Too bad that isn’t what that acronym stands for. It actually stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. Not as catchy, I know. It refers to the type of camera I use
, as well as millions of other people. So what’s so great about them? The main reason is being able to easily swap out lenses and keep the same camera body. But there are a ton of reasons to upgrade to a DSLR from a point-and-shoot style camera: full manual controls, better depth of field, bigger image sensors, etc. And most DSLR’s are now capable of shooting HD video. The Nikon D90
was introduced back in 2008 and was the first to have an HD movie mode, capturing 720p video at 24 frames per second. So combine all the pros of having a DSLR with the fact that they can shoot high-def movies, and you’ve got a pretty badass system. Which leads me to why I’m even writing this post.
I’ve been shooting with a Canon Rebel XT
since the beginning of 2009. I’ve shot a lot of great photos with this camera and have had a lot of fun. But at some point, geeks like me always need to upgrade their electronics to a newer model and something with a lot more options. This time for me is now! Last week, I was able to find someone who wanted to buy my XT body with a couple of the lenses I don’t use that often, for the price I was looking to get. And I’ve been researching like crazy for the past month about upgrading my camera. I knew I wanted to stick with Canon (I guess I’m a Canon fan boy??), and I definitely wanted it to be able to shoot 1080P video.
Video is something I was really trying to get into back in 2008. I ended up buying a Panasonic HD video camera
. I rarely used this and it seemed complicated to get the video transferred to my computer, let alone trying to edit it. I sold this to a friend and soon after, I bought my first Canon DSLR and really focused on photography. Every now and then, I’d think about trying to get back into video, but nothing really convinced me that I just had to do it. I’ve been randomly following some people on Facebook and Twitter for the past few months to a year, and seeing some of their work just amazes me. To the point that I began researching a lot. Which led me to buying my first HDSLR camera: the Canon T3i.
I really wanted to buy it from my local camera shop, Dodd Camera, but I just couldn’t justify doing it, mainly because of the money. Dodd Camera used to be called Click Camera and I actually worked at Click right out of college for about a year and a half. One of the employees at the location by my house (Alex) has always been 300% helpful with any questions I’ve ever had. Super nice guy! He does photography on the side so it helps being able to talk to someone in the same boat as you. Anyways, they were charging a slightly higher price, but I chose Best Buy in the end because of their 24-month no interest financing (I’m a sucker for this), a discount on memory cards, and a free photo book from Shutterfly. Mainly just the financing. But had I bought locally, I could have already had the camera in hand, and doing a review on it, not this lame post. Best Buy was out of stock and my camera wouldn’t be at the store for a week or two. I hate the feeling of being super excited for something, buying this expensive gadget, and then not being able to have it for a couple weeks. Talk about anxiety!
And I’ve been doing even more research about what accessories I’m going to buy
for my new “toy”. I bought my Rebel XT and a couple of lenses off eBay back in ’09, then I bought some things from B & H Photo shortly after. I like that company a lot, they have competitive prices, fast shipping (and free in many cases), and usually have what I want in stock. As well as having some great deals on used equipment. So I’ve been adding things to my shopping cart and wish list for days now. I did remove several items as I saved about 75% by buying them off eBay. What can I say, I’m a bargain shopper! But the main things I want to get that I haven’t bought yet are a battery grip
, a variable neutral density filter
, and a slider
. I’m sure these will be on order asap though! Thanks for reading!
