I first picked up my dad's K1000 after a huge ice storm hit in Dec 1994. I was 16 and just looking outside something in me wanted to capture the winter wonderland that sparkled out there. I had never really taken pictures before so this was my first lesson from my mom:
"Look in the viewfinder, see that bar on the side? Slide this dial back and forth until you get the bar right in the middle, then use this larger part to focus and when you've got it then hit the shutter. Don't forget to advance the film after each shot with this lever."
We drove around town with my sisters and brother and Gram and I shot a whole roll of ice-covered landscape. I didn't have a real job yet so I used my precious baby-sitting money to develop the pictures for a whole $2.49 and I was hooked!
After that I kind of took over dad's cameras up until I bought my first digital point & shoot in 2001 (Olympus). Since then I have had 2 other digitals (Panasonic Lumix) and my current Lumix FZ18 is the camera I use most of the time. A few years ago I learned about the Pentax K10D and thought "great, I can use all of the old lenses!" so I bought the K10D body and was nothing but frustrated with it. I put it away for a year or two and just recently brought it back out after using a friend's DSLR and remembering how much I missed working with a substantial camera.
My main frustration with it is that the images will look so crystal clear in the viewfinder but when I download them the focus is not actually clear or it's in the wrong place. The only thing I have come up with is that I probably need to adjust my diopter but I don't have any auto-focus lenses with which to do this! That's what lead me to joining the forum and I hope to either learn how to co-exist peacefully and happily with my old manual lenses or be convinced to shell out some $$ for shiny new auto-focus lenses!
I will be lurking for a while trying to find threads by those who use the old manual lenses with the new digital body, but if there is anyone specific I should stalk please do share as I would love to learn how to make these work.
Here are the old lenses that I am working with:
Vivitar 28mm
Pentax 50mm
Sigma 35-70mm (this one has some contacts so it registers the F-stop I believe)
Soligor 70-210mm
I have never had any lessons so I may be a little slow to pick up certain types of lingo so please keep it simple, hopefully I will pick up things fast! I mostly like to shoot nature photos and I have a big butterfly/hummingbird garden that I spend time in every day with my Lumix, I would love to be out there daily with a "real" camera though!
Thanks for reading my long intro and I look forward to learning lots from you guys!
Some shots from my very first photography attempt in 1994: