Photo Equipment


I have had a lot of cameras over the past almost 50 years.
I've forgotten some of the things that I used, here is what I can remember.
The first camera I had was the Beirette vs for 35 mm film.
Every photo ever made with this camera has disappeared into oblivion.
The simple but efficient Praktica Super TL was my very first SLR,
bought in the early 1970's. I used a 135 and 300 mm lens on it,
I think they were Panagor lenses. I only used Ilford black/white
negative film at that time. After the camera and lenses where stolen
in New York City in 1973, I gave away all negatives to a fellow
spotter. So, again, I have no pictures made with this camera.
I then bought a Mamiya/Sekor 1000DTL. I know that I had my first zoomlens
on this camera, but please don't ask what it was. All I remember is, it
had two wide rings, one for zooming and one for focusing. At the same time
I started to use Kodachrome 25 film and some slides are now digitized and
on this website. The first ever with this camera:

Click to enlarge
The next camera was a giant leap forward. From the P-mount to an
"easy" rotating ring at the bottom of the Canon FD-lens... I bought
the Canon EF around 1976/1977. It came with the then standard 1.8/50
lens and I used a Panagor zoomlens on it. It's now in a museum.
Around 1979/1980 I also had a Mamiya m645. This camera used
120-roll film for 6x4.5 cm format negtives. I never used it for
aviation photos, only for weddings, portraits, things like that, and
I sold it after a few years.
After that came the more "electronic" cameras,
the Canon A1 with a motordrive.
And a Canon F-1n for single shots (K25 was never cheap).
One of the lenses I used I still remember, the
Canon new FD 70-210 mm, very easy to use. The locking pin was still
on the lens, not on the camera.





I also used 17 mm, 24 mm and 35-70 mm on those cameras
(can't remember if it was 1:3.5-4.5 or 1:4 for the latter).
All had the new FD lensmount and the aperture ring
could be locked in automatic mode.
For the real long distance I had a Panagor 400 mm.
Wanting auto-focus, I switched to Minolta. I wish I had never done
that, today I can't even remember the lenses. I had two bodies,
Dynax 700si but these cameras were just not it. I soon changed back
to Canon, this time into the digital era:
The Canon EOS 300D. My first digital SLR, it came
with the EF-S 18-55mm lens.
Even though I bought the Canon 300V with a Canon EF 28-90 mm
lens, I went strictly digital. The 300V was never used
and I gave it to a museum.
For aviation photography I immediately added the
Canon EF 75-300mm IS.
Another similar digital body (branded Digital Rebel), imported by
my supplier, was soon added.
When I bought the EF 100-400 mm L IS USM...
together with the 2x extender, the 300D and Digital Rebel proved to
be too slow and I sold them, together with the 18-55 mm and
28-90 mm lenses.
The first replacement was the Canon 30D.
Very soon the Canon 40D was also added.
Replacing the "old glass" I now use the EF-S 17-85 mm,
and the EF-S 10-22 mm.
I also had a Powershot G7, which proved to be very useful in dark
museums/hangars, especially when taking pictures at close range.
The faster and lighter EF 70-300 mm IS USM replaces the 75-300.
My wife allows me to use her
Tokina 10-17mm Fish-Eye lens.
The 30D and the 40D are gone.
I now use two 7D's, one with a battery-grip.
Recently a Canon 5D Mark III was added
together with an EF 28-135 mm IS USM.
To scan the slides I have made since 1973
I used the Pacific Images PrimeFilm 1800i.
Later I got myself one of the very last Nikon
Coolscan 5000ED just before they were sold
out after production was stopped.

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