Incremental Progress in Saving for Camera
September 30, 2008
I’m not sure if this is an exhilirating feeling of focus or a weird obsession, but I’m worrying my way down the path of saving for the camera I want.
- I found some shit to sell. This was hard, as I mostly get rid of (read: give away) stuff I don’t want, but I brought myself to put up an old 16mm film splicer I had lying around on eBay (I’m giving 10% of profits to the Northwest Chapter of the CCFA, a Crohn’s and colitis non-profit). I briefly considered selling a couple of worthwhile 1st editions I had, but, uh, I collect books for various soul-fulfilling purposes and whoring them off to pimp my other hobbies is not one of them.
- Someone kindly offered to buy my 1st-generation iPhone from me.
- I got a little business-card printing gig with the ol’ letterpress. Friends can be very kind and supportive!
- I have a few minor money-making ideas with a few letterpress supplies. More on that later.
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As an owner of a Canon 5D (mark I by default I guess), I’m also eyeing jealously that Canon 5D Mark II. Current ebay prices for the Mark I are about $1400 for a used one, so I’m about halfway there. :)
There is one thing you should know about the 5D before you buy – however. The new 5D has the same autofocus system on it as the original 5D – much to the shegrin of folks hoping it to use the new system in the D50′s. After 3 years of shooting, I’ve been very happy and completely unregretful of the 5D purchase I made (for $2799 back in the day – only 2 weeks after it came out!). Full frame, amazingly usable images at ISO1600, etc. BUT justify it all as I may try – Canon’s autofocus system isn’t as robust as Nikons. For landscape and outdoor shooting I mostly do, it’s obviously not a problem where I can shoot several times or at large F-stops. But if you want to do a lot of motion, sports shooting, or using the AI focusing – pro shooters are staying with the 51-point Nikon system – and get about 30% more shots to come out than with their canons. I can attest that the autofocus on the 5D can be finicky at times for unknown reasons. You do sometimes miss action shots because of it. I wouldn’t want to use this for professional wedding shooting until it proves itself on the forums.
My approach: I’m waiting till it’s full out for a couple months and reading the forums until it proves itself. I don’t want to get drawn into a similar debacle as the 1Ds-mark ii autofocus mess they had a year or so ago.
Too bad it’s not going to be out in time for the fall season this year.
Check out the Canon 5D forums in dpreview.com for some of the commentary.