Sunday, May 27. 2007
How I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D
Buying first dSLR can be very difficult choice, especially in these days when the entry-level market offers great variety of models, from different manufacturers, each with its own PROs and CONs.
Choosing the manufacturer (the brand) and model is both objective and subjective thing.
In this article I will tell you how I decided to buy Canon EOS 300D, few years ago.
I already had Canon Powershot A80. You can read how I decided to buy it here.
A80 was excellent camera with its 3x zoom, 4MP sensor and great photos when the conditions were good. Yes, when the conditions were good. Back then, shooting at ISO 400 with a compact camera was more suicide, than anything else (like achieving some acceptable result). When I say bad conditions I mean something like: bad weather (dark), indoor photos without flash, shooting some action photos etc. Sure, with some prefocusing, tripod and understanding of how camera works, you can achieve pretty good results. But, I wanted better results. Also, I started to enjoy shooting sport. Indoor sport. This means: low-light conditions and fast moving objects.
Here is example of typical photo achieved with A80 in mentioned conditions. High ISO noise and motion blur are visible.
EXIF details: 1/80, f/4
EXIF details: 1/80, f/4
Achieved with prefocusing. This, as well as above photo has motion blur. While it serves as effect in this photo, it is a defect in the other
EXIF details: 1/50, f/4
EXIF details: 1/50, f/4
Few weeks before my sport shooting attempts, I was thinking to buy tele and wide convertors, which should also allow me to use filters with my camera. Luckily, I left this idea very soon, and realized that what I needed was an dSLR.
I really knew where I was going: dSLR usually means more money, accessories and weight. On the other side, I also knew what were the benefits.
Canon A80 found its new owner pretty fast. From what I know he uses it even today. Now, I had to choose what exactly I wanted to buy. Actually, I was thinking about that for some time, but final answer came clear just after I sold the powershot.
I decided that I should buy second hand dSLR body with one lens, which should not be of lowest quality, maybe some filter for it and some photo bag.
Back then, it was only a choice between Nikon and Canon. Here is another advice which you might not hear very often: it is good to have friends with compatible equipment. So, when you need something (like flash or ultra-wide lens), you can borrow the same. I already had canon photo camera and I was satisfied. I also had few friends which had Canon dSLRs. I also knew that Canon had the cheapest dSLR on the market, and this was also very important, with my low budget in mind. Another important thing to know: low level body with first class lens will produce far better results than first class body with bad lens. All this leaded me to the choice of 300D. Actually, I still searched for Nikon offers, too.
Very soon, I saw one great offer for Canon 300D. The price was good and the timing was perfect. I arranged testing of the machine. (Remember to test even new cameras. If you can, bring someone with more experience with that particular or similar models) Testing went ok, the jpegs I checked at home were great. And, it was it.
300D was bought. Few days later I bought Sigma 18-125mm with UV filter. It is very good 'tourist' lens, like I like to call it, with good focusing speed and image quality. After that a Lowepro backpack (which was just half full back then), later on accessories were bought one by one and wishlist had more and more checks.
My first impressions from new camera were focusing speed, better control of DOF, acceptable results at high ISO speeds and lots of buttons to master.
Even if 300D is the cheapest dSLR and it also has some software and hardware limitations, it is great camera even today.
In one of my next articles, expect a short course to basketball photography and show you some of my photos from 300D.
Wednesday, May 16. 2007
Accessories you have to buy for your dSLR
In our previous article we talked about compact cameras and accessories for them.
I will focus now on things specific to dSLR cameras. If you are buying one, it usually means that you are not absolute beginner, but since price (and size) of those photo cameras is dropping with every year, in order to provide best information, I will write some things that you might already know.
Interesting thing about serious dSLR equipment is that at the end, the camera body is the cheapest part. While, this is not always true, it says how important are other parts of your system.
I will write about lenses in some other article, because this is a subject that deserves at least one separate article.
Flashes are another subject, too.
1) If you don't like the size and price of
battery grips
, you should at least have one backup battery (which should always be charged).
2) buy yourself serious photo bag. Choose your style: big, small, backpack or not, but choose from good and reputable manufacturer
. I also suggest to have one big backpack for all your equipment and one small bag just for your camera with one or two lenses.
3) With digital photography shooting more is no longer expensive. Well, you do have to buy that memory card once, but after that it is free. In case you shot a lot of pictures and travel a lot, you might consider buying photobank
.
4) you should have at least one tripod. Based on your shooting style, you might use it occasionally or daily. In case you like mountain hiking, consider buying some lightweight and stable tripod
5) use UV filters on your lenses - this way you will protect them from scratches
6) you can also buy polarizer filters and some other like star-effect filers. Polarizers are very useful and I recommend having at least one and using it on more lenses with step-up rings
I will focus now on things specific to dSLR cameras. If you are buying one, it usually means that you are not absolute beginner, but since price (and size) of those photo cameras is dropping with every year, in order to provide best information, I will write some things that you might already know.
Interesting thing about serious dSLR equipment is that at the end, the camera body is the cheapest part. While, this is not always true, it says how important are other parts of your system.
I will write about lenses in some other article, because this is a subject that deserves at least one separate article.
Flashes are another subject, too.
1) If you don't like the size and price of
battery grips
, you should at least have one backup battery (which should always be charged).2) buy yourself serious photo bag. Choose your style: big, small, backpack or not, but choose from good and reputable manufacturer
. I also suggest to have one big backpack for all your equipment and one small bag just for your camera with one or two lenses. 3) With digital photography shooting more is no longer expensive. Well, you do have to buy that memory card once, but after that it is free. In case you shot a lot of pictures and travel a lot, you might consider buying photobank
.4) you should have at least one tripod. Based on your shooting style, you might use it occasionally or daily. In case you like mountain hiking, consider buying some lightweight and stable tripod
5) use UV filters on your lenses - this way you will protect them from scratches
6) you can also buy polarizer filters and some other like star-effect filers. Polarizers are very useful and I recommend having at least one and using it on more lenses with step-up rings
Wednesday, April 4. 2007
buy three books get one free
But, at the beginning we all need to see what are others doing in order to mark our place in space of photography and set our course of improvement.
What better way to achieve all this than by reading good book on the subject. Amazon currently has special promotion: you add 4 books (all under 10$) to your shopping cart, and they give you the cheapest one of those for free.
Here are some titles I found that qualify for promotion:
but, you can browse available books yourself: 4for3 amazon promotion
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