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I was born in Ravenna, Italy, in 1960 and I grew up with little awareness
of cameras and camera evolution until I was thirteen. Then I became
interested in astronomy and soon after I dreamt of taking pictures of
planets and nebulae with my handmade telescope (well, dad gave me a strong
help in building it). One of my best friends owned a Zenit E, while another
one bought an Asahi Pentax MX and I was yearning for one of those 'luxury'
SLR cameras. Unfortunately at that time my finance was so scarce that I
only had to dream.
Then, in 1981, I had occasion to shot with a camera borrowed by a friend of
mine: it was an already vintage Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. A few months later
I borrowed another camera: it was a then quite modern Asahi Pentax MX. You
see that Pentax was entering my life. In 1982 I started to work after military service and I decided my first
buying had to be a SLR. Astrophotography was still my main task and I
needed a simple, mechanical SLR for that. After several comparisons among
available mid-class SLR's, at long last I made my final choice. Guess what? An Asahi Pentax MX, of course! For your curiosity, the runner-up was the
Olympus OM-1, no doubt another great camera.
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Dario Bonazza
Alongside field photography (both astronomical and general), I started
reading about camera history and my interest for SLR evolution grew more
and more. In mid-eighties I started collecting Pentax equipment and SLR
books/literature and attending collectors fairs all over Italy.
Pentax was my first love and is still going strong. In 1994 I founded Asahi
Optical Historical Club, an international club of Pentax collectors,
historians and owners. Now AOHC membership is about 250 worldwide (growing
steady) and I am the proud chairman of such a crazy venture.
In this picture you can see me at AOHC table at Photographica 1998 fair in
London.
All camera types (and all collectors) deserve great respect. Nevertheless,
in my opinion, 35mm SLR is by far the most interesting camera type, since
it is unsurpassed in versatility and quality. There is no kind of pictures
you cannot face up very well with a SLR outfit.
At this point you can
understand the reason because I'm also interested in Exakta, since they
were the pioneers in the early days of 35mm SLR development, when most
manufactures were still sticking to ancient rangefinder or TLR concepts.
Then, in the 50's and 60's Asahi had the same r™le, leading the SLR
development through step-by-step evolution. Pentax introduced more major
improvements than any other manufacturer.
I could speak or write endlessly about this subject, but maybe it is better
I bother you no longer.
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