My current camera is a Nikon E2200 Point and Shoot. I've used it quite often to take everything from model airplane closeups to landscape photography.

My earliest camera that I ever used was my father's Polaroid Land Camera Automatic 100. It folded into itself and the thing was enormous, especially for a boy of 10 to wield. My first use of that was at the Abbotsford International Airshow in 1983. It was awkward and the fact that pulling out the Polaroid film and waiting for it to develop was a hit or miss situation.

My dad then bought me a camera of my own, which was an SLR from a Japanese brand called Mamiya. It was, if memory serves me correctly, the Mamiya/Sekor 500TL. My recollection of it serving me at the Abbotsford Airshow, was that it was awkwards when one put the 300mm reflex lens; this was not an easy zoom lens to manipulate. The pictures usually ended up coming out dark, more the fault of the photographer than the camera.

When I was in real estate in 1993, I decided to buy a point & shoot camera with a zoom lens. I was tired of having no camera and having to borrow Phil's camera in order to do any sort of photography. So I went and shelled out about $150.00 at the time, which was a pretty hefty chunk of money for me for a film camera. Though comparatively cheaply made compared to some of the other point & shoots film cameras of its day, it took some really nice photographs that I was pleased to be able to submit on my own to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and thus eliminate the pro-photography charge for uploading my listings to MLS. The built-in 38-70mm Zoom Lens was actually very good for the price.

With the influx of digital cameras in the late 90s, I got bitten by the digital photo-bug. I looked around at several different digital cameras, none of which was in my price range which was somewhere around $200-250.00. All the Sony and Nikons were completely out of my price range asking about $1000.00 for a small point and shoot. Finally in Spring of 2000, I settled on a Agfa (more known for photographic film, than for cameras) Ephoto 780c. This had NO zoom capability and only a .35 MP resolution. But it sufficed so far as the next 5 years of digital phototaking, but it succumbed finally to a misplaced coffee and my son's exploratory hands. OUCH.

So now I am shooting with a Nikon E2200 which I bought this spring in February. Finally I am shooting at 2MP, while now everyone has progressed to 6, 8, 10 and 12 MP. I feel left behind once again. However this Point & Shoot has a 38-115mm optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom to bring in the photos even closer. Plus I can macro (close-up) shoot to 2 cm (I push the limits, the specs say macro-shooting to 6cm). I've used this camera quite a bit and it's been a boon to have. The pictures may not be of the resolution that most others take with 5+ MP at their disposal, but with Photoshop, and Roxio Photosuite, I have a good arsenal of computer photo-developing tools at my disposal.

My next step is to go Digital SLR, however, I have yet to determine which way I am going to go. The choice being either stick with Nikon, or go Canon. I've checked out both the D70s and the EOS 20D and I'm still favoring Nikon, because of it's comparative value over the pricey Canon.

As of September 5, 2006, I went with my experience and decided to buy myself a Nikon D50 as well as a Nikon F70 35mm camera