he who dies with the most toys wins

When I got the news of my relapse back at the end of February I was, of course, devastated.

The fact that it came just a week before my birthday was an extra downer for me, and when my birthday week rolled around, I needed to do something to extract me from my ever increasing depression.

And true to form I resorted to an old friend, retail therapy!

So, the day before my birthday I found myself drawn (like a moth to a flame) to my favourite shop in the whole wide world: Swansea Camera Centre.

It may not be the biggest camera shop in Wales (that accolade goes to a shop in Carmarthen) but my local shop and the people in it are certainly the best.  It's one of those places where you instantly feel comfortable, with absolutely zero pressure on you to buy anything.

I love looking at the cupboards full of used equipment from the film days.  Lovely old cameras and lenses that take me back to my youth.

a wonderful yet deadly expensive place!!!

Anyway, I had no idea what I wanted to buy.  I just needed to buy something.

So, I gave the lovely man an idea of how much I wanted to spend, and he immediately showed me an ex-demo / display lens which fitted the bill perfectly.

It's a Viltrox 23mm f1.4 lens, and after having no idea at all what to do with it, I tried filming a video and it's, well, just perfect for that function.  Of course, I'll also use it to shoot some stills, but it's already become my go-to video lens and the last three videos on this channel have been filmed with it.

As has the one below!