Tag: canon Posts

I purchased my current digital SLR in December of 2004. It is a pretty decent 8.2MP SLR from Canon’s prosumer line, which is sort of the cross over from the consumer to the professional lines. It’s a really awesome camera, and it’s been great to learn on. That being said, technology has continued to improve over the last few years, and my camera is becoming more and more out of date. The main problem (if you can call it that), is that my camera has a 1.6X crop factor. What that means is that the CMOS sensor inside is smaller that the size of a 35mm film, so part of the image falls on the area outside of the sensor and gets thrown away — this effectively crops every single shot that you take on the camera. So, if you have a 50mm lens on a 1.6X crop factor, it […]

Back in December of 2000, while home in Chilliwack visiting my family for Christmas, I made the digital plunge. I was in London Drugs, looking around the electronics section for something bright and shiny to make me happy, and my eyes settled on the first real section of digital cameras ever to hit the market. For the most part, most of those cameras were nothing more than glorified webcams — they took grainy photos, and really didn’t have any options. However, one in particular stood out above the rest. It was the Nikon Coolpix 880, and it became my first digital camera. I shot all my photos that Christmas completely digitally, which amazed all my older relatives and friends. The photos were pretty awesome for the day, but by today’s standards, had a few colour problems (notably skin tones) and didn’t really perform that well in low light. I loved […]

So, I gotta hand it to my pal Kris — he’s managed to get me interested in something I never thought I’d be interested in again — film photography. Kris is a really awesome fashion photographer here in Vancouver, and his stuff never ceases to amaze me. What’s interesting about Kris, and a variety of the local photographers I’ve met recently, is that they have started shooting film again. Which is sort of surprising, given the focus local photography shops seem to place on digital nowadays (I called several local stores recently to talk about film, and most of them didn’t even have film cameras in stock anymore). So, since I’m intrigued by this, I’ve been in the market for a cheap film SLR that will be able to utilize all the current lenses I have in my kit. Since most of my lenses are pretty decent now, and the […]

So Hesty picked up a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi last week, and has been slowly uploading his new photos onto flickr. I love watching the photos that naturally come out of a purchase like this, and to see how everyone puts their own style and content into the photos they do. Here’s a shot Hesty took last night of his dog “playing” with a pillow. You’re a natural buddy.

Canon has noticeably lagged in releasing new DSLRS, especially on the higher end versions. To their credit, they did a big upgrade to the Digital Rebel line earlier this year with the Rebel XTi. This is a great camera that improves on a few areas that the 20D/30D had, even though it’s considered part of their consumer lineup. Some of the nicest changes in my mind for the XTi are: The ability to view the ISO in the viewfinder. On the 20D, you have to hunt for it Larger LCD screen over the 20D Canon sensor cleaning system I consider the last one very important. I’m very careful when I change lenses.. I normally have the body pointed down and set myself up so I can do the switch in about one or two seconds. However, I still an prone to sensor dust from time to time. I’ve had it […]

I’m now the proud owner of my first L-series lens: the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L. I’m just charging my 20D now, and then I’m heading out for a couple hours of shooting to see what this puppy can do (or can’t do maybe). Look for a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Update — I’m back, and I took some photos.. I found out that flickr doesn’t support the Adobe colour profile, which is why alot of my photos end up looking washed out on there.. I’m going to have to start shooting in sRGB again I think.

About 18 months ago, I picked up the Canon EOS 20D to replace my dying Canon Powershot camera. Stepping up from a point and shoot to a digital SLR was a pretty big step for me at the time, since I had never even really used an SLR camera before. I made a rookie mistake when I got it, and instead of buying a nice lens to go onto it, I picked up a cheap Sigma zoom lens. I spent the first few weeks completely disappointed with my camera, thinking that my point and shoot pictures were nearly as good as the ones coming off my SLR. After reading the newsgroups, I basically figured out that I needed to ditch the cheap lens I got, and go with something a little nicer. Thankfully the store took the Sigma back, and I walked away with the Canon EOS 28-135mm IS lens. […]