My first DSLR

Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Sun May 13, 2007 12:35 am

I got my Pentax K10D with the SMC-FA 50 mm f/1.4 lens yesterday. I ordered from B&H because of their good reputation, and I didn’t have any problems.

I was actually in the DSLR market for several months, but I don’t think I ever posted anything about it. I had my eye on the Canon 30D, but I discovered that the K10D has good reviews and DNG support, which is more for my ideology than my photography.

I love it! Manual mode made some horrible shots yesterday, but today they’re only mildly bad. I’m getting there!

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Sun May 13, 2007 12:32 pm

Nice! I'm going to buy a nice camera sometime soon, hopefully. I'm not sure exactly which camera to go with at this point.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:20 pm

I've decided on getting the Canon Powershot S3 IS. I'll see what I can do with that and then upgrade to an SLR somewhere down the road if I feel I need to.

Chris, you should post some pics you've taken....

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Clueless · Post by **Clueless** » Mon May 14, 2007 10:14 pm

now you can update your picture on here!

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:17 am

Stasi wrote: I've decided on getting the Canon Powershot S3 IS. I'll see what I can do with that and then upgrade to an SLR somewhere down the road if I feel I need to.

That looks like a nice camera! I hope you enjoy it. I was almost going to get a compact camera, but I’m a control freak. I know I’d eventually want a DSLR anyway. (Ideally, I would have both for when the DSLR is too much to carry around or when I want to be less conspicuous.)

Stasi wrote: Chris, you should post some pics you've taken....

Definitely. They’re getting to the point where I don’t mind sharing them. Today (yesterday, rather) I started working on the night edition of my tour of Lawrenceburg. Photos, descriptions, etc. should be uploaded to my Web site within a few days. (I’ll have actual content!) You already have pictures of my cats, but they aren’t very good.

Clueless wrote: now you can update your picture on here!

I’m trying, but I look horrible in every picture.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:59 am

I chatted with a friend about it and he said I should save for a DLSR.... I dunno. If I go with a point-and-shoot camera, it'll be the Canon S3 IS, otherwise, I might save for another month or two and go with something in the $600-1000 range. We'll see. I haven't really established yet what specs I'll really need since I haven't established the parameters of the types of photos I want to take. I'll be trying to figure that out tonight. Right now I've got an Olympus Sylus 400, which used to work pretty well, but I've been having major issues with it for about a year now that make it very difficult to take any good pics.

I've seen what the S3 is capable of and I really like it. But I have a friend who did some photography over in India for a documentary and used a $1500 Canon DSLR and the clarity, lack of noise, and coloring are all amazing with no post-processing at all. I'd hate to spend a few hundred on something if I'm just going to end up upgrading not to long from now anyway. Hehe, major electronics purchases are always a roller coaster for me because I always find myself gravitating towards the really good stuff, then something lower end, and then usually end up in the middle.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:45 pm

I saw the S3 in person today while I was in Alabama. It’s smaller than I imagined. I didn’t get to touch it though.

Oh, and my picture of Augustus was really bright on a notebook at Best Buy. (I could get on the Internet!) I’m going to have to make sure my monitor is calibrated correctly.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:56 pm

Cool:) If I decide to buy the S3, I'll pick it up tomorrow. I have prior engagements this evening, unfortunately. I'll just say right now, though, that I'll probably bite the bullet and get something more serious.

If you need hosting space for your pics, I can set you up with an FTP and gallery on my own high-quota, high-bandwidth webspace.

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:06 pm

Stasi wrote: Cool:) If I decide to buy the S3, I'll pick it up tomorrow. I have prior engagements this evening, unfortunately. I'll just say right now, though, that I'll probably bite the bullet and get something more serious.

So, which did you do?

Stasi wrote: If you need hosting space for your pics, I can set you up with an FTP and gallery on my own high-quota, high-bandwidth webspace.

My site should be able to handle it, but thank you! I can’t imagine photos of Lawrenceburg being slashdotted.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Wed May 16, 2007 10:29 pm

I picked up the S3. If nothing else, by using it, I'll know better exactly what other features I'd like to have, but for now I think it'll do.

Here's a quick pic I took just soon after bringing the camera home with no post-processing:

http://www.manymanythings.com/images/dtop.jpg

The only other thing I really really need to get is a tripod... oh, and lots of experimentation.

***Edit: I DID scale it down to 1024x768....

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Chris Vogel · Post by **Chris Vogel** » Thu May 17, 2007 2:52 am

Stasi wrote: Here's a quick pic I took just soon after bringing the camera home with no post-processing:

http://www.manymanythings.com/images/dtop.jpg

Hey, that looks good! Are you happy with the camera so far?

Stasi wrote: The only other thing I really really need to get is a tripod

I love my tripod! Go get one right away! All I really need now is a bag. None of the bags at Wal-Mart are big enough.

I suppose I’ll share a picture. I present to you “the Strip”, also known as Highway 43 or North Locust Avenue. (Taken from the Eckerd parking lot.) This is the busiest street in Lawrenceburg, but it’s not so busy on a Monday night. (Those streaks are car lights. This was a long exposure.) My most obvious mistake is putting that payday-loan sign right in the center of the shot, though it’s sort of hard to photograph Lawrenceburg without including one.

Hopefully my monitor is calibrated correctly now.

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Stasi · Post by **Stasi** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:38 pm

Yes, the beautiful coloring in your picture of "The Strip" is why SLR's are so nice:)

I just took a few more pics:

The view from behind my apartment...

The moon in this evening's clear skies...

My happy and healthy mandrake plant...

One of my belladonna plants that suffered some rough times a couple weeks ago, but is being nursed back to health and already growing new leaves...

I still don't have a tripod. I'll try and get one on my next day off. All images scaled down to 1280x960 and compressed into JPG's with 93% image quality in GIMP.

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