I first got interested as a teenager, I picked up an old secondhand slr with a couple of lenses and just started playing with it. I liked the idea of trying to capture a moment in time from a different perspective to it was normally/orginally observed. I also like the idea of photographing birds, but did not have a long enough lens. However the cost of film and processing soon slowed me down.
I got my first compact digital camera about five years ago and was thrilled to be able to just keep on shooting without worrying about the cost. In 2001 I first tried digiscoping, with a cheap Opticron scope and a 1.3mp Fuji with no optical zoom... not the best results, but I realised what could be done. I went through a couple of other compacts before getting a Coolpix 4500 and really getting into digiscoping. I also got a Minolta slr (my first AF slr) and used this for a lot of non-bird photography.
A friend got an EOS300D about two years ago (with a Sigma 135-400) and I realised just how limiting digiscoping was, the terrible shutter lag on the 4500 became obvious as did my inability to get flight shots. About 7 months ago I got my first dslr a 300D (2 months later an accident forced me to change to a 350D) and now can do the photography I really want to.
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