28 January 2010

New Digital Camera

So after many months (almost a year) of trying to coax my simple point-and-shoot camera into doing anything interesting, I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. I opted for a Canon EOS Rebel XSi, which although extremely expensive, I am assured is an entry level DSLR camera.

DSLRs are amazing pieces of equipment. I learned more about photography during my first 15 minutes with this camera than I had ever even had the chance to learn before. Unlike a point-and-shoot camera, my new camera lets me control the exposure time, focus, and aperture settings manually. Of course, being an entry-level DSLR, this thing also has an automatic mode.(which I hate, because it always wants to use the flash...) Anyways, still learning how to use it, but I can already do some fun photographer tricks. For example, check this out:



Taken on the mode where I can vary the shutter speed, the photos are all taken in sequence varying the speed from 1/4000th of a second to 1/80th of a second. The best part is that it took me all of 30 seconds to take the whole series -- snap, adjust, snap, adjust. These things are fast.

On the other end of the spectrum, I took two pictures of my wife, one with a normal capture speed and the other a 2 second exposure. In the second photo, she seems to vanish because she was walking around, completely oblivious to my photographic endeavors:

Anyways, I haven't quite gotten this to do anything interesting outside just yet, but I'm still learning how to do things aside from auto-mode. I did take about 300 photos on a walk yesterday, but half of them didn't turn out for reasons I haven't figured out just yet. I'll probably organize them into another post. So, I guess for the future of this blog, look forward to more photos (or something...)

No comments: