Hooray! To blow off some steam from finals/writing my term paper/rushing to finish things up for the semester, my husband and I are going for a walk tomorrow so I can use my F-1!

Here's the story:

I've had a lot of cameras, but I've never had nice cameras until I bought my H9. I had crappy toy 35mm point-and-shoots when I was young, I begged and pleaded for use of my parents' Polaroid, in the seventh grade I got a Kodak Advantix, which I loved dearly and traveled through Mexico with (twice!). I purchased my first digital camera the day after Christmas in 2003 for $80 and replaced with a $70 used Kodak Easyshare a year later.

In 2006, I bought a $400 Sony H9, loved it dearly and cried when a very nice camera repair technician explained that my beloved camera had depreciated to $275 and needed over $500 worth of repairs after meeting it's unfortunate end in the jaws of my newly-adopted German Shepherd. I replaced it three months ago with a Sony H50 I found hidden away in the bottom of a Best Buy display case. The manager had no idea what it was worth and sold it to me for $180. (I also invested in a dog-proof camera bag.)

Other notable cameras: a Mamiya 1000 DTL (doesn't everyone have one of these, really?) and a Mamiya ZM, both inherited from my photography-dabbler grandfather. As I understand it, he once went so far as to lightproof his garage so he could develop his own film.

There is one camera that sticks out in my mind, though, a big, black, heavy SLR that I remember my father carrying sometimes when I was very, very young. My father used to be an advertising photographer, occasionally shooting portraits when he needed the cash (which was always). He shot a wedding once and told me that he'll never do it again because it was the most stressful thing he's ever done. Anyway, when he started teaching in 1995, all the cameras went into a bag underneath the bed and didn't resurface until a few weeks ago.

My husband and I were leaving the house when my dad appeared, camera bag in hand, and handed it to me. Didn't say anything, just handed me the bag. When I asked, he just kind of shrugged and said, "I thought you'd like those".

Well, I took it home and dug out that big, black, heavy Canon F-1. I popped in a fresh battery, bought some film, and tomorrow I'll get to play with it! :3