Camera

I recently purchased a new camera, a canon 50d. Back in 2006 when I began pursuing my dream of taking my photography skills from a hobby to a professional business venture I bought the Canon Rebel XTI, a good beginners camera. Nick and I talked about it and we agreed to upgrade once things really started taking off. At the time I felt like that would never happen but now things are different. I'm confident in my work, I have a steady stream of clientele, repeat customers, and I things are very routine now. I have a system and that system works really well. So, I decided it was time for an upgrade and guess what I found? A canon 1d mark II camera used for about $3,000 less than the cost of a new one. This is the Mark II:





Yeah, it's big. It's a monster. It dwarfs the lens. It would look fabulous in my hands. So I ordered it. But there was something about it that concerned me, it's only 8.2 mega pixels and my rebel is 10 or so. But it was just so pretty, and big, and normally expensive, I HAD to have it. I needed to have it. I ordered it on Easter weekend and spent the entire weekend looking at photos taken with it on flickr.com and my concern over the mega pixels grew. First of all I could not find many portraits taken with it. Second of all, the portraits I did find seemed slightly out of focus and amateurish. So I did some research which you're probably thinking should have been done in advance, yeah I know but b&h photo video is an excellent company and they're really nice about returns and exchanges. Anyway, it turns out this camera is best for action shots. So if you're a wildlife photographer it's fantastic, if you shoot sports, it's amazing, if you take portraits, it's lackluster...but it looks fabulous in your hands. So I sulked for a few minutes, then I exchanged it for a 50d which is a really nice camera, and much more suitable for my needs. It's 15 mega pixel, handles high ISO extremely well. You can go up to 3200 ISO without noticeable grain, and the camera is capable of 12,800 ISO, but you probably suffer substantial image quality reduction, but it's there if you need it. Here it is:

It's nice. It won't amaze people when they see it, they won't look at me and think "oh, now there is a photographer" but it's nice, and it will take amazing photos. Plus it has a digic IV processor. That is the best part. A digic IV processor allows finer detail and better color reproduction. It's also capable of taking 6.3 frames per second which means if I do find myself in a situation where I need to take photos of wildlife in motion I can do that easily. So there you have it, my new camera. It might come this afternoon and if it does I will compare it to my rebel by taking identical photos with the same lenses on both cameras, then comparing the photos side by side. I will post those tomorrow possibly.