The circle of camera life :-p.

Finally!! After much deliberation, research and what not, my new DSLR Canon EOS 50D arrived last week on Tuesday the 20th July 2010. So why wait till now for a post, you ask? Well, I "assumed" that the camera would work on an SD card and found out only after I got it that it needed a compact flash card, which arrived today ;-). So here's the gear:




This photo above was taken by my trusty Canon S2 IS which promptly died soon after the arrival of the new one, apparently as if from jealousy :-p. In fact this was one of the last photos I took with it. Last friday, I was working on re-capturing the same image (because I wasn't completely satisfied with it), when the lens got stuck and refused to retract. Supposedly its the infamous dreaded Lens error. I felt very very sad, it was difficult losing something that was so close to my heart. The camera was a silent ever-present friend to me and it was as if I lost a part of myself. I found out that it'd cost almost as much as $150 to get it repaired.

So I decided to open and check it myself. Well, the engineering degree I have in electronics has to be useful sometime right? :-p.




Please forgive the bad quality pic - it was taken from my iPhone as I hadn't gotten the CF card for the DSLR yet :-p. I have to tell you, I was scared like hell that I'd end up corrupting it further. But I didn't. Yesterday evening, with a bit of Sri's help, I pin-pointed the fault to the USM (ultra-sonic motor) inside (its most probably that or else there's nothing I can do about it). Now have the option of getting a spare part from ebay and fixing it myself, but still thinking about it :-\.

Lets get back to the DSLR now. Today I got the CF card and immediately had to take snaps :). Here are my favourite subjects :).









Looks good on these hands right? :).




So the first 2 steps in my Astrophotography dream are done (learning photography and getting a DSLR). The next step is to master the DSLR and try taking astrophotos without an equatorial mount (used to negate earth's rotation while taking long exposures of the night sky). Just can't wait :).

Meanwhile the MasterCard ad was made for this post ;-).

Canon EOS 50D with 28-135mm lens - $957
Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens - $87
LCD protector - $3
Compact Flash card - $60
Having it in my hand and jumping up and down - Priceless!!

Man, was it a lot of money. I thought again and again on whether I'm confident enough to invest such an amount (had second thoughts about it even after buying it :-p). But you know what? I'm ready for this, to move on and learn more. To know and to do more :).

Or else, I can always blame this particular madness on the big three-oh (coming up soon), hehehe :)).