I have been involved with amateur photography since the mid-1960's. I started out with a used off brand Japanese 35mm rangefinder camera and later stepped up to an SLR using Ricoh and Minolta cameras. I first tried digital photography in 2000 and fell in love to the lighter weight of the new cameras. I use prosumer cameras as I never want to go back to SLRs (now called DSLR's) as hauling all those heavy glass lenses around is a pain in the back (shoulder, arms, etc).