Back in the mid 70’s my father in law, an avid photo hobbyist, handed me a couple of cameras, a beat-up Hasselblad, a 2¼ format camera, with two interchangeable lenses and a Voigtlander Vitessa, a superb 35mm rangefinder camera.  Thus started my intoxication with photography.  I also received all the paraphernalia needed to set a photographic darkroom.  This included an enlarger, tanks, reels and trays to develop 2¼ and 35mm prints.  I then set myself to master the so-called Zone System, a strategy developed by Ansel Adams to obtain a perfect print you had in mind through the use of light, exposure, chemicals and a wide assortment of papers.

Eventually I moved to a 35mm SLR systems in the 80’s.  I purchased a Nikon FM body, a sweet all manual body. Eventually I added an FE body, a semi automatic camera as a backup. A 35-105mm Nikor zoom lens plus a wide and a telephoto lens completed my SLR system.  Marriage, a daughter and a set of twins took me away from chemical life in the dark.  The advent of affordable DSLRs and the ease of the digital darkroom vis-à-vis the chemical darkroom has reawakened my interest in photography.

Cameras
Presently I use a 7D and 40D for bird photography and a Canon 5D MK II camera for portrait, landscape and macro photography.

Canon Lenses
I am quite happy with Canon lenses and they do have quite a choice in terms of what they offer.  I have not experienced any mechanical or chip failures with any of my lenses except a minor problem with the hood of my 500mm IS.  The latch problem was corrected by the Canon factory right away.