Photography: History
Da Guy's history in the hobby.
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Da Guy used to be strictly an original American film kinda guy, i.e. Kodak all the way. Kodak and Olympus cameras using only Kodak film (no Fujifilm with over-saturated colors) was the norm for more than 35 years.
Being in the information technology industry for a living and having had a Personal Computer since it's inception in the early 80's, it was a logical step for Da Guy to start his conversion to digital photography when it began for the leading-edge photo enthusiasts in the early 90's, first using Kodak Photo CDs produced from film negatives by his Olympus SLR. The ability to electronically crop and edit those photos was new and astonishing. Smaller film-based point-and-shoot cameras started to come into being with improved quality, and a number of those images made their way to Da Guy's Photo CDs as well. Somewhere in the early 90's, SLR size and weight became an issue with Da Guy's evolving lifestyle and his desire to only take an occasional picture while on vacation. It had become a nuisance dragging all that gear around. His camera gear sat in the closet most of the time, as did one of the early JVC video camcorders he procured along the way. It too, didn't see a lot of action.
In 1996, Da Guy bought the first consumer Kodak DC40 digital camera with a whopping .38 megapixels (MP). At the leading edge of technology for it's day, the DC40 didn't have removable memory cards as we have come to expect, allowing only 30-40 pictures to be retained until offloaded to your PC. It was a difficult choice to use while traveling very far away from home, that's for sure. A replacement Kodak DC260 (1.5 MP with zoom and removable memory cards) came into the fold around 1998, followed by a Kodak DC4800 (3.1 MP) in 2000. By this time, Da Guy's film-based Olympus SLR had been handed-down within his family, since it was gathering more and more dust on the shelf.
Time and technology kept moving at a frenetic pace. Film rapidly started going by the way-side and the cost of memory kept going down. While still out there today, Photo CDs that Kodak pioneered, just didn't take off as technology on many other fronts kept progressing. 
made a conscious early move into the digital world to became the number one leader in digital photography technology and copyrights, and grew to become top dog in production and sales around the globe. While retaining it's brand, Kodak outsourced production of it's digital camera line as it continued to evolve it's business with increased competition and the changing market.
Da Guy was aware of the changes happening in the digital world -- photography just not being much of a priority for him in the beginning of the new millennium. Again, it seems by 2004, Da Guy's lifestyle and priorities had evolved (To what, he doesn't know, so please don't ask ...maybe it was just that Guy thing of "wanting a new toy"?) It came to pass in 2004, that Da Guy handed-down his trusty DC4800 to move up to a sleek, black, Canon PowerShot S70 (7.1 MP) within two weeks of it's introduction. Yes, a premium price was paid, but picture quality and camera operation was beyond his expectation. More pictures started being taken on his excursions to Walt Disney World, Europe, and Great Britain. What photo prints he had in archival photo binders that were not already on Photo CD had all been laboriously scanned into his PC. The only thing left were a few slides (remember those days?) to be scanned one day into his digital library. As Da Guy started extending "Bert's Place on the Net" in 2006 with more photo albums and content, he found he had a couple thousand photographs stored on his PC, and thinks of places he needs to go "to get that shot". Looking back on it now, this is when "the illness" started.
The convenience of the point-and-shoot camera remained near-perfection for Da Guy, but in 2006, he started becoming more aware of what he couldn't achieve with his trusty PowerShot. In early 2007, thanks to another guy named Scott (who unfortunately doesn't have stock in Canon), Da Guy was introduced to the digital SLR (DSLR) world. Da Guy is convinced Scott knew what would happen, and did it all on purpose. As is typical, that weekend, Da Guy immersed himself in research on the Net and Amazon.com books on photography
It seems 2007 became the year of the camera for Da Guy. Besides the addition of his DSLR and a bunch of accessories to his toy box, Canon continued to introduce new Point-and-Shoot cameras in their line-up, bringing down the size and increasing their capabilities as technology marched on. In May of that year, Canon introduced their 8.3 MP PowerShot SD850IS to some wonderful reviews. As the price kept coming down, Da Guy snagged one to replace his aging but trusty PowerShot S70, that had served him so well the last few years.
In 2010, the photography bug bit again as another set of technology improvements set in. This time, a new Canon PowerShot SD3500IS 14.1 MP ZSLR with touch panel LCD controls, a 5x wide angle optical image stabilized zoom, that also shoots 720p HD video. Da Guy is also in process of replacing his Canon 40D DSLR with a new Canon 7D DSLR. While he loves the DSLR quality, options, and out-of-sight "gadgetry", lugging a big 'ol camera bad on his shoulder just isn't his thing most of the time. It's the SD3500IS that you'll find in his pocket most of the time.
