New Toy
After our recent Grand Canyon trip, I felt it was time for a camera upgrade. It would have been useful to do this before the trip, but my procrastination got the better of me, so on Monday I decided I wasn't waiting any longer, and I started shopping for an SLR.
Of course, that's easier said than done when you know as little as I did about SLRs, but fortunately, Russell (who turns 28 today!) knows a ton, so he guided me through every step of the process. I didn't have to research a single thing! He taught me about wide angle, telephoto, and prime lenses, aperture, flash, circular polarizing, warming, and UV filters...all Greek to me before this week. It made the process very easy, especially since I ended up ordering exactly the same camera that Russell has been using for a year, the Nikon D50:
This camera provides the best bang for the buck at the entry level. The lens is an 18-55mm, which has a very nice wide angle and a decent zoom. At some point I'll upgrade; Russ and I already have our eyes on the Nikon 18-200mm, but it's so damn expensive, and completely back-ordered. Buying a telephoto lens is probably more economical, but I'd like to avoid swapping out lenses as much as possible, even though that's one of the main reasons to get an SLR in the first place.
Thanks to Russ' advice and Amazon's surprisingly quick turnaround (ordered Wednesday, arrived Thursday), I now have all weekend to test out the new toy. First stop, Stanford campus. Should be a great camera playground!
Of course, that's easier said than done when you know as little as I did about SLRs, but fortunately, Russell (who turns 28 today!) knows a ton, so he guided me through every step of the process. I didn't have to research a single thing! He taught me about wide angle, telephoto, and prime lenses, aperture, flash, circular polarizing, warming, and UV filters...all Greek to me before this week. It made the process very easy, especially since I ended up ordering exactly the same camera that Russell has been using for a year, the Nikon D50:
This camera provides the best bang for the buck at the entry level. The lens is an 18-55mm, which has a very nice wide angle and a decent zoom. At some point I'll upgrade; Russ and I already have our eyes on the Nikon 18-200mm, but it's so damn expensive, and completely back-ordered. Buying a telephoto lens is probably more economical, but I'd like to avoid swapping out lenses as much as possible, even though that's one of the main reasons to get an SLR in the first place.
Thanks to Russ' advice and Amazon's surprisingly quick turnaround (ordered Wednesday, arrived Thursday), I now have all weekend to test out the new toy. First stop, Stanford campus. Should be a great camera playground!
posted by Chang Kim at Friday, July 14, 2006
12 Comments:
sweetness. i might even give you a discount for permission to take photos of me
I'm sure we can negotiate a reasonable fee. :)
Wanna come to Stanford with me?
I'm excited about it, too! Can't wait to see your pictures in your next blog entry. :)
One day that 18-200 VR will be ours.
chang will you stop bothering me no i will not model for you naked
But Gerald, I need something to remember you by after you leave! And Russell wants to see the pictures in my next entry!
I didn't realize Nikon was acquired by Sony.
That's very insightful, Ayeh. :) It was a shock to the system going out of the family, but Sony just can't hang with Nikon right now when it comes to the SLRs. Truth be told, they can't hang with Canon when it comes to the compacts, either, but we were still pretty wedded to the brand when we got those.
After all, in addition to the two compact digital cameras, we have a Sony Wega, mp3 player, surround sound system, DVD player, PlayStation, PS2, photo printer, PDA, Vaio laptop, and Vaio desktop. :)
alright, i'll go. we're go streaking through the quad!
Nice work Chang. :)
I've been using my Canon Rebel XT for a while now, and just recently started taking pictures for other people...engagement photos to be more precise.
I actually put them up on Flickr which I just recently discovered. I know it belongs to the enemy (Yahoo) but Andrew will concur with my recommendation to try it out. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/randyfish/
I can't wait to see your pictures as well, but hopefully there are no naked pictures of guys streaking the quad (or anywhere else for that matter).
If I get a side-job as a wedding photographer, I will be able to subcontract you as my assistant.
My Flickr account should be more interesting shortly...trip to Maui in a week.
I also picked up a waterproof enclosure for my Canon SD500, so expect some cool underwater pics as well.
I use Flickr. That's what creates the randomized photo strip at the top of my blog. I don't care if it belongs to the enemy if it provides useful functionality. But I do use Picasa Web for my web albums, just because of the quick photo rendering, and the integration with Picasa, which allows for faster uploading.
man, that's so sweet. you say stanford is a great place for testing out the camera because it has such nice outdoor scenery and architecture or because there is cheerleader camp going on right now?
There's cheerleader camp? Sweet! They're all at least 18, right?
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