A Brief History of the Cameras that I have owned, or How the Journey Began

Growing up, I remember that my parents owned cameras, fact attested by the pictures in the family albums. Being the typical Portuguese family that we were, we only took the camera out for family vacations, holidays and birthdays. The mundane was not worth photographing.
As I got older, I borrowed the camera more often, and so did my siblings.

I bought my first camera in July of 1990 in Madrid, España. I was there for the month with a scholarship, courtesy of my Spanish teacher. The camera cost me 2,000 PTAS. It was a Vivitar, black and compact, with a red shutter release button. It took surprisingly good pictures. I used it well during university and then on my mission.
I went looking for it, and much to my chagrin, I couldn't find it. I know I had it last year, tucked away in the back of my top dresser drawer, for sentimental reasons only. J kept taking it out to play so he either lost it, or I put it in a "safe" place, meaning it's as good as lost.

In 1998, when I returned from Portugal with M from visiting my family and friends, D had bought this little gem:

Fuji Advanced PhotoSystem: 3 photo sizes, zoom, red eye reduction, among other features, made it very appealing and easy to use. Of course, the main feature was the drop in cartridge- no more fussing with the film loading. It was also small and lightweight so I always carried it in the diaper bag, just in case.

In 2000 or 2001 (memory fails us, I'm afraid), D bought himself a new camera:


A real digital camera, with 2.0 megapixels! Very impressive!

I must confess I was intimidated and stubborn, and quite resisted this new technology, so I politely declined D's offers to use it for quite a while.

Eventually, I saw the advantages and started using it in 2004. Photo by photo, the Fuji was packed away.

In September of 2006 D and I had our 10th anniversary. He told me I was to choose a gift: a diamond ring or a digital slr camera (of which I had been talking about for some time).

A diamond ring? What am I to do with a diamond ring? It's not like I frequent places posh enough to strut it about; most likely will be shining the interior of my jewelery box, with an occasional trip to church.

You can guess what I chose.