Any camera club members here?

[harrumph]

What goes on at them? Are they usually welcoming?

I'm very much a novice photographer, and have a lot to learn. At present I'm doing it in isolation, and I'm beginning to feel that in the right club I could pick up a lot of knowledge from the experts I'd probably find there.

But I'm feeling (uncharacteristically!) shy about going along to a club. Mainly because I do not have a DSLR, and have no interest in getting one. My picture-taking is all done on compact cameras, mostly when walking, and I'm not planning to start lugging a DSLR around with me. If I ever do buy another camera, it is much more likely to be a digital rangefinder - or maybe, one day, a field camera.

Anyway... does anybody here have first-hand experience of camera club membership, and if so is/was it positive? I'm in Greenwich, if anybody has any specific recommendations for clubs near to me.

[pcolbeck]

Mrs pcolbeck used to be a member of one in pre digital days and enjoyed it, She learned how to process her own black and white film and print etc. They had there own darkroom facilities you could use, It was run out of the back of an art gallery and was very friendly.

[tonycollinet]

I've tried the local club a couple of times. A compact camera would not have been a problem. I gave up, cos I wanted something much more practical/learning based. But they seemed mostly focussed on vaguely photo related presentations on a weekly basis. Wasn't very sociable either.

[ghostrider]

What he said  , the M.I.L who got her camera before me went along to one hoping to get the basics sorted out. The impression she came away with was that they wanted everyone to be an expert straight out of the box. All clubs would hopefully be different but are you near a local college where they do leisure courses  like this