New Camera

[insert trumpet fanfare here]

It has arrived! I managed to charge the battery, install it, install the memory card, attach the lens and turn the camera on with little difficulty. Then I was forced to read the manual. Good golly this camera is intimidating! So many buttons and switches and knobs...oh my. The first thing I struggled with was trying to get the LCD display to show something other than a status view or a menu. After reading the book, I found the subscript that said something like "The LCD cannot be used as a viewfinder." Oh crud. You mean I have to be like a real photographer and look through that little eye hole? Fine.

The next thing I noticed on the mode dial was the glaring absence of the little movie camera icon. What?! This wicked expensive camera can't make avi movies like my old Canon does??? Shoot! What was Canon thinking making this expensive digital SLR camera take nothing but photographs! Heh. OK. I guess I won't be giving up my little point-n-shoot camera any time soon. This new camera will force me to focus my attention on my PHOTOGRAPHY, and not my skills as a videographer. That's not a bad thing. LOL

As per tradition, the first photos I snapped were of John sitting in front of a computer or of the room around me. We'll call those test shots since I never share them with anyone; until today.

I thought it would be fun to go back through my archives and find the first photos I ever took with each of my digital cameras.

Casio somethingorother circa 1999 (Sheba near my desk)

Kodak DC4800 circa December 2000

Canon PowerShot S50 circa April 2003


HP PhotoSmart R967 circa October 2006 (I sold this one to my SIL and went back to the Canon)

And finally:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi circa January 2008. (Hey! Finish feeding me lunch first!)

OK, technically this photo of Max is the 5th picture I snapped. The first 4 got erased once I read the manual and saw I was supposed to FORMAT the memory card before I used it (oops). Oh well. They were just photos of John sitting on the sofa, using his laptop. LOL!

So looking back over these photos (which are all unretouched despite my urge to photoshop), I'd say the new Canon is the winner in photo quality. Max isn't too harshly lit by the flash and there aren't any weird reflections or odd colors. Cool!

Now I need to think of someplace fun to go with my new camera and bigass camera bag. I think now would be a good time to finally do that "My Hometown" post I've been talking about for years...I'll cruise around town and take photos of places and things of interest. That should be fun. It will be a stretch for me to try and make this quiet little town look interesting. :-)