Just before we went to London (see below), I dropped my digital SLR camera, complete with telephoto lens, onto the comparatively hard surface of our entrance hall. I’ve carried it, usually in one hand, around much of Europe and Morocco without incident, so it was a bit galling for it to fall out of an unzipped bag when I was least expecting it. I took it down to Dave Cole in Uphill near Weston, but he needs to get a spare part from, well, I dunno, somewhere. The pictures of London were taken with S’s Lumix point-and-shoot, and I must admit, in the cold weather, it was nice to keep it, with my hand, in a warm pocket.

I have several old film cameras, despite having sold the good ones on eBay some years ago. I don’t know why I keep them, I never use them. Film? So last century. But the old cameras do look, and feel, great.

When we got back from London I bought a Fuji Finepix X10. This is a fairly well-featured compact with, for me,  the essential features of an optical viewfinder and RAW file format. London Camera Exchange in Bristol were doing one for a reasonable UK price, and were prepared to take my three-year-old “kit” lenses from my dSLR (long-since replaced by better Sigmas) in part-exchange.

I’ve been fiddling about with it for a few days. It looks quite “retro”, similar to a black Leica film rangefinder, or so I like to think. Here are some pictures I took with it today in Bath:

Disused reclamation yard, Bath. Waiting to be reclaimed.

Part of a decorated pig in the Bath Guildhall Market.