We're excited about the latest edition to the family. Years ago I had a MPP 5"X4" field camera, ( this refers to the size of the negative) bought for me by my parents.

I was too poor just to splash out, so when this new fangled digital technology came along, I needed something I could trade-in in order to buy a good digital camera which was and still is an essential party of a jobbing photographers kit.

I didn't use the 5x4 camera much, and when I did, it seemed that film was too expensive and access to a suitable enlarger for making prints was difficult. So, I bid farewell to the MPP, and said hello to my first mega-pixel camera.

10 years on, and we're back with the 5x4!

Perhaps if I'd have known then how expensive digital photography can be I would have clung on to my original film camera and saved myself the heartache. The cost of memory cards, computer hardware and software against film, chemicals and paper seem negligible. Of course I use a digital camera, it's just that it doesn't quite have the same charm.

Using a vintage camera is like driving a vintage car. People will doff their caps, raise their eyebrows, point, stare, reminisce and engage you in conversation.

I wonder if in seventy or eighty years time we'll be as nostalgic about our first D200's or 5Ds? I suppose we'll have to wait and see. (Unlikely of course that we'll be around then, and if we are we will probably resemble a bowl of soup!)

So anyway, thank you Paddy for this marvellous purchase, for introducing this beauty back into the stable and bringing us bang up to date i.e. the 1930's

To commemorate her maiden voyage as a member of the Tilt & Shift family, here are some digital photographs! In the grounds of Gwydir Castle, on a beautiful August evening 2014.

Dogs not quite so impressed.