Monday, January 14, 2008

My new digital SLR Camera

Well, I finally made the jump into photography and bought myself a brand new Canon 30D Digital SLR.  After a lot of deliberation, research, and conversations with my friends in the field, it became clear that the Canon was the way to go.

For me photography is different than using a video camera.  In fact, my new camera has way more gadgets then my video camera.  While the principles of light and shade, depth of field, f stop and other elments certainly apply, it seems that it all gets rolled up in one click of the shutter button on a camera.  In video, you get more time to prep the shots, create the light, and manage through the difficulties.  Not so in photography, which makes it, in my opinion, more difficult to get a good shot.

Camera Lenses:  Who’da thunk it?

Making a decision around which camera body to buy was one thing.  Making a decision around which lens(es) to buy was a whole other. 

Case in point: A good friend of mine, who is a concert cellist, describes the same difficulty in picking out a suitable bow.  He says finding the right cello was far easier.

There are seemingly hundreds of lenses you can screw on to this camera, and of course, they come in all shapes and sizes.  I basically wanted to find a good “walk around” lens that served my needs in most cases.  I also needed to be careful not to spend more on the lens than on the camera itself, which I found out is quite easy to do.  I ended up opting for a Canon 28-135 telephoto Wide Angle and then I found a great little Canon EF 50mm 1.8f that got wonderful reviews for the price.  Both lenses serve somewhat different purposes, but it’s clear to me that buying lenses could become an addiction all its own.  Taking the same shot with 2 different lenses can produce dramatically different results, and just getting to learn how to shoot with the different lenses will take some time.

More to come on my new camera.  In the meantime, you can check out my Flickr photos to see what I’ve been up to.