|
10+ Things I Learned With my First DSLR
Related Articles:
A DIY guide for GTD like a PRO with a DSLR. Beginner's Guide to Manual Photography 10 Reasons NOT to Buy a DSLR Camera 10 Reasons NOT to Buy a DSLR Camera 5 Things You Need to Know About SLR Lenses Why ditch the point-and-shoot? It strikes me as pure poetry that the acronym for point-and-shoot is POS. Wait, no, it's not. That would have been apt. Let me get this out of the way: I know non-DSLRs are great, vastly improved over the model that I toted with me on many occasions, and that an aging Canon PowerShot A95 isn't the least bit representative of what you can get today for the same price. Even then, it wasn't bad for taking pictures. The "auto" setting yielded a pile of harmless pictures without difficulty, or even effort. But anytime something superb, something unique came up, the machine was at a loss. Fuzzy, blurred, under- and over-exposed composition was the best I could get out of it. This extended beyond the occasional interesting could-be photo to plain difficult, technical shots (as you can imagine, I want a camera that can take photos of computer parts, too). Or, at least I thought they were difficult, until a friend loaned me his Canon 20D. In an afternoon, taking product shots went from a detestable, any-excuse-to-put-it-off event to something... simple? Fun? Remarkably, taking pictures changed from something that I sucked at to something I could really get into. And, just like that, I started shopping around for DSLR bodies.  What'd I buy, and Why? Let's get the peer-pressure factor out of the way. I am walled in by photographers. I don't know if it's me or if they're secretly everywhere, snapping photos and clogging the tubes in a race to populate and capsize Flickr's servers. Now we, my friends and I, all have DSLRs, and can easily, almost exponentially, raise the value of our cars if we leave our glass in the trunks. Not to be wholly molded, I bought a Pentax and not a Canon, which means that I can't use any of my friends' lenses. I mulled this for a while--I put off getting a camera for four months after I decided to go that route, to get an idea of what it would cost, and learn more about what I was getting into--but since I already own a Pentax A3000 that shoots real film, I have a stack of lenses that work with it and, thus, work with the K100D Super that I ended up buying. And I can guarantee that you have three or four Pentax K-mount lenses somewhere; everyone does, they're just in the basement. Seriously, they're in the dictionary under ubiquitous. In Australia, kangaroos outnumber people. In Japan, people are literally born holding a Pentax lens in each hand. And in the strictest sense, Pentax is cheaper. Not that it's inexpensive, or that the hardware is cheap, but that I went for the value route. The value of the arrangement increased even more when I added the worth of the lenses I owned into consideration; I can't bother everyone else to lend me glass when it was convenient for me. And there's no way I could take photos without shake reduction, something of a, well, exorbitant extra cost with Canon (it's lens-specific) that's just built into current Pentax bodies. The Pentax K1 series of cameras has been discontinued, with exception to the K100D Super, which is essentially just an entry-level K200D. It's been improved with all the bits that make the K2 series worth upgrading to; namely, compatibility with Pentax's new ultrasonic autofocus lenses, SDHC cards, and a slew of little improvements. But the K2 series also uses the same (excellent and award-winning) frame and sensor as the K100D and K110D. The money saved bought me a swank fast 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. (I'll touch on the technical crap later.) My other option was to get the K200D (with a similar feature set and a higher-megapixel sensor), and stick with my older manual 50mm lens, which only stopped to f/2.0. I decided against spending the extra $300 since I assumed (correctly) that I'd wind up buying accessories I didn't even know I'd need or want. In a few months, I'll probably upgrade to a better body, but not until I get this sweet super-wide 16-50mm f/2.8... [Editor: Max has been hounding me for weeks to purchase this lens for him. On behalf of TheTechLounge. Because he totally needs it for product shots...]
Page 1: My First DSLR
Page 2: What I Expected, What Surprised Me Page 3: My Findings Page 4: My Findings, continued... Page 5: The End Bit 
Related Articles Add Comment
8 User Comments 1 - Posted by
aireiq
on May 20, 2008 - 3:02 pm > [Editor: Max has been hounding me for weeks to purchase this lens for him. On behalf of TheTechLounge. Because he totally needs it for product shots...] So did you buy it for him? 2 - Posted by
aireiq
on May 20, 2008 - 3:03 pm I mean, since he seems to be responsible for something like 90% of your content....
3 - Posted by
Kurtis
on May 20, 2008 - 5:45 pm No, we didn't buy it for him. But I'm REALLY considering it. ;-)
4 - Posted by
handrail
on May 20, 2008 - 10:54 pm me and my clunker D70 will take you and your pentax on any day, max! brad. 5 - Posted by
justsomebody
on October 30, 2008 - 10:33 pm Hi! i read all your articles on slr cameras and i am really interested in getting one. i know you recommended some cameras, but what other things do will i need to start off eg lens etc? i'm looking at cameras now and there are lots of different bundles i can get - or should i just get the standard kit?? i'm just going to take pix of friends, bdays, holidays - nothing fancy! Thanks! Ps ur articles are really cool, easy to understand and funny! 6 - Posted by
Kurtis
on October 31, 2008 - 12:35 am My recommendation, if you're just getting started, is to just go with the kit lens. That's a great starting point. If you get more serious about it, you'll learn the ins-and-outs of the camera and the limitations of the kit lens, and that's where things start to get really expensive. But that's the best place to start. :)
7 - Posted by
MR J
on December 27, 2008 - 6:43 pm I just bought a refurbished Pentax K100D. Immediately, I happily discovered that my mom's old as dust Vivitar lens, which fit her old Pentax ME Super, fit my camera. The shots all suck ... really yellow and orange due to the incandescent lighting of my house, but never have I been able to so easily capture a shot that looks like it came out of some artsy photography mag. Also, I love how this camera and this old metal lens WEIGH A TON! The huge Canon something or other at the store was about 900x sweeter than this, and it weighed about 3/4 this thing. I love when something feels like it's worth its weight. I have a 200 page manual to flip through, a billion web pages, and a whole lot of photography terms to learn ... but I am optimistic, because next time I need to take a great picture, it ain't going to be an issue of the planets aligning, but whether or not I remembered to bring along this new, bulky piece of furniture that occasionally takes pictures when I fondle it. Totally in love with my Pentax! Hopefully I'll get outside so I can start learning and shooting!
8 - Posted by
Kurtis
on December 28, 2008 - 1:50 am That orange you're seeing is a white balance problem - that's easy to correct, especially if you shoot in RAW. I highly suggest giving your camera's manual a read-through. Happy shooting! :)
Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
Recent Reviews Video Cards September 23, 2009
Gaming Devices July 17, 2009
Portable Media Players July 16, 2009
Thumb Drives July 14, 2009
Recent News VICE Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:17 pm
Wired Nov. 20, 2009 - 7:07 pm
Engadget Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:58 pm
Telegraph.co.uk Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:48 pm
BBC Nov. 20, 2009 - 6:38 pm
Destructoid Nov. 18, 2009 - 11:55 pm
Wired Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:56 pm
Ultimate Typing Championship Nov. 16, 2009 - 11:42 pm
|
|||||||||||||||
