Phew, is this ever going to end? Well, not yet, not today. Here goes again.

I’m going to jump back a few years to 2008, when I decided to make the trip of a lifetime to Paris and the UK. It was sparked by a meeting with an old school friend from Northam, now living in Scotland and visiting Perth. She spoke to our crowd at a reunion and said, “If anyone’s coming to Scotland, please visit and stay with me.” I didn’t think it would be possible at the time (2005), but as I thought about it, I thought, “Yeah, let’s do it.” So I set about planning the trip.

Of course, the planning of what camera gear to take is part of the pleasure for me. I love it! I need full capability, especially very wide angle to cope with taking photos in cathedrals and confined spaces. But also long telephoto for landscapes and the possibility of wildlife.

I already had the Canon 40D shown above and elected to take only the Sigma 10 – 20mm for its wide angle capability. The Canon crop factor is 1.6x, therefore the focal length range for this lens is 16 – 32mm, not as good as 10-20 but pretty good all the same.

I figured if I needed anything different, I could buy it in London, probably second hand. But I didn’t buy anything until near the end of the trip. Which see.

So my travelling kit was the 40D, the Fuji s100fs, the Sigma 10-20mm for the Canon and that was it. Quite a small complement for my way of working. Oh, plus a Canon HD video camcorder. That’s a separate story.

I made the decision that I had to shoot video, for this trip of a lifetime. Stills cameras didn’t shoot video then (they do now), so I wanted to buy a proper video camera. I chose a Canon model (I can’t remember the model number now), and the best price was at a Brisbane, actually Gold Coast, seller.

I’d wanted to visit my Brisbane relatives for some years, so I thought, here’s the opportunity to go to Brisbane, collect the video camera (I’d paid on-line), and visit my relatives at the same time.

It was a great trip. I rented a sporty version of the Toyota Camry and drove from the airport, down to the Gold Coast to a little warehouse type of shop, up a staircase, then driving through all the mountain roads to my relatives’ place near Beenleigh. It’s a beautiful part of the world up there.

Then it was back to Perth for a day or two, then off to Singapore, first, for a couple of days. Then off on Sri Lankan Airways to Paris, via Colombo and Abu Dabhi. Why Sri Lankan? They flew to Paris, they had stops to stretch your legs, and the price and timing were right. It was a good flight. A 747 too.

I stopped in Paris for five days and I got sunburnt in northern hemisphere September. Paris is very photogenic.

Then I had a ticket on the Eurostar, to London via the Chunnel. I was excited about that. So I bowled up to the station att 8am on the day, only to find that all Chunnel trains were cancelled due to a fire in the tunnel. Bugger!!

So they laid on a bus for us and it was a full day’s trip via the car ferry to Dover, then train to London. A full day’s trip, wasted.

Anyway, I found my camera complement to be pretty good. It was heavy and my bag was pretty big, but I’m a sucker for punishment.

I went to stay with a school friend in Scotland, who lived right near the Isle of Skye and the Eileen Donan Castle. Couldn’t have been better.

To summarise, I shot more than 1,000 still images and about 1,000 video clips in 1080 30p resolution. I was a bit paranoid about losing all this material, so every evening I would take the SD cards, three of them, copy them to my laptop, then burn them to CDs. After carefully labelling them, I posted them next day to my sister in Perth for safe keeping. I’d email her to say they were coming. I’ve still got all this material on a hard drive, but it’s failed! I’ve still got the discs somewhere, so I’m not bovvered, but one-o’these days I’ve got to either fix that drive myself, or pay to get it fixed.

I think I’d better close this chapter before it gets too long. More coming.

Here I am again with yet more camera history. Not finished yet, not by a long shot.

In 2010 I was off on a big trip to Bali and being a bit flush at the time, and based on an excellent review from my favourite blogger, I decided to buy Pentax, specifically the new Pentax K-5 digital.

It’s not a huge sensor, only 16Mpixel, but the review talked about the particularly nice pictures and I’ll confirm that.

_{Baby kookaburras 2012, Pentax DA 50-200mm © PJ Croft 2024}

I bought the camera and the 18 – 55mm (27 – 82mm eq.) plus the 50-200mm (75 – 300mm eq.) lenses in one purchase before the Bali trip in 2011.

_{Pentax K-5 images © PJ Croft 2024}

I liked the camera very much, I still have it and I won’t part with it (except to update to the K-3 mk. 3, but it’s very expensive). I soon added a Sigma 120 – 400mm f4 and a Sigma 10 – 20mm f4. Yes, the same lens I had had for the Canon 40D. I sold all my Canon gear in one hit at a bargain price to the son of a friend. I think I was too generous, but it can’t be helped now.

I’ve since added the Sigma 18 – 135mm (27 – 200mm eq.) which I bought on Facebook Market for $50. Can’t go wrong, can you? So I’m covered for every focal length from 15mm to 600mm, but wow, it’s heavy! Too heavy to carry in one bag/trip.

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But my restless eyes soon tired of this and as a dedicated reader of reviews, I next decided to venture into the Olympus 4/3 system, specifically the OM-D E-M1.

This new camera got rave reviews and I’d tend to agree, it’s an exceptional camera. But I’ve found a few drawbacks. It’s mainly the menu system and a strange switch on the back that I still haven’t fully understood. Since I bought the camera in 2014, that’s pretty slack of me, but ……

Re the menus, wow, so many options! You almost need to carry a printed guide with you. One reviewer did publish a “Start here” list, which has helped a lot, but I admit I don’t use the camera a lot because of its complexity. However, its image stabilisation (sensor movement) is amazing. Up to seven stops of improvement. That means you could hand-hold the camera at 1/15sec. and it would be as if you were using 1/2000sec. I can vouch for its low light capability.

The camera came with the standard Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm lens. It’s OK, but annoying in the way it has a locking mechanism when the zoom is retracted, and you have to unlock it before you can shoot. I hate that. It also came with a tiny accessory electronic flash in a velvet pouch, which, considering the incredible low light perforamnce, I don’t think I’ve ever needed.

Later, I bought the M.Zuiko 14-150mm M.Zuiko do-it-all zoom (28 – 300mm equiv.). It’s a useful travel lens, but no great performer. I also bought an Olympus M.Zuiko 75 – 300mm lens (150 – 600mm equiv.). It’s a very sharp lens.

Then I got into the smaller Pen series, buying a PL-2.

And then one day Dick Smith advertised E-PL3s with 14-42mm lens for about the price of the lens alone. I couldn’t resist!

This came with another small flash in velvet pouch, so that’s two I’ve got now, and I never use them.

This was gettin’ serious. All this Olympus gear, on top of the older OM-2 body and a couple of original lenses.

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Next was a Sony, but a fixed lens travel camera, the RX10, which has a 20Mpixel sensor:

Again, I fell for this camera on the basis of glowing reviews, and I haven’t been disappointed. It”s great! Immediately that I started to shoot pictures, the sharpness of the lens was very noticeable, even on the camera’s own screen. This was 2014.

It’s quite a heavy camera and I admit that puts me off using it. But the menus are good, easy to follow, and the results are brilliant.

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Wow, I was accumulating cameras and lenses. I ain’t finished yet, but I’d better post this and start on the next installment. Stay tuned.