Got my first DSLR by chance
Sep 4, 2018 17:39:30 #
tonal
Loc: Greece
Well, short of.
As a kid in the 80s in my family I only remember a polaroid instant camera which must have failed at some point relatively early and a simple Kodak point and shoot.
The polaroid was exciting as I could see the developed photograph in just a few minutes after it was taken. The colors were much different than what I was used to at that time.
The Kodak on the other hand was just boring. It was a cheap black plastic box with just a couple of buttons other than the shutter release button and I don't remember shooting more that 3 or 4 films per year.
This was the family camera and remained as such until early 00s when it stopped working.
The first time that I had the chance to hold a manual film camera was in the early 90s.
I still remember visiting my grandparents in the village where my father grew up. My father's youngest brother had a Russian Kiev rangefinder.
I remember at that time that many people from the former Soviet Union would sell surplus or used equipment in the local flea markets everywhere and this is what I remember telling me when I asked him were he found that camera
with the strange Cyrillic characters.
Well, this was magnificent!!!
Metal body with a real lens and machined dials that I had no idea of their purpose but it looked nothing like the plastic and uninteresting Kodak (I know it would be the same for every other
camera at this category so sorry for that Kodak :) ).
Even the twist locks on the bottom of the camera to open the back and replace the film roll were a nicely engineered piece of work.
This was the first time I realized that you can focus on your subject and isolate it from the background. I was about ten years old.
I still remember focusing and shooting around even with no film inside that camera.
For that I am grateful to my uncle, letting me play with a piece of equipment bought with hard earned money at that time.
I must admit that since I was a kid I was very cautious with all shorts of equipment and I could tell if something was meant to be handled with care.
I suspect that this is the reason why he would let me use the camera.
The other thing was the 4x6 prints. Locally we had two (or three) options Kodak and Agfa (not sure about fujifilm).
My father would go to Kodak because the owner of the shop lived right across the street.
I later realized that printed photos on Agfa were much more pleasing (more saturated colors) the surface finishing was not exactly matte, it was glossy but at the same time grainy (it was much harder to leave a fingerprint on it) and the thin white frame in the Agfa prints was looking really nice.
Well I don't know if the specific Kodak printer was set correctly or not but the impression I was left with was that Agfa prints were much more lively and the image would pop out of the paper.
These experiences must have planted a seed of curiosity about photography somewhere at the very back of my mind.
Then I grew up and I almost forgot about all this.
Maybe because I knew that the result would not be what I would like it to be and the use of that specific family low end camera was soooo uninviting.
It was around 2008 when I got my first digital point and shoot camera, a Canon A460. Nothing special to write about.
At some point I had installed a 3rd party firmware that would add a lot of cool features in that little camera.
And then ten years after here I am with a proper camera writing in this forum my story introducing myself.
It is not the best camera, I'd say it is pretty much outdated and the lenses are not the best money can buy
but for me and my hobby it is more than adequate.
All this might sound silly to many of you, but I grew up in an environment that apart from my uncle in the village had no interest in photography except
taking family snapshots once in a while. Later when I was in university just a couple of friends owned a DSLR but it was out of my budget at that time.
This is how I got my DSLR by pure luck.
A friend of mine got a Canon 600D (T3i) as a gift for being a bridesmaid.
She opened it, took a couple of shots and then put it back in the box and left it there for years sitting on a bookself.
The bride - her old friend from school - should have known better that this wasn't the right kind of gift for her :).
One day more than a year ago she asked me how much she could sell it since she knew she would never going to use it.
I told her that I was interested in buying it. She insisted on giving it to me for free but this did not feel right. After all she wanted to sell it, not give it away.
I just asked if I could borrow it for a couple of days to test it and understand if this was something that I would enjoy or not.
Without a second thought I bought it from her the very next day.
The camera came with the most basic kit lens, the 18-55 DC III without IS and this was the only lens I was using for almost a year.
Last Easter I had the camera with me in a traditional feast that a friend had me invited at.
Someone must have stepped on the bag that I had the camera in because after a couple of days when I tried to remove the lens its mount was broken- I can't find any other way this couldhave happened.
Admittedly one of the good things when a lens has a plastic mount apart from lower weight is that any stress applied will damage the plastic mount, not the camera body.
I repaired it with some super glue but my first thought was that it would eventually fail the most inappropriate moment when I would really need it.
So I started looking online for reviews to find a replacement lens.
Till that time I just had a rough idea about how much a lens could cost but I had already found out that the blurred background would call for a wider aperture and the reach of the
18-55 lens was not enough for me on both ends of wide and tele.
First off I bought the 18-55 F3.5-5.6 IS STM to replace the broken lens and the 50mm STM to get the desired effect of out of focus background.
I really liked the new lenses and in a short while I decided spending some money to get wider angles and longer reach so I acquired the 10-18mm IS STM
along with the 55-250 IS STM.
Now my camera backpack would not be spacious enough for those lenses!!!
Problems, problems, problems which were all solved when i got a nice and spacious backpack for my new toys.
Last but not least the 35mm STM macro with the built in light ring was added to the kit.
You really can't go wrong with these lenses when you are on a tight budget especially if you can get any of them in a white box (the 18-55 and the 55-250 in my case).
They are well built with the 18-55 being the only exception, they do not cost much (got them all new for 1K), they are reasonably sharp and they meet my expectations for what they cost.
Someone could say that I've gone through the GAS lighty but this came after spending quite some time with the kit lens finding out what are its limitations
and what I need and the 18-55 cannot offer.
All except the 50mm have IS which is a desired feature for me since I prefer to hand hold and avoid using a tripod or high ISO settings.
I also do not like to use the built in flash, I don't like the way it flattens the image and it looks harsh unless it is done on purpose to give that certain look or it is an absolute necessity.
With the 10-18 I am able to take usable pictures with shutter speeds of one whole second or even two if I am lucky when I am in the 10mm focal length
and I like it a lot for the wide viewing angle it offers which comes pretty handy in many situations from cityscapes to countryside.
This along with the 55-250 and the macro are the most used lenses.
I know I have a lot to learn and I need a lot of practice but it is not the technical stuff that worries me.
Most of all I understand that I lack this insight that a photographer has and gives the ability to transform an uninteresting scene to an eye pleasing composition,
the ability to choose the very right spot, the perfect angle, playing with the light and the shadow, the color and the shapes and the perspective.
Sometimes I am just lucky and get it almost right but most of the times It is just a snapshot with wider angle or out of focus background.
I am aware that it is not the gear...
And all this ends with a sigh...
As a kid in the 80s in my family I only remember a polaroid instant camera which must have failed at some point relatively early and a simple Kodak point and shoot.
The polaroid was exciting as I could see the developed photograph in just a few minutes after it was taken. The colors were much different than what I was used to at that time.
The Kodak on the other hand was just boring. It was a cheap black plastic box with just a couple of buttons other than the shutter release button and I don't remember shooting more that 3 or 4 films per year.
This was the family camera and remained as such until early 00s when it stopped working.
The first time that I had the chance to hold a manual film camera was in the early 90s.
I still remember visiting my grandparents in the village where my father grew up. My father's youngest brother had a Russian Kiev rangefinder.
I remember at that time that many people from the former Soviet Union would sell surplus or used equipment in the local flea markets everywhere and this is what I remember telling me when I asked him were he found that camera
with the strange Cyrillic characters.
Well, this was magnificent!!!
Metal body with a real lens and machined dials that I had no idea of their purpose but it looked nothing like the plastic and uninteresting Kodak (I know it would be the same for every other
camera at this category so sorry for that Kodak :) ).
Even the twist locks on the bottom of the camera to open the back and replace the film roll were a nicely engineered piece of work.
This was the first time I realized that you can focus on your subject and isolate it from the background. I was about ten years old.
I still remember focusing and shooting around even with no film inside that camera.
For that I am grateful to my uncle, letting me play with a piece of equipment bought with hard earned money at that time.
I must admit that since I was a kid I was very cautious with all shorts of equipment and I could tell if something was meant to be handled with care.
I suspect that this is the reason why he would let me use the camera.
The other thing was the 4x6 prints. Locally we had two (or three) options Kodak and Agfa (not sure about fujifilm).
My father would go to Kodak because the owner of the shop lived right across the street.
I later realized that printed photos on Agfa were much more pleasing (more saturated colors) the surface finishing was not exactly matte, it was glossy but at the same time grainy (it was much harder to leave a fingerprint on it) and the thin white frame in the Agfa prints was looking really nice.
Well I don't know if the specific Kodak printer was set correctly or not but the impression I was left with was that Agfa prints were much more lively and the image would pop out of the paper.
These experiences must have planted a seed of curiosity about photography somewhere at the very back of my mind.
Then I grew up and I almost forgot about all this.
Maybe because I knew that the result would not be what I would like it to be and the use of that specific family low end camera was soooo uninviting.
It was around 2008 when I got my first digital point and shoot camera, a Canon A460. Nothing special to write about.
At some point I had installed a 3rd party firmware that would add a lot of cool features in that little camera.
And then ten years after here I am with a proper camera writing in this forum my story introducing myself.
It is not the best camera, I'd say it is pretty much outdated and the lenses are not the best money can buy
but for me and my hobby it is more than adequate.
All this might sound silly to many of you, but I grew up in an environment that apart from my uncle in the village had no interest in photography except
taking family snapshots once in a while. Later when I was in university just a couple of friends owned a DSLR but it was out of my budget at that time.
This is how I got my DSLR by pure luck.
A friend of mine got a Canon 600D (T3i) as a gift for being a bridesmaid.
She opened it, took a couple of shots and then put it back in the box and left it there for years sitting on a bookself.
The bride - her old friend from school - should have known better that this wasn't the right kind of gift for her :).
One day more than a year ago she asked me how much she could sell it since she knew she would never going to use it.
I told her that I was interested in buying it. She insisted on giving it to me for free but this did not feel right. After all she wanted to sell it, not give it away.
I just asked if I could borrow it for a couple of days to test it and understand if this was something that I would enjoy or not.
Without a second thought I bought it from her the very next day.
The camera came with the most basic kit lens, the 18-55 DC III without IS and this was the only lens I was using for almost a year.
Last Easter I had the camera with me in a traditional feast that a friend had me invited at.
Someone must have stepped on the bag that I had the camera in because after a couple of days when I tried to remove the lens its mount was broken- I can't find any other way this couldhave happened.
Admittedly one of the good things when a lens has a plastic mount apart from lower weight is that any stress applied will damage the plastic mount, not the camera body.
I repaired it with some super glue but my first thought was that it would eventually fail the most inappropriate moment when I would really need it.
So I started looking online for reviews to find a replacement lens.
Till that time I just had a rough idea about how much a lens could cost but I had already found out that the blurred background would call for a wider aperture and the reach of the
18-55 lens was not enough for me on both ends of wide and tele.
First off I bought the 18-55 F3.5-5.6 IS STM to replace the broken lens and the 50mm STM to get the desired effect of out of focus background.
I really liked the new lenses and in a short while I decided spending some money to get wider angles and longer reach so I acquired the 10-18mm IS STM
along with the 55-250 IS STM.
Now my camera backpack would not be spacious enough for those lenses!!!
Problems, problems, problems which were all solved when i got a nice and spacious backpack for my new toys.
Last but not least the 35mm STM macro with the built in light ring was added to the kit.
You really can't go wrong with these lenses when you are on a tight budget especially if you can get any of them in a white box (the 18-55 and the 55-250 in my case).
They are well built with the 18-55 being the only exception, they do not cost much (got them all new for 1K), they are reasonably sharp and they meet my expectations for what they cost.
Someone could say that I've gone through the GAS lighty but this came after spending quite some time with the kit lens finding out what are its limitations
and what I need and the 18-55 cannot offer.
All except the 50mm have IS which is a desired feature for me since I prefer to hand hold and avoid using a tripod or high ISO settings.
I also do not like to use the built in flash, I don't like the way it flattens the image and it looks harsh unless it is done on purpose to give that certain look or it is an absolute necessity.
With the 10-18 I am able to take usable pictures with shutter speeds of one whole second or even two if I am lucky when I am in the 10mm focal length
and I like it a lot for the wide viewing angle it offers which comes pretty handy in many situations from cityscapes to countryside.
This along with the 55-250 and the macro are the most used lenses.
I know I have a lot to learn and I need a lot of practice but it is not the technical stuff that worries me.
Most of all I understand that I lack this insight that a photographer has and gives the ability to transform an uninteresting scene to an eye pleasing composition,
the ability to choose the very right spot, the perfect angle, playing with the light and the shadow, the color and the shapes and the perspective.
Sometimes I am just lucky and get it almost right but most of the times It is just a snapshot with wider angle or out of focus background.
I am aware that it is not the gear...
And all this ends with a sigh...
Sep 4, 2018 20:02:57 #
Welcome to the Forum. Looks like you have a nice set of lenses; that EF-S 10-18mm is an especially fun lens for all sorts of wide-angle creativity.
If I can give any advice to help develop that “photographer insight”, it might be to shoot around 50 planned & executed photographs as often as possible, and try to go out for each shoot with a concept you want to try with one lens, and perhaps take just one other lens as your walkabout/targets of opportunity option?
With a Plan A Concept, and a Plan B for anything fun you want to capture along the way, and perhaps a target of 2 or 3 Concepts each week, you may surprise yourself with how quickly you develop that insight, for one or more concepts that you enjoy?
If I can give any advice to help develop that “photographer insight”, it might be to shoot around 50 planned & executed photographs as often as possible, and try to go out for each shoot with a concept you want to try with one lens, and perhaps take just one other lens as your walkabout/targets of opportunity option?
With a Plan A Concept, and a Plan B for anything fun you want to capture along the way, and perhaps a target of 2 or 3 Concepts each week, you may surprise yourself with how quickly you develop that insight, for one or more concepts that you enjoy?
Sep 4, 2018 21:26:02 #
I love your story. It is very reflective of my own youth and gradual acquisition of gear that let me do what I wanted to do. My wife is retired, and I am on schedule for the next four years, so we had similar problems in acquiring our DSLR outfits. Here's a link to how we assembled reasonably competent outfits on a very limited budget. I look forward to hearing your adventures along the same path!
Andy
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-526467-1.html
Andy
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-526467-1.html
Sep 4, 2018 22:15:01 #
Welcome to the UHH.
Interesting story. When I was little my Grandmother's Sister was still using a Kodak Brownie made before World War I.
That T6i is only one generation old, it is still a pretty good little camera. My daughter still uses a T2i, I offered to get her a much newer camera but she said no, this one is good enough for now and since she just started Medical School she probably won't have time to do much photography for several years. She figures 8 to 10, 4 for medical school, 4 to 6 for internship and residency since she plans to be a surgeon.
Interesting story. When I was little my Grandmother's Sister was still using a Kodak Brownie made before World War I.
That T6i is only one generation old, it is still a pretty good little camera. My daughter still uses a T2i, I offered to get her a much newer camera but she said no, this one is good enough for now and since she just started Medical School she probably won't have time to do much photography for several years. She figures 8 to 10, 4 for medical school, 4 to 6 for internship and residency since she plans to be a surgeon.
Sep 4, 2018 23:25:44 #
Sep 5, 2018 02:03:35 #
Sep 5, 2018 04:34:32 #
tonal
Loc: Greece
Robyn H wrote:
A bit long, don't you think?! Welcome, from another new member.
Hi Robyn,
Nice to find you all here in the forum.
As for the length of the post I am sorry but I never said that it would be a short one! :)
Sep 5, 2018 05:45:50 #
Sep 5, 2018 06:35:53 #
Sep 5, 2018 07:04:20 #
Welcome to the forum.
Don't worry about the "level" of your camera-
I'm still using my T1i.
Don't worry about the "level" of your camera-
I'm still using my T1i.
Sep 5, 2018 07:58:30 #
Sep 5, 2018 08:15:59 #
olemikey
Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida
Welcome aboard and have fun shooting. Be sure to check out Andy's suggested post. Great photographs come from all levels of equipment.
Sep 5, 2018 12:14:16 #
Sep 5, 2018 14:19:05 #
Sep 5, 2018 16:21:27 #
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