After a few weeks deliberation while reading up on many reviews i decided upon the Canon EOS 50D as my first, and probably last, DSLR purchase.
Technology wise at this level spend there`s not a whole lot in it, whatever camera you come away with you`ll be getting a ripper camera, it just comes down to personal preference.
Having owned a few point and shoot cameras made by Canon and finding the menu`s intiutive among other things i decided to stick with what i know, rather than going for the Nikon D300.
On advice from my buddy Lee i headed out to Fujiya Camera in Nakano to make the purchase, they`re a few hundred bucks cheaper than yodobashi so it`s worth the extra few stops on the train.
Unfortunately i didnt think to ask for an English Manual but a quick search on the internet turned up the document in question.
I didn`t have a chance to read up on it much last night before i took a quick walk up the road to test this bad boy out.
There`s plenty of room for improvement and now i`m scouring the internet for good sites with tips and tricks.
I was happy with my first quick outing and can see myself getting a lot of use out of this camera.
I`m happy to hear any and all sites you can recommend i visit for leanring how best to use a DSLR, please leave links in the comments below.
Thanks to Paul and Lee for the countless hours of discussion, usually over a few beers, while i narrowed down the contenders.
Links to cool photography sites more than welcome in the comments please.
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Congratulations! Now you’ll have to submit something to my Japan Photo Gallery – consider it an open invitation (and an excuse to practice).
Might be a while …. plenty of practice first.
Congratulations. It looks like a nice camera! I am looking for a DSLR as well. D50 is heavier than the Kiss (Rebel) series and maybe there are some functions that I would not know how to use, so I think i will stick with the Kiss series first. Canon should be announcing a “Kiss X3″ on these days. Let’s see if it stands out from Nikon, Sony and Olympus. Looking forward for your pics.
DSLR and not reading the manual….That makes 2 of us! LOL
Look forward to seeing more photos taken with the new toy.
Great acquisition! おめでとう！ Looking forward to seeing your progress and your vision of Japan
I forgot to ask : do you plan to shoot yourself the “J-Babe of the Week” ?
(this kind of photo session must cost a leg and an arm though…)
I would like to Jerome ….. and i`m working on a little something at the moment …..
J-Babe of the Week? Will you be needing a camera assistant?
I will my friend ….. and from what Lee tells me you`re quite the man to fill those boots. Looking forward to knocking a few back sometime AEIO ….. either here or there.
I shudder to think what Lee told you. Whatever it was, it was probably true. Anyway, beer always a good idea…
Sounds promising !
Hey Neil, this is a nice site http://digital-photography-school.com/
Cheers Jonas, I know that one well.
Congratulations Neil. Countless hours of fun for you there — and then some.
What lens did you get?
Grabbed a 50mm EF 1:1.4 to kick things off … had some fun with it today, looking forward to getting out a bit more with the camera over the next few weeks.
I bet that bad boy could take some mean panty shots
Actually …….. out at Harajuku today the wind whipped up nicely
Those pics that you’ve taken so far are fantastic! Thanx so much for sharing your vision with us.
Thanks, they`re reduced a fair bit to make manageable on the site but look great at full res. Very happy with the camera so far.
Nice pictures Neil
the picture of the camera itself really shows up the difference in quality from the next set taken with the new camera
how do you get them down so small and still maintain good quality? some of your pictures are around 50K which is great
Hey Alan, the difference is amazing isn’t it. The still shot camera i have is no slouch at 10 meg either. As for the images, the ones from the new camera i will post the best quality i can, originally they’re coming off the camera at around 5.5 > 6 meg but when i resize to a little under 600 wide they end up around 200kb. I used to then export out a jpeg with 60% quality to get them down to 50 kb when i’d post a large number of images. Now i’ll probably use a gallery to get around page load times. The program i use for image manipulation is Gimp, it’s free and easy to use. http://www.gimp.org/
doubt it will be your last. ^^. photographers keep lens and upgrade the body every now and then.
I guess that was my intention in buying a high end body first up, negate the need to upgrade for many years.
gr8 collection…
Quick tips on a bright 50mm lens:
1) To get awesome portraits, use aperture-priority with f/1.8 or f/1.4
2) The lens is at its sharpest from about f/2.8 to f/8, to the best of my knowledge. Most lenses start losing some sharpness from diffraction after f/8.
3) If you take pictures while it’s sunny out, go get yourself a polarizing filter. You have no idea how much this will awesome-ify your stuff until you try it.
Great shots- you on flickr? My stream’s here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dshack/
I second the “are you on Flickr?” question.
It’d be nice to follow your progress on there.
Here you go Eric, just some scruffy pics on there now but i’ll update with new camera shots as i take them.
Cheers David …. I’m on flickr, i just upgraded to a pro account yesterday and will get the new shots up as i take them, currently there’s just the JR Yamanote Line series on there. http://flickr.com/photos/29555766@N04/
That’s great Neil! I need to get myself a good camera when I come to Japan, and a video camera, and other gadgets… But first, I need to win the lottery!
You’d be surprised Jonas …. not that expensive at all.
I’m still waiting for you to get the hidden camera
Congratulations! Now, get a circular polarising filter. Best Y5000 you’ll ever spend (well, best *camera related* Y5000 you’ll ever spend).
Will look into it Chris … just reading up on it now.
What lens did you get?
Canon 50mm f/1.4 USM http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/lenses/50mm-f14.htm
G’day mate,
Good to see you’ve grabbed yourself an SLR. It’s a great hobby, and I’m sure your surroundings will provide with countless angles. I actually have a cannon aswell. The 400D. I love it.
Just from what I’ve seen, you’ve taken some great shots. Keep it up.
Talk soon.
Certainly do Matt …. just cranked a few photos up from Sunday now and also started putting the full size ones on Flickr.
hey Neil … first of all, congrats on the new camera. I’ve still got my 20D which I bought YEARS ago and it’s running strong. Go Canon! And if no one has mentioned it yet, check out the forums on http://www.photography-on-the.net . It’s a Canon site and there’s a wealth of information there.
Cheers Paolo, will check out that site now! Go Canon!
Congrats on your purchase Neil (even though I’m a big Nikon D300 fan).
I can highly recommend TWiP (This Week in Photography)
http://twipphoto.com/
Their podcast is especially great. Listen to the whole back catalog of them.
For street photography with a Canon, I think you’d be very well served by the 70-200mm IS L lens. Probably costs more than the 50D body itself though.
Map Camera is also great, much better than that place in Nakano in my opinion. I find that place in Nakano to be a bit low class. Map Camera:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapcamera.com&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Polar filters are good as someone recommended, but they slow things down by a stop or two, so I only use mine in totally bright sunshine out of cities. When I first got a DSLR I thought super sunshine equals great shooting conditions, but now I realize such conditions often just blow shots out.
Thanks Jason, some good tips there and i’ll check out the podcast. The last few days i’ve downloaded a couple to the iPhone and found them very valuable …. i’ll be sure to grab this on too.
As for the 70-200 …. yes, the best part of 200,000 yen from memory …. nothing cheap about that at all!
Will take on board the polar filters tip too, will buy one this weekend and experiment with it.
Cannon has one of the better lenses in the business. So you will end up with far better pictures as they have been intergrating their features from the old SLR’s over to the digital cameras. They normally have one of the better optical zooms out there.
Seriously Neil, between you and Danny, you guys are inspiring me to take up photography! I was never one for taking pictures in the past but I’m starting to look into these things… I guess it helps when there’s so much life around the place you’re living in at the moment…
Well i’m glad i’m inspiring someone! I was never really into photography before moving to Japan …. just the odd photo here and there when out and about. Now living here it actually inspires me to have a quiet night, get up early and head out and take some photos … not all the time, but sometimes. Japan is a very photographic place and it makes it pretty easy to take it up as a hobby.
Hi!
I bought the 50d from Osaka and visited the local Canon service center. They were really helpful there and changed my Japanese manual to English one.
Good to hear they were helpful.