, great lightweight, sharp handling, quirky open dash and pull down windows, it was fun. Over the years , like me, it has put on weight and, unlike me, sophistication and lost what Issigonis intended. I still use my X100, especially, with great pleasure. All the best, Charles.

Sorry about the false posts. Mr. Drawbridge, you write the most informative essays on classic cameras on photo net , you clean them to an inch of their lives and you take excellent photos of fascinating small town scenes and now you come up with this find at that price. This is too much! All the best, Charles, ps. do you play the lottery?

In my small collection of digital cameras I have a few that were first in a range, what you could call the originals, Nex 5, A7, X100, RX100.All surpassed by many later editions and in no way comparable except---- is there any sense in which the first cameras have more soul because they are the blueprint from the design team? Later models are perhaps more consumer driven, eg.video,stabilisation, more pixels when in some way the original spec was right for that camera. Some have said they like the colour rendition of these early types.All work as well as new and although I am as prone to spec lust as the next punter they all take better pictures than I can. Any other fans of the firsts? All the best, Charles.

Great replies, there is a bit of warmth coming through for the old girl. No offence but it is difficult to see it as other than feminine when I unzip my dedicated Nikon 1 camera cum make up bag, and bring out my brilliant white camera and lens in a white leather ever ready case. No one is going to take you seriously with this outfit, giving you a chance to take some good snaps. When I stagger around with my D4 and 70-200 people react as if I were carrying an assault rifle, all the best, Charles.

Thanks for the replies, if I want to look serious I can stomp around with my D4 and I am a Panasonic fanboy for stills and video but I just like the Nikon 1, it,s cute and makes others smile. Because I am not a very good photographer and definitely not technical I use cameras for fun and the idea of putting a massive lens on a 1 is a great . I have enjoyed every camera since the box brownie in 1958 so probably I am not the person to offer an insightful critique. All the best, Charles.