OK, so this is a blog for anyone who wants to know if something works, is it quirky, does it do _______??? I'll start with a rough list of current equipment and go from there, in-depth reviews will come later interspersed with new gear reviews...
We shoot Canon gear, there is always a debate (and always will be!) about which is better Canon or Nikon, and I've got a little secret for you...
...neither! ...well for long. We live in a highly competitive world as far as electronics go, if someone figures out a way to make something better in one way, the competition is going to make that better, and improve something else as well. This is good for consumers (except for the feelings of buyers remorse!) in that if you go with one of the big boys (Canon and Nikon) you are sure to get a good quality product regardless of brand.
Well back to our gear... I had the first Canon EOS camera the EOS 650 in 1987 I knew that the action-sports photography world would be overthrown by my striking images! This got me started with one lens, a 35-135mm Sigma and a Quantaray flashgun! I didn't start to experiment with bounce flash until later but found that this did extremely well!
When digital rolled around I had been looking for an affordable DSLR (affordable has 2 different meanings to the wife and I!), and Canon came out with the Digital Rebel lineup. Although their were previous DSLRs in the lineup, none were quite in my budget (the pro line was in the neighborhood of $3000-$4000!) while the Digital Rebel hovered around $1000. Already having a great lens I thought, "Well this is easy, I can use my lens and flash from my EOS650". WRONG!
After getting the Digital Rebel XT and charging it up I put the old lens on it and zoomed, and focused, WOW! this is gonna be great! Focus, focus, recompose, press shutter... look at back of camera, ERR 99, Errrr you mean? errrr... WHAT?!? What is that?? Button presses, changing modes, ERR99, AAaarrgghhh!!!! Turn off power, whew! No ERR, take another... ERR!!!! So a call to Sigma tells me that they can re-chip their older lenses to work with the newer cameras! ...but, NOT this one! Oh well...
A wonderful little digital SLR with great features, 5 years later and now I have a room full of great gear (well, mostly)...
The Rebels gave way the Canon EOS 30Ds then most recently to the 5D MkII and 7D.
Camera bodies are essentially film holders and interfaces between you and the camera settings, not much more. Lenses are a far better investment as they will stand the test of time, and megapixels, and low-noise high-isos!
Our Digital Rebels served us very well with 8MP sensors and good reliability, a compact size was a great bonus in the beginning. Taking the camera everywhere with us, family gatherings, outings, etc the size was great. Holding onto one all day at a wedding or fashion shoot and the hands get quite tired. We upgraded to the Canon EOS 30Ds only from a control and build quality standpoint. The 30Ds afforded a better build and feel in your hands as well as a button layout more designed for professional shooters needing to adjust 2 settings at once via the command-dial and control-wheel. The same sensors in both the 30D and Rebel XT, but a better processor resulted in faster frame rates in the 30D.
I picked up a 5d MkII last year and have been blown away by this camera! I'll elaborate more in a future post!
