Fancy Cameras...who needs 'em
Golden Gate
Originally uploaded by crazypete04.
A few years back, I thought I'd try my hand and some photography. I read a book or two and then went out and bought an entry level Nikon SLR. A few trips, a couple dozen rolls of film, I came to realize that it'd be an expensive hobby if I stayed at the 1 good shot per roll ratio that I was at.
A couple of years ago, on a trip to Asia, I decided to pick up a digital point and shoot. I thought it would be a good way for me to develop that eye for lighting, contrasts, framing...all that good stuff that I read in that book or two...without the expense of the having to develop film at my 1/36 decent picture-to-bad picture ratio.
Last year, before driving back from the East Coast to the West, I decided to splurge on a Digital SLR and a new lens. $1600 towards the idea that I'd managed to capture a couple good shots with that little point and shoot and that maybe I was ready to fiddle with depth-of-field, shutter speed, metering...all that good stuff that I read in that book or two.
This past Monday, I took a quick trip to Point Reyes for a little scenic hike with Terry. On the drive back, we stopped by the lookout point in Marin to catch a shot of the bridge overlooking the city (I'm sure there are at least a million of exactly the same shot taken from this point). After about 20 minutes opening up apertures, maxing out shutter speeds, and bumping up ISO levels...all that good stuff that I read in that book or two...I whipped out that cheap, bonehead, $300 point-and-shoot and, voila(!), the best shot of the day.
The logical person, at this point, would take that book or two, toss it in the fireplace, and post a couple of Craigslist for-sale ads for used camera equipment. Instead, I'm now in the market for a bigger, faster, more expensive lens. I suspect all it takes is a few thousand dollars more and I'll be able to take that big fancy digital SLR and take a picture that looks like....well....the one from this cheap point-and-shoot camera.
posted by Peter @ 9:20 PM
2 Comments:
c'mon now. you call out your nikon SLR but you can't give credit to your "cheap point-and-shoot camera"?
Yes yes. The "cheap point-and-shoot" is a Canon Powershot. In case anyone is in the market for new digital point-and-shoot, I know a few people who would probably recommend any of the 6 new models that were recently released or perhaps 1 of the other 16 models that Canon offers.
I'll be the first to admit that they do take some great pictures and that, sadly, the best pictures I have came from a Canon IXUS 40 (known in the US as the Powershot SD300). If you do get one of these, I recommend reading through the manual as well. They're packed with plenty of neat features. So many that even Canon employees can't keep track of them all!
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