(This only for camera nuts. Others won’t be interested.) Can we talk?
My first was a Kodak Baby Brownie at age 12. First photo was of Puddles the hippopotamus at the SF Zoo. Next camera, from Uncle Walter, who had an Oakland camera shop, a Rolleicord (not Rollieflex), shot pix on 3-month Lambretta motor scooter trip through Europe. Next when I was in the Air Force in Germany (’58-’60), the secret service guys on our base let me use a little Leica fixed lens (35 mm I believe); the b&w’s I shot with it are so luminous. I was in charge of the base photo lab, so learned the techniques and developed and printed b&w for maybe 8 years.
Then in the ’60s a Nikon and Nikkormat (one with TRI-X, other with color slide film), both with fixed 50 or so mm lens — the photographer had to zoom by moving back and forth. Traveling in US, Canada, shooting pix for Shelter. Shot ’65 Bob Dylan concert Providence RI from stageside, Tri-X, some of my best photos ever.
Then the Olympus OM1 came along, half the weight of Nikons, a wonderful system and I ended up with about 7 lenses, 2-3 bodies. That was it for many years.
Then I got my first little digital point and shoot, a-ha.!
Then a Nikon digital camera (forget name) that shot raw, but was not intuitive-friendly. Then met one of my two camera salesmen-gurus at Adolph Gasser in SF and I ended up with a big Canon EOS that focussed on what you (your eyeball) was looking at. It worked, by golly, but I wasn’t sure I wanted electrons bouncing off my right eyeball.
Next through 2nd guru, Gary at Keeble & Shuchat in Palo Alto (I prefer it to BH Photo in NYC), a ta-da — Cannon 20D — powerful workhorse of a camera, heavy, but oh-that-lack-of-shutter-lag instantness. I 
Dropped it on concrete twice — no prob. I got omit was like an extension, shot pix for Builders of Pacific Coast. Weight not an issue, had big camera bag w/lenses in truck.
Stuck with that for many years until Gary introduced me to the half-as-heavy Panasonic Lumix G1, which is my big boy camera now:
My other camera is the Canon PowerShot G-90 (now 95), my go-to, always-in-fannypack wonder camera. I use this most of the time.
Oh yeah, 2 others:
1. A Go-pro Helmet Hero sports HD video camera, beautifully designed system
2. A Sony Cybershot, something like the WX-9, but an earlier model. It shoots a seamless panorama. You pan across maybe 180 degrees, it shoots a film and outs it together as a landscape photo.
What prompted this, brother and sister photographers, was setting out this morning, for a change, with the Lumix, and feeling so much more “empowered” at shooting than with a pocket camera. If I do any real hunting I want to be looking through a lens, not at an LCD display, and have the features of a grown-up camera.
I dump all of them on the office MacPro or, if on the road, on my quite wonderful 11″ MacBook Air and then some onto blog.
I love prowling a city with camera.
Love this post.
I got my first camera at 14 so I could take pictures of my girlfriend. (Isn't there always a girl involved at these life-changing moments?)
Like you, I love roaming a city with a camera. Especially Vienna.
I shoot with a Canon G12. Kind of a compromise camera, but it's easy to carry and shoots HD video and is top of the line among the pocket cameras—-and with that oh-so-important, I-absolutely-MUST-have, flip-out viewfinder.
Um, you mention going out with the G1 and "If I do any real hunting I want to be looking through a lens, not at an LCD display, and have the features of a grown-up camera".
When looking through the viewfinder of the Lumix you are looking at an LCD display and not a mirror system through the lens. It's so good it fooled you:o) I love your blog Lloyd and recently pre-ordered your book. I can hardly wait.
The thing that bugs me with the digital cameras is their lack of longevity. I started with a minolta X700 when I was 14 or 15(at least 25 years ago). I used that camera untill shooting film just didn't make much sense anymore (about 5 years ago). Since then I've had two point and shoots, an older Canon and an amazing Lumix LX5. I also have an older Rebel 350, but since getting the LX5, I don't need like it that much anymore.
That Minolta still sits in its bag in my office, and the beautiful thing about it, is I know I can take a picture with it even if the battery is done. I only lose the light meter all other functionality will work.
Craig.
You may be interested in this new Lytro camera using a radical new technique of capturing visual data called "computational photography” which result in photos that are interactive to the viewer, very interesting.
"The upshot is a photograph that’s less a slice of visual information than a cube, from which you can choose whichever layer would make the most pleasing two-dimensional image for printing and framing. But you can also leave the picture as it is—a three-dimensional capture suitable for digital display or distribution—and let others do the fiddling. Rather than a definitive, static image, a light-field visual object is intrinsically interactive."
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/12/the-revolution-in-photography/8733/