hz536n/George Thomas' photostream  

From Kodachromes to RAW...

My first "real" camera was a 35mm Canon AE-1 SLR and FD 50mm f/1.4 lens purchased new in 1976. Looking through the Canon's viewfinder for the first time I realized something was wrong as I could not advance the film without poking my right eye. This was due to the fact that I was looking through the lens with my left eye. Clearly the AE-1 was designed for right eye use. For the first time I realized that I was "left-eyed". Maybe this life long left-eyed perspective influences how I see images in the viewfinder and maybe even in my head as well...

Over the next several years a handful of Canon FD lenses were added to capture my sons as they grew up. All in all, thousands of Kodak and a few Agfa slides were exposed with the AE-1 and FD lenses.

In December, 1993 I began the migration to the Canon EOS system. I purchased a new 35mm Canon EOS 5 (A2E) SLR body and a couple basic EF zoom lenses. Over time I have been upgrading to Canon's superb L lenses and have never looked back. My EOS 5 film body, now over 15 years old, has a few thousand exposures on it and is still perfect in every performance aspect. The innovative Canon EOS 5 "Eye Control" focus is still a treat to use. I mostly shoot Fuji Sensia slide film nowadays with the EOS 5 body.

At age 57 I began the digital SLR journey acquiring a new Canon EOS 30D body in October, 2007 whilst recovering from quadruple bypass heart surgery. As of June, 2008, I have added a new Canon 5D and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens combination to the kit. The digital EOS 30D and 5D paired with Canon's L lenses are truly outstanding.

Since January, 2005 all my older Kodak, Agfa and Fuji 35mm slides are being scanned with a Konica Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual IV then imported into Photoshop. There are still thousands more old Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides to scan. The Kodachrome slides have held up especially well over decades of storage. Many of my Flickr images are from these scanned slides that are sometimes decades old as I slowly work my way through hundreds and hundreds of little yellow Kodak boxes.

I have recently upgraded to Photoshop CS5 and now Lightroom 3.4. (A Wacom Intuos4 pen and tablet have been added as well.) Photomatix Pro, Topaz Adjust and Fractalius plug-ins have also been fun to use in the post processing mix.

Thanks for viewing my Flickr photo submissions and especially for providing your comments and feedback. Lastly, please remember that my Flickr images are my copyrighted images. Contact me if you want to use any of them before doing so.

George Thomas



1993 35mm Canon EOS 5 w/ VG-10 Vertical Grip & E1 Strap
2007 Canon EOS 30D w/ BG-E2N Battery Grip & E1 Strap
2008 Canon EOS 5D w/ BG-E4 Battery Grip & E1 Strap

EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM, EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Canon Extension Tube EF25, Canon Remote Switch 60 T3, Canon Angle Finder B, Canon 430EX ii Speedlite
2007 Canon Powershot 700 IS

(My Canon Wish List: EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Zoom, TS-E 24mm f/3.5L Tilt Shift lens)


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