I started amateur photography when I was in F.5. My first camera was a Nikon FM10, a manual film SLR. At that time, I got my camera because I wanted to do astrophotography. But naturally, I started to do other types of photography as well later. However, it was quite challenging to do daily photography with a manual SLR, so not too much later I purchased a Nikon F80, an eletronic film SLR. When I entered university, I spent a great deal of time hanging out with my friends who also liked taking photos. We often went hiking and taking photos together. And it was then I purchased my Nikon F5, a very professional (and expensive!) electronic SLR. As I started to travel to other countries, I realized my equipment was way too bulky to carry around, so I gradually switched to rangefinders (notably a Voigtländer R2A with a Leica lens) and finally to digital cameras. Now I have sold my whole film camera kit and only recently got my new DSLR kit, a Canon 500D — not too bad for some serious photography of amateur quality!
