Together at last... (with a little help from Photoshop)

Digital Camera No 1

Around the start of 2003 we finally bought a digital stills camera (HP912), which means there should be lots more pictures than in the initial years of doing this web site. Since we often used to go a whole year without finishing a film (and getting the results), this is an improvement, although now the problem is making a selection from the hundreds of images stored on various computers. And it doesn't solve the problem of not having the camera with you when you want it, so no pictures of last year's heron rescue, for example. The Year 2003 gallery has pictures from around the garden.

We've scanned quite a few photos over the years, which you may or may not want to see, but given that some of them were already on the site from previous years, we've decided to organise them into several different pages. There's mainly holiday pics in Year 2002 & Year 2001, Christmas snow is in Year 2000, the Archives has pics from previous years, and Portugal has pics and info on our timeshare-for-rent.

Camera details

For those with a technical interest, our first camera was a HP PhotoSmart 912 (rebadged Pentax E2000), bought second hand via ebay for ~£250 at the end of 2002. It's somewhat bulky but unusual amongst cheaper digital cameras in having a true optical TTL viewfinder, not a rangefinder or mini-LCD viewfinder. It's only 2 Mega-pixels, but enough for standard prints and web publishing, which is mainly why we bought it. The 256MB memory card holds about 200 images, and when connected to a PC via USB it appears as if it's an external hard disk, so you can browse and load images from within any software. Overall it's been excellent, and a good stepping stone while we wait for digital SLRs to come down to the same price as 35mm SLRs.

Digital Camera No 2 (a true SLR)

In 2006, with the prospect of four weddings to attend, and one in particular where Martin was expected to be the main photographer, it was finally time to buy a "proper" digital SLR, and we got a Canon 30D with the 17-85mm IS lens. We're almost up to picture number 1800, so it's had plenty of use. Generally we've very pleased with it and in some ways it's easier to use than our first digital camera. It is quite big (and heavy) compared to some, but one advantage of the size is that the controls aren't too small and you're not accidentally pressing buttons because there's not enough area to get hold of. As ever, with hindsight, had we been buying one now we'd probably have bought the newer, cheaper and smaller 400D and spent the difference on lenses.