Okay, so today was the day. The Day. After procrastinating for many reasons, both rational and just perverse, Donna and I plunked down our plastic and walked out of ye olde camera emporium with my new camera. I’ve been talking to people, some of them extremely knowledgeable (internet wave to Jennifer—“Thank You!”), and reading blogs and consumer reports and websites and agonizing and today it culminated in A Purchase.
Was a time, mind you, that this would have been the cause of a couple of days of decision-making. I used to be one of the Go-To people about matters photographic. If I needed a new piece of equipment, the only question was, could I afford it this week or did I have to wait a few more weeks.
But this was a chunk of change, an issue of moment, and on something of which I am less than qualified. After having dipped into as much printed material as I could stand, I ultimately had to go talk to a real live salesperson and Make A Decision.
Rob at Schiller’s Camera was very helpful a couple of weeks back. Salesman after my own heart. He answer my questions, didn’t push, took out camera after camera for comparison, and new his stuff. After a couple hours, we’d narrowed the field to two, and after going over all the relevant stuff afterward, I made my choice.
A Canon EOS 60D. My new machine. I’ve spent most of today reading the owner’s manual and playing with it. It will take a long time to master all the stuff this thing will do, but I can already take a photograph with it and this will only improve. (I’m an intuitive kind of guy when it comes to this sort of thing. Take it out and road test it, carry it as an extension of my limbs and eyes for months on end, snap away thousands of frames, learn the mechanism until I can make the necessary adjustments reflexively. Just there’s a lot more to learn on this than I’m used to—and it will make movies.)
I haven’t put up any new images on the Zenfolio site in a bit. It will still be a while before I do—I have to download the new software for the file transfers, get used to how these files work in Photoshop, and actually, you know, take some new pictures I think worth showing The World. But the next new gallery will be from this beauty. It’s an impressive camera. It feels right. I think it’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Congrats! I went through the same thing a few years back and ended up with the Nikon D80 (The Canon was a close second).
If you’re interested in these types of things, I just read “Perfect Digital Photography” by Jay Dickman. If you’re already an experienced photographer there may not be much new inside, but there are some really nice refresher moments and the photos (with all attendant information) is nice as a reference.
Can’t wait to start seeing the pics!