I started with a Zenit E then got myself a bran spanking new Minolta XG-M in 81 for £150, I only used FP4, and I made my bedroom into a darkroom but I could take the shutters down in a couple of minutes :( I spent hours playing around in there :) hence my name on here :)

Jim

I was just re-reading this thread and think it's worth mentioning how much the cost of a good used DSLR have fallen. In the past month or two I have seen 7 models from 3 manufacturers for under £160 each - all in very good nick. There are now good deals to be had on 'older' DSLRs.

In my film days I was rather lucky, Manchester Photographic Society had it's own darkrooms, as did Bury Photographic - in those places many senior members taught me all about the darkroom and it's secrets - colour and B&W. Then I bought a house with a four room cellar and my own darkrooms took shape. Then along came digital, as a computer geek I found myself in my element but still remembered nostalgically the smell of the hypo and sloshing about in trays made from guttering and drainpipe to get a six foot by ten foot print - (paper pinned to a wall upstairs with the enlarger horizontal to project the negative - 20-30 minutes if I remember rightly - dodging and burning done wearing some webbed wicket keeping gloves to increase my hand size). Now digital is a lot easier than that. But I now have a Fuji GA645Zi Pro film camera, and I get someone else to process and scan to disc :cool: :rolleyes: