Friday, October 12, 2007

Reflections On The "Old Canon 10D"

Almost four years ago on October 14th, I got my Canon EOS 10D from B&H Photo/Video in New York. I really splurged and got a 1-gigabyte memory card, which cost “only" $230.00. Compare that to the price of flash memory today.

The camera is 6.3 mega pixels. It was advertised as being the first digital SLR that was cost effective to own. The theory being that if one shot a significant amount they would recover the cost of the camera and memory card by savings on film processing. I found that digital opened up a new world as one could now afford to shoot a large amount of photographs. I still have a hangup to this day about firing a burst as it still seems that one is being wasteful, but they are not, except that it can be difficult sorting through the images and deciding which to keep.

This was the first digital camera I owned and the only, until I received a Canon 40D today.



The Very First Shot Back in 2003-A Test Shot Of A Neighbor's House:

Picture #30-Canon 35-350 L lens-One of first "serious" shots with 10D

Back View of 10D After 4 Years Of Hard Service

I had a lot of great experiences carrying this camera and will be keeping it as a back up.

I look forward to putting the 40D into service and am hoping for improved performance at higher ISO speeds. The 10D is good, but it does have noise issues in poor light at ISO settings of 400 or more and it is in these conditions that one needs the higher settings.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mesmerising post. I think photography is an addiction that has only improved with this digital age. We both shoot way too many pictures but there is no waste unless it is "time" spent looking through the lot.

I began in 1953 with a Canon 35mm film camera and only black and white. When color film came out most of us didn't use it as both Kodak and Fuji had color fade issues, but eventually, and in spite of the processing done in Hawaii, we switched to color. Anyway, I have always had film Canons until I got the Rebel in 2005. That changed my life totally. I got the second one and it is the better of the two. I use them a lot. Too much I guess. A newspaper did a story about me and my photography and they sent out an old guy (about my age) and he had two Canons around is neck and those plus the lens were about as much as my house cost in 1962. He is the one who convinced me to shoot in bursts and I have ever since.

Like you said, it takes time to go through 3 or 400 photos and it can be boring at hell but sometimes you find a real gem you didn't know you had. So that alone makes it worth my time. I still shoot in bursts and sort through them looking for the odd pose or the difference and I end up using them.

I really like your work and that of several others I have met online recently and I see you are also among them with your comments on their blogs.

Congratulations on the new camera. I know you will enjoy it.

Tom said...

I'm new to taking pictures and the small camera I use, some of the terminology is wasted on me, but I know enthusiasm when I see and here it.
I am looking forward to seeing how you and this new camera get along.

Great post and I will now take some time to find out what ISO means

Tom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Willard said...

Wom,
That's the beauty of photography, that one can engage in it at whatever level they choose and still enjoy it and the digital age has made it so much easier to get the results you want and share them with others. I'll try and make a post with some information on ISO at some point. I find that I dwell on the technical aspects of cameras to a certain extent, especially when I first get a new one, but after I make the decisions as to how I will set it up, I just use it as a tool and don't have my mind on all of the technical details--at least not all of the time.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Good post, Willard. I'm glad you got your new dream camera.

Tom said...

Willard: Thanks for the answer, I get confused now with the settings on this small one of mine.. Mines a Canon Powershot S1 IS, 3.2 MP, 10X Optical Zoom.
I have set up the 3 main settings for me and seem to be getting there with it.

Anonymous said...

Hi nice blog, I still today use a 10d, remember its not the camera but the lense. eventually i plan to get a 50d.. take care