After about 1984, my Minolta had been in service for a good six years, and she began breaking down--I mean really falling apart...I was photographing a golf tournament at Wimberley's Woodcreek Resort when suddenly aperture rings began falling out of my zoom lens. It was a sad day when I finally packed her all in her case, and traded her part and parcel for $100 and a Pentax ZX-50. Not long after I'd replaced my beloved XG-7, my eyesight began to fade even worse. I'd worn glasses or contacts since I was eight, but even with high-strength contact lenses, I could no longer see to focus my camera. This became the era of point-and-shoot photography. I had 'em all: Instamatic, Disk, you name it, and my creativity really suffered for lack of good eyesight. I became a"snap-shot" picture taker.