As good a place to start I suppose is with my new camera. Having lugged around a full frame DSLR x 2 with large heavy lens I decided that retirement should bring some benefits and that I would reduce my load by changing systems. After much research I eventually decided on the four thirds style of camera and bought an old Olympus Pen -E1 on e-bay for £120 to test the waters. I really enjoy the camera but hate the fact that it doesn't have a viewfinder as in sunny conditions its virtually impossible to frame the image. So I started to think about upgrading it and was very taken with the new Olympus OM-D. However whilst thinking about that and trying to decide if I really wanted to spend £1000 on a camera that was going to be old technology in 6 months I a) bought myself a loupe so I could view the screen on my Pen in daylight and b) bought myself an old Russian 35mm camera called a Zorki which is basically a copy of a prewar Leica for the crippling price of £23.

I've also got my Bronica camera which is medium format and takes 120 film and think as I'm now doing this for pleasure I might stick to those and see where it takes me. Mind you the initial idea of reducing the weight I was going to be carrying around has gone out of the window as neither the Zorki or the Bronica are exactly light weights.

I've only just finished putting through the first film in the Zorki, a black and white Ilford and its interested to see how the rendering of the tones does differ from those taken digitally. Here's a few for you to have a look at. Let me know if you agree. They are not masterpieces but just taken to assess the camera was working.