franglais69

I loved using cameras ever since I can remember. My Dad offered me a Kodak brownie box camera, and later an Instamatic 301.
Later a Praktika brought me into the world of SLR photography, and later my 1st boss introduced me to Olympus.
My OM10 was a trusty companion until it stopped working ( even with the manual adapter ).
So I adopted a Pentax PZ-1p and lenses which served me well until a thief took care of my bag.

Next follwoed my incursion to digital in early 2000 when I moved my family to the USA ( from Lyon, France). I bought a Kodak DC3400 with 2MP pixels !! I still have it today, it works well, but I cant do calls with it

Not an SLR, it served me well, and through 2 decades I had various other digital compact cameras, and today use an Olympus TG-5 which is really useful esp for street. Of course smartphones are its equal, but its waterporrof to 15m !!

Now I'm retired and decided to re-adopt SLRs.

After much research, I decided Nikon with a D610 50mm, 70-200mm f2.8, and 105mm Macro.
BUT

I ALWAYS wanted to dabble with Medium format SLR , so I bought a Mamiya m645 which has stopped working and is under repair, and a Mamiya 645 Pro. For these I have 55mm,150mm and a 300mm lenses.
My experience with them is growing, but the MF kit is heavy and sometimes unwieldy, reminding me of my film days with the OM Series, so much lighter and practical.

Thus I recently acquired a OM-2N that has clearly hardly ever been used, and a OM-1N with 50mm f/1.8, 28 f3.5mm and 100-200mm f/4
Both need light seals to be replaced which will be my first project on them.

In terms of photography, I like street but also Landscape primarily; hence MF ( contentious I know )

I'd love to studio portraits, but all the girls I ask say no ( it may be the way I ask )
I have no experience nor kit for appropriate lighting, so I am a ways off from doing that properly just yet.

I'm a member of our local photo club in Craponne called ICY - Images Craponne Yzeron - run by our preseident Yves Kapfler.

Hopefully this will help me learn more about this fantastic hobby and art form and use my kit better.

Do you think I suffer from the G.A.S syndrome ?