400D - The aftermath

I recently went to borrow a Canon EOS 400D recently as a cure for my itch from a fellow ClubSnapper. For a noob, I was impressed by its performance. The sound of the shutter is just mesmerizing to me; I can’t stop shooting. Colours are good even when I blow the pictures up in my PC - sharp and crisp. The grip feels nice too but that’s because the battery grip was intact.

Some might have gone “Like duuhhh, it’s a DSLR. Whaddaya expect?” right? Heh.

Anyway I found Canon to be really user-friendly, as widely reported amongst its users. Coming from a Panasonic background, I was surprised that I could figure out the functions pretty fast. But I only got hold of the kit lens though, which was a decent wide-angle but a crappy telephoto.

“Like duuhhh, 18-55. Whaddaya expect?”

I could have gotten a Canon 5D, which is my dream camera and my idol’s, but I don’t see the point. I didn’t even hold a DSLR before at that time! And if you must know, cliches does exist even in the photography world.

It’s not the camera, it’s the person behind it.

But it’s so damn true. I realized that while DSLRs pwned my prosumer performance-wise but doing all the composition, the look and feel and the theme of the photos, all boil down to the person whose finger presses that shutter release button. And I realized I still got a loooooooong way to learn.

The lender was kind enough to share his experiences with me, one of which is that Canon lenses are interchangeable with its bodies regardless of its generations, unlike Nikon. Now that’s a headstart for me to sway towards the Canon camp!

But maybe I’ll get my hands dirty on a Nikon D80 first. After that I’ll save up at least $1,000 and see what good DSLR offers there are in the market. What year will it be then hmmm…. 2015 maybe?

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