Honeymoon with Canon

For the time being, me and my Canon are an inseparable couple. We are fond of each other very much. I go out with her regularly, touch her body everywhere, and by now know fairly well where her controls are. No need to worry, though, I didn’t get married. However, after several months of deciding and choosing, I finally ordered a digital SLR camera.

Here she is. :-)Canon EOS 40D won me in the end. I like the brand, and this camera is advanced enough to satisfy a much more experienced photographer, than myself. Although, on paper, some of its specs pale in comparison to the new Nikon D300 powerhouse, I don’t want to wait for four months to get it, and pay half more for features I don’t really need. Along with it, I’ve bought a bunch of accessories and two lenses, a great value standard zoom Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, a lens with a scary name suffix: Di II LD Aspherical IF SP AF. The other lens I’ve bought is the ridiculously expensive and in all aspects brilliant Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. I hope that this one will survive for many, many years to come and serve on several bodies.
The body is large and ergonomic enough to feel comfortable in my not so small, (and reportedly silky smooth, ;-)) hands, although using the rather bulky long lens would be more comfortable with a battery grip attached. Some people say that it’s difficult for them to shoot this way for a longer time period, but I have been able to shoot for four hours straight without feeling any strain. Image stabilization handled most of the shakes rather nicely. There are still some holes in this setup, especially macro shooting. Minimum focusing distance of this lens is 1.4 m, which means I can’t shoot any more detail than the butterfly. I am going to try out Canon 500D, which should solve this problem. So far, I was out shooting for several hours and appreciated the sharpness and detail this lens can provide, even wide open at 200 mm. The crop factor of my APS-C sensor is 1.6x, which turns 200 mm into a 320 mm equivalent, long enough to shoot people without being too intrusive.
For wildlife, I would like to have a longer lens, preferably reaching somewhere around 500 mm focal length. Nonetheless, with enough luck, it is possible even to shoot birds with a nice amount of detail. This one was just sitting on the beach, yawning at me. :-)

Or this squirrel, obviously too occupied with its nut to care about a clumsy giant approaching.
Yesterday, for the first time in years, I went to the ZOO. As I’ve complained before, my dear Canon makes me do things I wouldn’t have done before… while I was going there, a pretty nice panorama presented itself, and I didn’t hesitate to change the lens for this shot.
Anyway, speaking of squirrels, one of the first I’ve seen over at the ZOO was incredibly cheeky and daring!
Shooting animals over at the ZOO was a pain. Mostly because they were in cages, or behind glass. Cages are just ugly, and glass was often stained and dirty, as well as difficult to focus through properly. Nonetheless, I was able to shoot a few decent ones. Here’s a thought, how about I start collecting photos of animals with their tongues out? :-)



Oh, and I couldn’t believe how cutely a polar bear can smile. :-)
I greatly appreciated the maximum aperture of the long zoom. Not only it makes a wonderful creamy bokeh, it is also very handy to “see through,” (although more appropriate expression would be see around,) cage bars, in certain circumstances. This cat is in a cage similar to the one with squirrel inside it, above. In this picture, you can see the bars in the foreground merely as very soft blurs.
The flamingos were so glad to see me that they started kissing. :-)

(This one is quite soft, because I had to crop it a lot.)

Just a few more random shots, and I’ll stop. Promise. :-) But this lady definitely deserves some attention. Charming, isn’t she?

Well, what can I say. The body is quite complex, and some of the shots above could have been better, were I an experienced photographer. But for the first two days out with a SLR, I am satisfied. :-) Hooray! Finally, I can shoot whatever I want, whenever I want!