"I am not pretentious" - excuse me for I am not being beligerent but your opening paragraphs are precisely that - perhaps that is an intentional irony that I've failed to appreciate.
The substance of your article, however, reflects a situation that brings about significant 'feelings' in many of us, whether those feelings last for extended periods or, as you suggest of yours, only a few seconds.
I could never afford the best of cameras but as a photographic salesman in the age of film & liquid development & printing, enlargers, masking and such, I have had the good fortune to experience and operate a wide variety of brands and models.
During that time, what impressed me most were the Rollei twin lens reflexes, the Leica M series and the Nikon F Series. I also sold Hassleblad but, as far as I could tell, only to professionals for obvious reasons.
The Pentax held a favourite slot for me because it gave a brilliant level of quality : price that, with the right operator could still result in high quality images over a range of subject matter.
Canon was always the 'in-betweener', meeting (apart from its fanatical devotees), the needs of those who couldn't accept a perceived being considered 'less than' by using a Pentax but also couldn't afford or justify the cost of a Nikon.
I regret the loss of the days when good photographers knew the technicalities of their equipment and of the intricacies of manipulating light, focus, depth of field, viewpoint, the subtleties of light and shade and the science that caused the 'magical' production of images.
At the same time, yes I now use a Canon 550D - the best camera I've ever been able to afford to own. I value many of the benefits of digital equipment & probably most of all the economy it has provided for those such as myself with extremely limited finances.
Unfortunately, the advent of ever more powerful 'cameras' in mobile phones has, in my view, not enhanced the province of keen, knowledeable amateur or semi-professional photographers. Now, it seems, everyone is a photographer, yet the results often remind me of the pain I once experienced when sorting the daily delivery of D & P from the Kodak lab. Whilst there were gems, the majority of it represented a supreme waste of money surpassed, in my experience, only by the reckless & wasteful ways of the military, governments & the outrageously wealthy.
Thank you for your article and many memories of an earlier time in my life - one that I think I preferred - regardless of the potential criticism that "the old days are always thought to have been better - but they weren't."
