This Week in Cameras.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Written by: Jed

For a guy who doesn’t take much pictures, this week was an eye-opener.

I’ve never  owned a still camera. I just haven’t developed a serious interest in photography. This past couple of days may have changed that.

At the start of this week, I developed a real appreciation for the camera bundled-in with my old iPhone 3G. It isn’t terrible; in fact, combined with AutoStitch it’s actually pretty good.

AutoStitch is arguably the best of the many photo-stitching applications in the Apple App Store. I was instantly wowed when I installed it several months back, but given my lack of picture-taking, it didn’t get much use. There’s also the fact that, though as awesome the iPhone is, its camera isn’t the greatest. It’s this mindset that dissuaded me from ever treating the device as a real camera. Asides from a few uploads to flickr and Facebook, most of my photos stayed solely on the phone.

Panorama of Toronto's Danforth, courtesy of iPhone 3G and AutoStitch.

I thought I understood the concept of photo-stitching: stitching multiple photos into one coherent image. I somehow ignored the fact that it was literally combining multiple photos. And though the phone takes a decent-quality picture, the combination of several of them, makes for a pretty good one (see right). I’m now regretting not having AutoStitch installed during my trips into the US earlier this year. The panorama on the right is the combination of seven pictures courtesy the iPhone 3G on Labour Day Monday. And thanks to AutoStitch, I was able to stitch (one-button tap) and crop the final photo on the spot.

Then on the Wednesday of this week, I had my first class in Photography & Digital Imaging. I came in expecting to learn the ins-and-outs of Photoshop, but as it turns out, it will involve a lot more hands-on work and learning with DSLRs. If it weren’t for my increasing interest in photography, I would have dreaded the potential purchase of a thousand dollar camera. Instead, I’m actually looking forward to it.

I consider myself a gadget/tech-junkie, but when it comes to pro-camera specs, I’m dialing for the Geek Squad. I watch the occasional episode of TWiP and MacBreak Weekly often goes on camera-tangents – all I really knew was that I wanted to shoot Canon. The 5D Mark II is the consensus favourite for photogs, and the upcoming 7D has them even more excited. I’m not spending $3000 on my first DSLR, let alone camera (and that’s just the body). But if there’s one thing I’ve heard over and over, it’s that, when it comes to DSLRs it’s all about the family of lenses. And if I ever want to own one of the mentioned top-tiered cameras, investing in Canon is a necessity.

Going the budget route, it wasn’t hard to narrow down possible body options. There’s really only two. The Rebel XS, and the Rebel XSi. The XSi being the older, but more fully-featured. It’s also $200 more expensive. Photog friends of mine said that this premium was justified, and well-worth it if I was willing to spend. I then asked Google. Looked at dpreview, and other reviews of the Rebel XS and learned that it was just as advertised – a great starter DSLR. I was then pointed to this entry comparing the two. I didn’t understand most of the feature breakdowns and specs, but came away content with settling for the base XS model, as the article stated:

It makes sense to buy the XS / 1000D if you’re just beginning photography and don’t have a set target on how advanced you want to get with your photography.

The money saved can go towards purchasing an external flash, accessory or a better lens and this is the better approach to take for budding photographers.

After a year or two of taking lots of photographs, you’d then be in a better position to decide which advanced model to upgrade to.

And honestly, I don’t know how advanced I want to get with photography. All I know is, I want to learn how to shoot a good picture, and more importantly one that isn’t shot in auto-mode.

One of the bigger reasons I choice to enroll into a media communications program was to expose me to a variety of fields; in hoping to find one I was truly passionate about. Maybe I’ll regret not investing in a better body a year from now, but if that’s the case, great; I’m looking forward to it.