This is the second post in my Objects Series about how much I appreciate the possesions I have, and the choices I made when bringing them into my life.
I have enjoyed photography for as long as I can remember, but the first camera that I owned which really let me take impressive photographs was my Canon G9. I absolutely loved that camera – it had manual controls in a compact body, and with the zoom adapter I was even able to capture a photograph of Jupiter’s moons. Although the photograph itself was very poor, it really got me interested in being able to photograph the night sky. To do this properly, I’d have to get myself a some more stuff.
When I started looking around at the equipment I’d need to take decent photographs of the planets I realised that I’d need to get myself a proper telescope. But then the problem is which should I get first, the digital camera or the telescope? And should I get a CCD or an SLR camera? Because I also wanted to take photographs of other things, I decided the best thing to do would be to get myself a decent SLR camera with a good general purpose lens, and invest in a telescope at a later date.
Next problem is which SLR camera to get. I asked a lot of my friends for advice and they basically came into two camps:
- Get yourself a low end camera to get you started, upgrade later
- Buy the best camera you can afford, upgrade much later
I went around the shops and tried out various cameras to see what I thought of them, the two I was looking at was the Canon EOS 550D and the Canon EOS 7D. Both very impressive cameras which would suite my purpose. But upon actually holding the 7D, I quickly realised it felt a lot more substantial than the 550D and felt really good in my hand. I knew which one it had to be.
I’m very happy with my Canon EOS 7D, it has served me very well so far. I don’t know if the 55D would have survived the freezing temperatures of Kielder – where my camera was literally frozen over night. Plus I’ve already taken way more photographs with my 7D than I have with any other camera I have owned, and I’m not just talking about the timelapse videos!
If you are interested in purchasing the Canon EOS 7D, or any other camera for that matter, check out Camera Labs. Their in depth reviews and videos really helped me decide which camera I wanted.
