[spagboy]

Wow, I'm impressed that a few people have mentioned Kodak Brownies. My grandfather gave me one from the fifties in 1979. I took rolls and rolls with that thing, I still have some of the spools sitting around at my mother's house. After that, my parents gave me a 110 camera that I played with almost as much. My dad had a Nikkormat that he let me use for school projects and got me hooked SLRs. After college, I bought the first decent SLR I could afford, a Pentax P3N, I got a zoom and a wide angle and tried my best to learn exposure etc. I took some great shots, but I let my enthusiasm for the hobby die out.

My first digital was a Sony P&S I bought it for my wife because she wanted something small that she could fit in her pocket. I found myself playing with it more and more but getting frustrated because I couldn't take the shots I wanted. So after six months of saving my pennies I bought a Nikon D40 and I'm loving it. I like that I can see and correct my mistakes right away, I think I'm becoming a better photographer for it. I really like that I can play with my images to get them to match what I had in my head and that I'm not dependent on what some guy in a lab thinks the final print should look like.

I also love that there are places like this available to share knowledge and get some good feedback from a wide range of smart folks. I'm really enjoying the hobby much more the second time around.

And as for that P3N my seven year old is using it for 4H projects now.

G