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              I have always enjoyed photography. 
                The act of capturing special moments, beautiful light, places 
                or objects is something that appeals to me and many others. Since 
                childhood, I had cameras, ranging from 12mm back in the 70s, compact 
                35mm in the 80s and my first SLR in 1986 - a Yashica FX2 with 
                extension tubes for macro photography. I took many shell pictures 
                with it until I got a NIKON FM2 that I slowly stopped using after 
                purchasing my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 950.
               On my honeymoon in 1998, I visited 
                an antique shop in Santa Barbara, CA and bought two old cameras 
                to decorate my office, a Polaroid 80A and a Agfa Optima both from 
                the 50s. When I got divorced in 2003, I decided to change the 
                decoration of my apartment, so I moved the cameras there and acquired 
                quite a few others on ebay for display in a showcase. I carefully 
                cleaned each camera and tried to repair them whenever possible 
                (not an easy task...). I also searched the Internet to learn about 
                their history and tested some of them with reasonably good results. 
                 
              Due to space limitations, I slowed 
                my purchases (a well known occurrence for many collectors) and 
                now I just check ebay from time to time for new ones or occasionally 
                receive one as a gift from friends. 
              English 
                checking by John Wolff 
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