Bob's New Canon Rebel XTi D-SLR Camera - January 2007
Let's Go Digital - The Olympus D-320L
About ten years ago, I suffered from an insatiable urge to buy one of those new
novelties ... a digital camera. There were few choices and all of them
were expensive. No serious photographer would consider using one; however, because
the picture quality was something less than stellar. Nothing close to a basic
35mm film camera. Never the less, I was fascinated by the ability to see a
picture as soon as it was taken. So, on October 11, 1997 I strolled into the
Wolf Camera Store on Union Avenue (Memphis) and purchased an Olympus D-320L
digital camera. I plunked down $800 for that high-end 0.79 megapixel camera.
(They also had the lower resolution, slightly less expensive model D220L, but I
wanted the "top-of-the-line".) I also bought an optional, whopping 4
MB SmartMedia memory card for an
additional $75. I took my new toy home, along with a fresh supply of AA
batteries and was hooked after taking the first picture!
Here's that first digital camera that still works today!
We took a lot of pictures with the Olympus D-320L, but we still used a conventional
35mm as our primary camera. The D-320L did become the "camera of choice" for pictures
used on our web page, however.
Click here to see an example.
We accumulated a sizeable digital photo collection. A feat that's not hard to do
since there's no film to buy.
Using some of that new-fangled photo editing software (mainly Adobe Photo Deluxe),
I was able to tweak some of the flaws out of the pictures. Many of the indoor
pictures had a slight green
tint that the old Adobe Photo Deluxe software corrected with relative ease.
Hewlett Packard finally cut the price on their original Photo Smart printer, so I bought one.
Believe me ... that was one BIG printer and with its rather large paper tray that
pulled out from the front, it consumed an enormous chunk of desktop real estate!
It did print very good photographs, so we printed many of the pictures from the
D-320L right there at home with relatively good results. Most of these were
the "standard" 4x6 photos.
Phase 2: Kodak DC290
A couple of years went by and, as usual, technology advances were whizzing
past me at an accelerating pace. Consumer versions of digital cameras were averaging
more than two megapixels! One that really caught my eye was the new Kodak DC290
with 2.1 megapixels and host of built-in features including a 3X optical zoom.
It got rave reviews and was in short supply. Around Christmas of 1999, Bev and
Karen secretly conspired to acquire one of these on my behalf. They ordered it
online through buy.com on January 5, 2000 and it arrived a few days later. Cost: $887!
The DC290 is powered by 4 AA batteries which adds a bit of weight to it, but
the camera's design makes it very comfortable to hold as you frame your shot.
It has a robust set of features including programmable scripts to perform a
variety of optional tasks, a "Time Lapse" mode to automatically take a series of
pictures with no manual intervention and a movie mode (pretty standard now, but
a rather novel idea at the time).
We were amazed at the improved quality of the pictures coming out of this camera
when compared to those from the D-320L. Of course, it also used a different
memory card (the much larger Compact Flash card). Kodak included a 20MB "starter"
card with the camera which held approximately 27 pictures when set to "High-Quality"
mode. This was roughly the same as a standard 35mm roll of film. Believe me, you
never want to run out of capacity when you're taking pictures at an event, so I
decided to buy a larger memory card and use the supplied 20MB card as a reserve for
any event that generated a lot of pictures. So, it was back to Wolf Camera for some
more "digital film" and I bought a 48MB Compact Flash card that set me back slightly
more than $200 after tax. This new addition bumped the camera's High-Quality
capacity up to 69 pictures! In September of 2000, I bought an external lens kit
that included a wide-angle, a zoom and a pair of macro lenses.
The DC290 quickly became our photography work horse, completely replacing the
conventional 35mm. It went everywhere with us when pictures were to be taken.
Grandsons' ball games, birthday parties, family holidays, vacations and fishing
trips were all recorded with this camera. Around January of 2004 (roughly 4 years
after we bought it) I noticed that all of the recent pictures had a small white dot in
exactly the same location. This was virtually unnoticed in many of the pictures,
but had had an undesirable impact on others, particularly if the ominous "white spot"
landed around one of the the subject's eyes. A call to Kodak revealed that the
camera was suffering from DPS (Dead Pixel Syndrome). A cluster of 4 sensors had
become dysfunctional. Of course, it was not a cost-effective repair, particularly
since the prices of digital cameras had fallen dramatically. You know where this
story is headed. RIGHT! After taking more than 5,800 pictures with the DC290,
we gotta replace it. But with what?!
Phase 3: Kodak DX6490
Enter the Kodak DX6490 - Big Brother to the old DC290:
After a month or so of extensive online searching and reading numerous camera
reviews, I decided on another Kodak digital offering. The DX6490 with a 4
megapixel sensor and a whopping 10X optical zoom was on sale at Sam's Club, so I
went by there on March 5, 2004 to examine one in person. I liked what I saw and
purchased one for $457.25 including sales tax. That was just slightly more than
half what I paid for my beloved DC290 four years earlier!
This beauty sports a large 2.2 inch LCD and, like its predecessor, has a movie
mode. It's also the first one of our digital cameras to use a special proprietary
Lithium-ion rechargeable battery. This contributed significantly toward making this
a much lighter weight camera. It came bundled with a docking station
that recharges the battery and provides a connection to the computer for downloading
pictures. It's also the first one of our cameras to use a Secure Digital memory card.
Kodak added several features to the DX6490 that brought it closer to high-end SLR
(Single Lens Reflex) cameras. These included things like adjustable shutter and
aperture priority. Our daughter, Karen, and I took an online photography
course offered through the University of Memphis (U of M) that year and, consequently,
were somewhat familiar with these "advanced" terms.
It was several weeks after I bought the DX6490 that I realized Kodak
had excluded one of my favorite features ... time lapsed photos. Oh well!
Bev's only issue with the camera is its viewfinder that uses a small LCD to frame your shot.
The image here is not as clear as she'd like it, plus there is a slight delay in
refreshing the image which is more noticeable when there's a lot of movement within
the framed area. I've had no regrets in making this selection, however. It's a comfortable
camera to hold and takes really good pictures. That 10X zoom is amazing! We've
taken over 3,500 pictures with this camera and it's still going strong.
Phase 3.1: Canon SD-200
In February, 2005, Bev and I went to DisneyWorld with her brother,
Mike and his wife, Nettie. Of course, we packed our trusty DX6490 along with the
Sony TRV-38 digital camcorder because this was obviously one of those events that
had to be photographed in detail. On the way down there, Mike stopped in
a Best Buy store in Tallahassee, FL to buy some batteries for his digital camera.
While we were there, loitering around the camera counter, Bev spotted a neat
little point-and-shoot Canon camera. We picked it up and examined it. Even
took a couple of sample pictures. It was a very compact, 3 megapixel camera with
a 3X optical zoom and a large LCD display. With all of the planned activity in
Orlando, we thought it might be a good idea for each of us to carry a camera.
You know where this is headed ... Right, we bought one of those little Canon SD-200
cameras along with a small camera bag and an extra 256MB SD memory card. That's it below:
Talk about a great find! This was it. On our first day at the park we took
all three cameras with us. What a hassle! I looked like a Japanese
tourist with camera straps hanging from every part of my body! Something HAD
to be done before we set out on our second day's excursion. We definitely wanted a lot of
video of this momentous occasion, so the camcorder was a "must carry" item.
The new Canon SD-200 was so compact and easy to carry that we decided to leave
the larger DX6490 at the condo and go with the smaller SD-200. We took a bunch
of pictures during that trip, most of them with the Canon SD-200.
They turned out very well as you can see from the shots posted on our
web site.
This little camera was my introduction to the Canon product line. I was very
impressed with its quality, feature set and ease of use. And best of all -
Bev liked it! Among its other admirable attributes, it takes movies in "AVI"
format (versus the "MOV" format used by Kodak). I make a big deal out of this
because it's easier for me to edit these files on my desktop computer than it
is to edit the "MOV" files from my Kodak camera. Bev frequently puts this camera
into her purse as I strap on my camera gear before heading out to a family
gathering. It's so quick and easy to use! It has not been our main camera, but
it certainly functions as a great secondary camera.
Phase 4: Canon Rebel XTi
All of this leads me to our current state of affairs regarding digital cameras.
During the recent Christmas holidays (2006), Karen and I talked several times about
digital cameras and photography in general, reflecting at times on our U of M
photography course material, particularly the references to SLR cameras. I guess
what really kindled these discussions was a Wolf Camera ad in the paper showing
a Nikon D50 (Digital-SLR) camera on sale for the ridiculously low price of $499,
including a lens!
Karen dropped by the house one day and we went to the local Wolf
Camera store to gather more information and see one of those cameras "in person".
We talked to a very knowledgeable, helpful and patient young lady named Connie.
She answered all of our questions and provided some good insight regarding the
subtle differences between the various cameras they had on display. They had only
one of the advertised Nikon D50's in the store, but could get an additional
unit within a day or so if necessary. We eventually ran out of questions, left
the store and went home to drool and discuss our findings. By the end of the
evening, I was leaning toward a Nikon D50 and, I thought, Karen was favoring the
newer, smaller slightly more expensive D40.
Boy, was my assessment wrong!
The next day, Karen shows up at our house with her new Nikon D50 in-hand! You
can see more details about her new toy by clicking
here.
She unboxed it, connected the lens and started shooting. Let me tell you,
that's one PHENOMENAL camera! She encouraged me to go ahead and take
the D-SLR plunge too. Not wanting to rush into that decision, I told her I would
think about it and do a little more research. I really didn't want to replicate
her choice. After all, if we had identical cameras, what's to compare?!
Over the next several days, I found numerous reviews and articles about entry
level D-SLRs. Generally, the Nikon D40 and D50 compared very favorably against
each other and with the new Canon Rebel XTi. I eventually made my decision and,
on January 5, 2007 (seven years, to the day, after ordering our Kodak DC290!)
I went to Wolf Camera and purchased a D-SLR camera. If you'll notice, at the top of
this write-up there's a picture of my new Canon Rebel XTi D-SLR
(how's that for a dose of alphabet soup!). It's a 10 megapixel camera with more
features than I could ever list. I really like this incredible camera.
There's a whole lot to learn and I hope
to take a bunch of pictures that will do it justice.
As for cost? It was just a few dollars more than what I paid for our first
Olympus D-320L digital camera.
Now, THAT'S AMAZING!