My path to photography

Porst, Minolta, Nikon and Olympus

Photography has accompanied me my whole life. My father was a passionate photographer. And his black photo bag was like a little adventure playground with a camera, lenses, extension rings and whatever else you had and needed in the 1980s. From time to time I was allowed - under supervision - to play with it, look through the viewfinder and see how the world changes with the use of different focal lengths.

And it did Ritsch-Ratsch

I can't remember exactly when, it must have been sometime when I was in elementary school when my father gave me my first camera. A simple ratchet camera with Porst cassette film. I kept trying it out and carefully gluing pictures into a large, green photo album.

It wasn't serious at all. But somehow I enjoyed it. Then, when I was old enough, my father gradually introduced me to the mysteries of photography. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO value and how these are related - focal lengths for image composition and film selection. I was allowed to practice again and again with his Minolta SRT 101. Together with it came

a 50-,
a 24- and
a 105 millimeter lens.

all original Minolta.

Waterproof and bright

Everything was made of high-quality metal. And everything I learned about it didn't come overnight. The next camera was then a Nikon L35 AW AF. The special feature: It was robust and waterproof and swallowed 35mm film.

The camer itself wasn't really special. It didn't offer many design options. But the 35 mm lens with a maximum aperture of 2.8 was simply good. Nikon was thus on the list. The joy of photography grew and with it the need to upgrade technically.

With the X300 came SLR photography

Again it was my father. And the next step was a Minolta X300 with a simple zoom lens. Gradually the equipment grew. The gadgets weren't the important thing. But the new camera was an opportunity to learn and understand which parameters all lead to a good picture with a solid, simple camera with limited automatic function. The X300 accompanied me for many years.

I even earned my first money with her: As an employee of a newspaper, I repeatedly delivered photos over the years, photographed on black-and-white film, as the newspaper wasn't in color back then. The film was developed in a small darkroom in the editorial office or at home in a darkened bathroom.

But one problem remained: The X300 is a purely manual camera and therefore slow. A camera with autofocus would be the next step. But what to buy? Minolta had quite a few things on the market and my father had also added the Minolta 7000 to his photo-kit. But was it the right decision? Somehow I had the feeling that other manufacturers were offering more forward-looking alternatives. And so I remembered the Nikon of my youth with the fast 35 mm 2.8 lens with fantastic color reproduction.

Switch to Nikon

With the F80, Nikon had released a relatively affordable camera. The dicision to buy was made, plus the 28-105. I still own this lens today. It is made of metal and has a very decent macro function. With the F80, the work went faster. And the automatic program also made it easier when things needed to be done quickly.

Unfortunately, I didn't use it for very long. Because digital technology had entered the stage and taken over very quickly. And the path was clear. Journalism paved the way here too. Instead of having to rush back to the office and fumble the film into the developing can, develop it and fix it, let it dry and scan it, the workflow was much easier and faster now. Take out the memory card, put it in the reader, transfer photos, select them, save them and off you go to the newspaper page.

So what to do? To this day, choosing a camera means more than just choosing the camera alone. You choose a complete system. And my choice was made. While things got tighter and tighter with the traditional company Minolta, I settled on Nikon.

SLR goes digital

And so the D100 soon ended up in my camera bag. The operation was similar to the well-known F80 and so the changeover was not difficult. Equipment as a whole also continued to grow.

50s 1.8, the one mentioned earlier
28-105,
18-200 with image stabilization that was still relatively revolutionary at the time
a 70-300 and
a flash unit.

The D100 stayed longer with me. Until it, too, slowly but surely reached its limits. In the early years, development galloped. The pixel count kept getting bigger and bigger, cameras got faster and easier to use with bigger and better monitors. My work had changed in the meantime and photography had taken a back seat. But the joy of photography remained and even grew. So a successor to the D100 was needed.

Sturdy and heavy

It should be the D 7000. I still own it. Robust, well equipped, reliable and pleasant to work with. Only over time did a problem become more and more annoying. Size and weight became more and more of an issue. Who wants to lug around tens of kilos of camera gear on vacation or at the weekend trip? And technical development had also opened up a new path. System cameras with no mirror became more and more important. Compact and light, they were not much inferior to their tried-and-tested SLR colleagues right from the start.

Nikon D7000 mit Handgriff und original Nikon 28-105 mm-

The problem: Nikon didn't offer much for a long time. The 1 series flopped and other manufacturers pushed more and more into the market, which had once largely been divided between Canon, Nikon and Minolta. Others, be it Pentax, Olympus and others mostly led a niche existence. But that changed. Minolta had long since disappeared from the market and merged into Sony's system. Canon and Nikon continued to hold their ground, albeit with growing problems. Instead, manufacturers like Lumix, Fujifilm, Olympus and others pushed their way onto the market with smart and sometimes cheaper solutions. So what to do?

Attractive system camera

Well, the decision about a camera or a system depends on many considerations: Does the system fit? Is the equipment as desired? Is the price right? Does it look cool? And this time the design was a factor in the decision making process. With the PEN F, Olympus had created a gem. It was chic, elegant, compact and well equipped. The decision was made.

Olympus Pen-F mit Olympus Pencake 14-43 mm Objektiv.

The set included:

14-42 pancakes 3.5-5.6
the 25 1.8.

In the meantime two more lenses joyned the camera bag

the 40-150 4-5.6 and the
9-18 4-5.6

Yes, the mft format is tiny. But the picture quality and features of the PEN F are beyond doubt. Would full frame be better? This may be. Only do i need it? And then do I want to carry a lot more around with me again? We'll see where the next decision goes at some point. Compact and light equipment is particularly important to me. Of course, this may mean a compromise at one point or another. But is that so important? Can you see the difference in the photos? I think no, usually not. In any case, it is not the tool that is decisive, but rather its application and ultimately the result.

So far, this equipment has always been sufficient for what I like to photograph. The Olympus has proven itself, especially on vacation or on the go. I enjoy creating my memories. It's not primarily about imitating postcard motifs, but capturing impressions that are special to me.

No fear of contact with compact cameras

In addition, I have always used compact cameras, for example from the Nikon Coolpix series. In the meantime I also have a compact Olympus - the tg6. It is water- and shockproof - ideal for on the go. It can also score with a very extensive equipment - for such a small camera. And then, of course, I use my cell phone. I'm undogmatic - the result counts and the best camera is always the one you have at hand.

Motives and influences

Architecture is another area that excites me. However, what has never really let go of me is reportage and photojournalism.