Well Heeeeelllloooo from Central Texas....

[jjbs58]

Being an old Canon Ftb 35mm film camera guy from back in the mid 70s... - the Ftb being my very first 35mm camera back when I was stationed in Korea - Ive had a thing for Canon anything for decades. After getting discharged from the military I worked as policeman, from the late 70s, then to detective by early 80s - at which time being an ON CALL detective for the rest of my 30yr career in different PD units....having to use a 35mm camera for crime scene investigations over the decades is where my camera metal has been developed. The PDs that do not have a specific unit just for crime scene photos, has to rely on the detectives therein,... and usually goes thru many different types of cameras over the years - depending on the age, wear & tear on the equipment and the PD budgets at the time. I remember using the 35mm film Canon Rebels early on, then we had AE-1s, then a year or so later to the mid grade Nikons - my memory wont store the model numbers any more.... then I drifed from Canon to Olympus for my personal gear for a few years,... OM-1, OM2-program etc - then back to a Canon when the built in motorized drives and auto focus were released . . . then to the Sonys when the first digitals came out, then to Kodak 6.0 MP cameras and finally in 2011 - I retired! Needless to say Ive been around the block a little with hands on on MANY MANY different brands where official competent photo taking was required for all the cases we worked. Out of all of these years,... my first love was the Canon ftb - fully manual plain jane film camera.... it was just so simple it was just beautiful - as long as you understood the exposure triangle, and to make sure to under expose by one or two stops for outdoors shooting to get a nice blue sky in the bright sunny days. My father in law at the time was a rabid PENTAX guy.... would raise his eyebrow some when I came in with the FTB,... and ultimately approved ... but always compared it to the Pentax he used. (He and my mother in law were dedicated bird watchers, and traveled all over the US and their walls in their house = plastered with beautiful scenic pictures he shot & later developed himself - hanging all through out their house. GREAT TEACHER) But back on point- I came all back to Canon again after I retired, went to get a 5DMk2, but the sales guy at Precision Camera Austin Texas talked me into a Canon R when it first came out... saying the mirrorless was the future. And - here we are... mirrorless everywhere! My R has taken some absolutely GREAT photos of the family, with the kit 24-105 RF glass that came with camera. ALL RF glass - kit or not - is just exceptional! Im holding off from upgrading to an R5 for the time being . . but thats probably in my future.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Thanks so much for joining up here Jack and introducing yourself. It sounds like you have had a fascinating and very rewarding career! It definitely appears that Canon is making a big push into mirrorless now, it's going to be an exciting few years ahead seeing what they come out with.