MINOLTA 35MM SLR FILM
(1988-1999)

The first 35mm SLR Camera he got in 1986, he kept it up to 1999.
What he loved about this camera was when he slightly zoomed into something the final photo was greatly improved.

KODAK 2.2MP 3600 DIGITAL
(1999-2000)

His first digital camera, watching the digital market for a couple of years, finding this camera affordable he bought it.
Finding this camera very good because the main expense was the camera. He took over 2000 digital photographs with this camera.

This camera is still used today by the person who bought it in 2000, the guys told me he didn't need a camera at the time, but now has taken 10's of thousands of 2000pixel photos with it.

KODAK LS443 4MP DIGITAL
(2000-2001)

This was a favourite of his, during its life it took 4808 digital photographs then the camera developed a fault, later making it impossible to fix because the repair would cost more than the value of the camera.
The colour and ease of use was fantastic for anyone. It took some great shots.

Many of the photos from this camera were used in producing the Albany Region DVD 1 in 2003, find out more about the DVD.

FUJI S5500 5MP DIGITAL
(2002-2003)

This camera was bought to replace the LS443 as a straight digital, however he was not happy with it like he was with the LS443. The quality of all the photographs are no comparison. This is just a quick digital.
This camera has taken over 3000 photographs to October 2005.

FUJI S7000 6MP DIGITAL
(2003-2005)

This camera when bought was very good as far as digital goes, very happy with it, very good for close up, but it still did not have the options the Nikon D70 has, a little hard focusing but a fine camera.
This camera had taken over 2600 photos.

NIKON D70 6MP SLR DIGITAL
(2005-2007)

Now this camera was the best so far, buying it in June 2004 with 2 lenses with the body, spare batteries, memory cards, this camera just goes and goes, quality every shot, the 300mm lens is fantastic, he was disappointed that he never got the standard 18x70mm lens with this model , he ended up buying a 28x80mm for standard use. He had used a friend's 18x70mm while away in Colombia and found the effect of the more wide angle was a nice feature, he still wants one. This camera has been the most used, taking over 18000 photographs to October 2005.

JVC GZ-HD7 HD Camcorder NTSC
(August 2007-2012)

This digital camera is the first hand held video camera capable of creating film suitable for Blue-ray, however it only films in NTSC, which at time gives interlacing effects when some corrugated subjects are filmed, such as a brick building, roof on a house and grids of any type.

The Camera has been used for 2.5years and created all the film on the
Esperance - Out of the way, out of this world DVD of 2009,
see www.esperancevirtualtours.com for samples.

It has a 60gb hard drive and an SDHC slot, in which David was able to insert an additional 32gb of useable space, it's been an excellent camera for the $1480 it cost in August of 2007.

NIKON D300 12MP SLR DIGITAL
(2009-2010)

This camera was superb, and has been used for the Albany & Mt Barker Race photos since the D70, it's a camera that's designed for the pro who doesn't want any fully automatic features. The D300S version films in HD as well now.

This camera was accidentally destroyed while David was in Kalbarri, February of 2010, the a strong gust of blew the the tripod over when he walked away for just a moment and it hit a rock via the lens and smashed the UV filter, and the lay over in the water just as he went to grab it, the flash was up and he accidentally hit the shutter release, the camera didn't work properly, funny how instantly we check to see it works, we must forget that turning it on can cause short circuits etc.

It happened 2 days before leaving, many beautiful photo were taken with it, see Kalbarri.

NIKON D5000 12MP SLR DIGITAL
(February 2010-2011)

This camera was the camera David bought while the D300 was going through the insurance claim, he bought it in Geraldton as a temporary camera, finding it to be a much better camera than the D300 to me, he loved the ease of use the camera gives and the vivid colour that comes from every photo it takes. He found by surprise a week later that it can also film in HD, this was mind blowing, as it will work great as an emergency video camera when he couldn't take the JVC with him.

He now has a Sigma 18-200 lens with Optical Stabilizer, a very nice lens suitable for just about everything.

The camera was donated to a person who needed it, where it will be and is being used to improve the life of that person.

JVC GY-HM100E HD Pro
Camcorder PAL & NTSC
(May 2010+ and still used today)

A huge investment, the first major one off expense in cameras.
It is capable of film quality normally only capable of high end professional camcorders for television and movie making.

The big brother to the GZ-HD7, the batteries, Lens and SDHC card are fully compatible, plus David had 2.5 years experience with it's younger brother.

The camera is not just used to film weddings etc, but in 2012 was used to film Native Orchids.

Storage on this camera is only SDHC cards, it has two slots, so 2x 16GB SDHC cards are what he's using, they'll take around 2-3 hours of HD footage in MP4 or MOV format.

The D5000 was a great camera, but this one came along and was better and cheaper than the Nikon D7000, the best thing about this was it now had full high definition video and still had the flip out screen, this time it turns in many directions.

The photos  that come from both this and the past D5000 are just awesome.

David still has the Sigma 18-200 lens with Optical Stabilizer, a very nice lens suitable for just about everything.
He liked this lens because it works well for zooming on horses 400-200m from the finish line and he can also shoot the finish photo too, no changing lenses and risking getting dirt or dust inside the shutter.

NIKON D7000 16MP SLR DIGITAL
(April 2012 and onwards)

The D7000 is the best camera David has had yet, however it is somewhat more tricky, he tried a Tamron 18-270mm lens for a while. But he went back to the Sigma 18-200.
The camera took a few weeks to master, capable of ISO's up to 6400 and Full High Definition Video, but the Video is stuck on 24 frames which is no good for standard PAL.

The Video is only used in emergency for if he doesn't have the JVC handy.