About

My name is Adrian K Packington from the Swansea valley in South Wales, UK

My love of photography started at an early age when for my 15th Christmas I was given a film SLR camera, a Praktica MTL-5B with a selection of prime lenses.

Though I loved nothing more than to go out and take photos, there was always the expense of purchasing films, and having to wait until the postman delivered your processed photos several weeks later just so that you could see if they were any good.

Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances I lost the camera when I became divorced from my 1st wife, but a good friend of mine let me purchase his old digital camera, a Fuji FinePix 2800Z, with a whooping 2mp resolution. I remember a salesman in Curry’s telling me

” you will never get a good photo with 2mp and optical zoom – you need digital zoom !”

“Oh” I replied, “do you really think that digital zoom is better than actually zooming in with glass and not just making each pixel bigger” .. suffice to say I walked away and took many a photo with my trusty Fuji FinePix 2800Z, which today, I still have and it still works! I’m not saying the images were brilliant, but decent enough for a standard photo sized print.

I upgraded to another Fuji camera, a HS10 – 10 mp bridge camera, with a whooping 30x manual zoom. In my opinion, which may differ from others, what a camera! I have had some cracking photos from this camera and today this camera is now in the hands of my eldest daughter, still going strong. Below are some of the images taken with the HS10

I used the Fuji HS10 for several years until I ventured into purchasing a second hand DSLR – a Canon 1100D and then a Canon 60D. Both of these cameras were sturdy build, and with a selection of lenses produced some really nice images. But….for me, there was something lacking.

In my heart, I was a Fuji camera photographer and this is what I did ………….

I sold all my Canon equipment (except the 1100D which is now a show piece in our camera display) and treated myself to a Fuji X-T20 .. wow !

The Fuji X-T20 re-ignited my passion for photography. The super retro design which resembles those vintage film cameras we all loved, the colours produced by the 24mp sensor just ooze as if there is an explosion in a paint factory. What is there not to love – so much so, I have also purchased one of the big brothers of the X-T20, namely the X-H1. Same sensor, same colours, pretty much the same camera just with a few added features and bigger body.

The Fuji range of cameras are going to be my choice of camera now, and going forwards for some time to come. The ability to add a vintage lens via cheap mount adaptors just makes the experience so much more like old style film cameras, pushing my ability to work at producing photos better and better.