Don't get me wrong, I love my current camera (Canon), but all too often I miss the simplicity of my old Pentax. no Modes, no Processor, no LCD. what it did have that I miss most of all was a very functional interface. I liked the needle indicators in the sight window. I liked that I could change anything with out ever taking my eyes off the subject.

I'm not looking to swap out for a new camera, but I'm not some zealot who only buys products from one company either. Those who do make excuses saying they are "loyal" or some other B.S.

I'd like to hear from others what their current or past favorite cameras were/are and why.
what made them work for you?

In our family we have what we call Juanita Barns. These are old barns that are weathered, sun cooked, and normally leaning if not partially fallen. They are called this because my grandma Juanita loved to paint and take pictures of them.

Sunday driving back from San Antonio we were on the last stretch from Glen Rose to Cleburne when we passed this old barn I’d seen a thousand times.
In north Texas most barns are all wood. This one was all rock on the front and back with a half rock/half wood on the sides. The roof was tin, but curved with an arch that ran the length. Not pointed like most you would see. The style of stone work is very common in the hill country and can be traced back to Bavaria Germany but it’s the only one I’ve seen in this part of the state. The curved roof made it look more like a WWI aircraft hangar. I could easily picture old biplanes sitting out on the grassy field beside it.

I’ve always wanted to stop and take pictures of it because it’s so unique but never taken the time. After 4 hours of a 5 hour trip you get tunnel vision and all you think about is getting home. That was the case this past Sunday, I had the whole family with me and everyone was tired. As we passed I looked up to see that it had collapsed. One of the recent wind storms was too much for the old wood beams supporting the curved roof.

Disappointed that it had fallen but, I got to thinking that it had lasted longer than any other barns it’s age. I have to wonder why the builder chose that design. Why he mixed features others hadn’t. why when his design stood for decades longer than his contemporaries no one else copied his work.

Now rather than missing the barn, I can’t help but think how much I would have like to have met the man that built it.

i've been using my Canon EOS for a while now. at first i just had the cheap 18-55mm that they include with the body. then a friend(and better photographer than i will ever be) gave me his old 55-200mm lens. it's not the greatest piece of hardware, but it gave me options i didn't have before. it expanded the envelope of what i could do with my camera.

my problem was that the percentage of shots i could use compared to what i was taking was just way too low. i've been getting better, but all too often i get exactly what i wanted only to end up with a little blur hear or there.

i'll be the first to admit some of it was me. i need to spend more time learning the camera instead of falling back on the same modes that i'm comfortable with.

For my birthday [link] got me one of the greatest gifts(second only to the engineering drawings for a piper cub) ever.

a new, very nice 18-200mm Sigma.

now it's all up to me.

i'm working on it.

All through out history we’ve had great ideas that have changed our society for the better.
Although the really old ones like fire and the wheel were so far back that no one will be given proper credit, the great ideas from the last 4-500 years are all well documented.
The people who came up with them were proud of what they’ve come up with.

15th century

Leonardo De Vinci is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics.

16th century

Nicolaus Copernicus was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically-based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.

Johannes Kepler discovered that the paths planets follow are elliptical.

I could go on and on.
I guess my point is, was anyone ever proud of thinking up Daylight Savings Time?
How many people know who came up with it, let alone the real reason why?

I want to suggestsomething new.
I'll call it Mean Split Time.
Rather than switching our clocks forward and back every few months. lets move it forward 30 minutes and leave it there.
take the mean average and split the difference.

"Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security"