It all started with the Nikon Coolpix 950, which I purchased shortly after moving to America in what must have been April 2000. Not only was it my first digital camera, it was my first camera of any description. I wanted to record my experiences whilst in Silicon Valley, which, with my European work background, felt like the Wild West.
The 950 provided a good few years of sterling service. For example, it faithfully registered the progress of our honeymoon across Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Hong Kong in late 2002, even though technology had marched on and much better cameras were available by that time. It had one great advantage, namely that it used standard AA batteries, which was a godsend when overnighting for days at a time without any electricity. The more modern cameras of the day were resorting to proprietary battery packs, which needed to be charged.
My next camera was a Minolta DiMage 7Hi, which I kept for only a year or so, before replacing it with a Minolta A2. I got a good price for the 7Hi on eBay.
The A2 was to provide many years of faithful service. I particularly loved its ability to record a voice caption as each shot was taken. Many of the albums in our gallery wouldn’t be nearly as well captioned if I hadn’t had those five second WAV files to rely on, once we’d arrived home and were sorting through our snaps.
It wasn’t until the A2’s viewfinder gave up the ghost at the end of our trip across the United Arab Emirates and Oman that I made my first foray into the daunting world of the digital SLR. At the recommendation of my friend, Peter, I purchased a Canon EOS 400D.
A couple of one-day courses ensued in order to learn how to get the best from the camera. I wouldn’t say that they turned me into a good photographer, but I at least learned the basics of operating an SLR.
I’ve really enjoyed using the 400D and invested in a trio of good L series lenses for it, but I’ve always lamented the fact that it didn’t possess a full-frame sensor, such as the EOS 5D.
Given my level of skill, there was no justification for the expense of a 5D and, in any case, it was actually lacking some of the handy features that Canon had built into the 400D, such as automatic sensor cleaning to remove dust. The 400D was therefore more than ample for my needs.
A few months ago, in a separate development, I finally decided to succumb to the temptation of a digital video camera, mostly because we wanted to make short films of the children and the camera on my Nokia E90 phone, whilst surprisingly good, wasn’t really good enough.
After the usual thorough research, I’d decided on the Sony HDR-TG3E and was on the verge of buying it when Canon announced the release of the EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR.
The Mark II of the lovely EOS 5D adds a lot of nice new features, not least amongst which the ability to record full HD video. The combination of a full-frame digital SLR and a good video camera in a single body was irresistible, and I quickly vowed to acquire one when they became available.
Well, the EOS 5D Mark II has been slow to trickle into the shops, so it wasn’t until we were leaving for the US that I spotted one in a duty-free shop at Schiphol. Boarding of our plane was about to start, so there wasn’t much time to deliberate. I snapped it up and brought it with us to America.
The new camera has necessitated the purchase of a UDMA compact flash card in order to get the most from the EOS 5D Mark II’s high speed internals. I’ve also had to splurge on a BG-E6 battery grip, because I found its cousin, the BG-E3, to be indispensable on the 400D. Besides, the revised EOS 5D has a new battery management system for its expensive LP-E6 batteries (which are out of stock everywhere at the time of writing).
I’ve only taken a few shots so far, but I can already see the difference the full-frame sensor makes to my EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. Cool features, such as peripheral illumination correction for each lens owned by the photographer, help one to exact the very best performance from one’s expensive glass.
I haven’t made any HD videos yet, as I’m still reading the manual. Yes, believe it or not, I actually do read manuals before I let myself loose on new hardware. I’m a rare breed, I know.
We head off to Iceland on Monday, where I’ll be able to put the camera through its paces over New Year. I’m intrigued to see how the results compare to those obtained with the 400D on our last trip to Iceland.