I wanted to wait for the price to go down on full framed, film comparable sensors. (For explanation read the second paragraph down here.) But my finger was twitching to take photos and my pocket book was hurting from film costs and development costs. So I needed a camera priced low enough to buy the body and two lenses (28mm-55mm & 70mm-300mm) for under $1000. Unfortunately the Nikon D3x was out of my range. I knew I wanted Nikon or Canon as they are the leaders in quality DSLRs for low prices currently. Aside from the price, overall quality, and (as close as I can get to a) full-framed sensor, there were a few other things I wanted in my camera.
I was spoiled by my Fuji Velvia E6 film and my two manual Canon SLRs. I had beautiful colors that worked wonders on my nature photography. In order to compensate for this film I needed a camera that could go down to at least ISO 100. I also looking for a camera that could function close to a manual Canon camera like the Canon AE-1 Program. With this camera, and my T-90, I could completely adjust my zoom, aperture, and shutter speed but also place the camera on auto to do the work for me (except zoom). After looking through all of my choices I went with the Canon T1i Rebel.
The T1i is a nice camera for a DSLR consumer level camera. Yes, it isn't as nice as a Mark II or 3x, but it will do the job. The sensor is fairly large and is 37% smaller than a film sensor and reads a good amount of information at 15.1MP (effective). The camera can also emulate 100 ISO film. I found that with a little bit of practice I can manipulate the camera into acting very similar to my film cameras. I can use a manual zoom by flipping a switch on the lens. There is also a mode called CA, which allows me to play with exposure settings. I'm not going to touch the auto settings they give you like portrait or landscape. Their settings make the colors appear unreal and I can't change anything on the preset settings. But I will use the CA setting which allows me to get the exposure I want without too much fuss. The true manual setting will be hard to get used to as I havn't figured out how to utilize the light meter while in this setting, so for now the CA setting is as manual as I will get. (Read Adorama's new review for more info)
With the RAW + JPG format I will be able to fix any colors the camera does not correctly represent with its preset settings given in CA mode. So I should be able to get around fairly well, concerning the lack of film. Nothing compares to the colors you get from the chemical reactions on different types of film from light. Thank goodness for Corel Photo Paint or Photo Shop.
As I play around with the camera and finish reading the manual (I'm at page 74) I'll post more photos. For now here is an example of Landscape mode, but using the RAW version because the JPG had unnatural coloring. Maybe I'll post an example later...
5 notes:
Oh, bring on the fun! Btw, you might want to give Photoshop Lightroom a try. It's a branch of Photoshop made specifically for photogs, and is phenom for batch processing and handling RAW. Photoshop itself is grand for special projects, but if I'm dealing with large batches, LR has me sold.
Maybe I'll check it out. Right now I just use whatever is free to me. I use old copies of Photo Paint because mom keeps upgrading her Corel. Thanks for the tip cuz!
Yea, never let anyoned tell you "it's a beginner's camera". I definitely want the best camera I can afford, but as it's been said so many times before, 'It's not the camera, it's the photographer.' Otherwise all those doctors & dentists with their Leica's and pro-level digital gear would be saturating the market and blowing everyone away with their photography.
Well said Will. :)
camera manuals are the best. you're only up to page 74? enjoy learning everthing you can and push the camera to it's limits. look forward to seeing your images.
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