Yes, I do know a fair bit about cameras now, but please, stop asking me that question!

Nikon D70
The Coolpix just wasn't cutting the mustard. It is slow and frustrating to use, and I'd heard so many great things about the D70 that I decided to try one out. They are all true. This is a fantastic camera that is simply fun to use. It's faster than my trusty F3 (since I don't have to wind the film!). It shoots up to ISO 1600 and still looks good. It takes all my CPU lenses (which I have quite a few - I hadn't noticed, as the F3 doesn't care). It's just a blast to use and makes photography fun. This camera is almost as much fun as my old FM10.

Nikon Coolpix 4500
My introduction to the world of digital cameras. I was going to go with one of the Canon digital Elph line, but a friend convinced me to go with this one. Nikon's $200 rebate didn't hurt either, although most of that has been consumed by accessories. I've got two batteries, an AC power supply, a 256MB CF card, a 128MB CF card, and a slide/negative adapter, which I'm really looking forward to trying out. Basically, it lets you take photos of your negatives at close range. Since the camera has a 4MP CCD, it should produce a decent quality scan of the negative, but without buying a separate scanner. Pretty cool! The camera itself wasn't in stock when I ordered it, so I'm still waiting for it to arrive. When it does, I'll scan some of my negatives and fill out the image galleries a bit. I'm also learning SQL and ASP and building a database of all my images, so within the next 6 months or so I hope to have a dynamic image library on this page.

Nikon FM10
Until December (2000), this was my primary camera. I used one of 3 Nikkor lenses; either a 35-70mm zoom (f/3.5), a 70-300mm zoom (f/4), or a 28mm fixed (f/2.8). This is a fully manual 35mm SLR. Even though it is pretty cheap for an SLR, it's great for learning and can do just about everything any other SLR can do, and without worrying about the batteries! I used this camera constantly for over a year and never once replaced the batteries. My only complaint was the limited light meter, and possibly the weak shoulder strap rings which broke when I got mugged in Buenos Aires on Christmas Eve. That was the end of my FM10, which I have finally replaced with...

Nikon F3
This is now my primary camera. It's a lot like the FM10 but a bit more solid, with more features than the FM10. It also has an aperture-priority mode, which is very very very very very tempting. Combine that with the unlit LCD meter readout (as opposed to the FM10's bright LED meter readout) and my predilection for shooting in low light, and I end up using the AP mode a lot more than I'd really like to. I use the same lenses I had with the FM10, except that the 28mm was on the FM10 when it was stolen. I've replaced it with a Sigma f/2.8 17-35mm zoom, which is pretty fun to play with, but haven't taken a lot of pictures with it yet.

Minolta Maxxum 7000
This is an old Minolta SLR from the 80's that my boss gave to me. It may have some historic value as this was the first autofocus SLR. Then again it may not. The batteries had exploded sometime during the camera's long incarceration in the nether reaches of my boss's house, but after I cleaned out the battery compartment with baking soda, the camera worked beautifully. This has a 35-70 zoom, and 70-200mm zoom and seems to take nice pictures. Unfortunately, both are slow lenses, about f/4, and I seem to have some sort of fetish for low light/night photography, so I don't use this camera as much as I could. I'm also aware that I seem to have a fetish for the word seem, but I can't seem to stop using it. I have stopped using this camera, as I seem to have lost it somewhere in my last couple of moves. Damn.

Yashica T4
This is a 35mm P&S made by Yashica. It features a f/3.5 Zeiss 35mm fixed lens, is weatherproof, and has a very cool viewfinder on the top called the SuperScope. It takes very nice, sharp pictures even in low light and fits easily in my jacket pocket. I carried this camera with me at all times until age and abuse took their toll, and I had to retire it. Since Yashica stopped selling this camera (why Yashica, why?) I've replaced it with...

Olympus Stylus Epic
This is also weatherproof and smaller than the T4, with a sharp fast f/2.8 lens. The only thing missing is the SuperScope, which I do miss, but this camera also has a spot meter and slow-synch flash, which is really nice. I carried this with me at all times until it got stolen at a party. Why would anyone steal a cheap film camera? The only thing I can think of is that the thief was drunk, confused or just plain stupid and thought it was digital. Well, it is silver, but I'm voting stupid anyway. I eventually bought another one and take it with me when I can't conveniently carry my D70.

Lubitel 2
This is an old Soviet-era Russian medium format camera I found in a used camera store for $35. It has a twin-lens reflex (TLR) rangefinder system and is very basic, but seems to have all the necessary controls (even a mechanical self-timer). One thing it lacks is a light meter, so I have to guess or else use the Minolta as the meter. I've heard it described as one step above a toy camera, and so far I agree. It was certainly cheap enough. There is a light leak somewhere near the bottom of the camera, but otherwise the pictures look pretty good. I've only gotten 5x5 inch prints, so perhaps with a greater enlargement the quality of this camera will really show up.

Nikon P&S
This was my primary camera before I started getting more serious about learning all this junk. It was a Nikon ZoomTouch or OneTouch or something, I forget. It had good optics and took reasonably nice pictures until the zoom mechanism froze one winter and I broke it trying to take a picture of a seagull. Oops.

COPYRIGHTS: Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this site are copyright 1991-2004 Davin Tarr, all rights reserved. If you want to use these for some reason, please contact me and we'll talk about it. For personal use I'll probably let you, but you MUST have written permission from the copyright holder (usually me) to use these images in any way.