Sunday, April 12, 2009

New Camera and a smack in the back of the head with a bus mirror

I splurged on a new camera the day before yesterday. Since buying it I've been impatiently waiting for the battery to charge, setting up the software and generally fussing.
I got the Canon D5 Mark II and being a full frame DSLR it's a step up from my D40. I've tended to be a point and shoot sort of guy so I need to experiment and learn how to do the manual thing now. At $2300, it is an extravagance for an amateur such as myself but I've been watching the prices at duty free shops around the world and I figure I got a decent enough deal in the end. As you can see I couldn't wait to get out of the lift in my building before snapping away.
What follows are my first attempts at using this new piece of kit. I had to bin quite a few but I guess I'll improve eventually through trial and error. What's immediately evident is how sensitive the processor is in low light. The camera doesn't come with a built in flash, and it doesn't need it. I'm amazed at the detail that pops out in gloomy conditions and the usual noise at a high ISO setting is absent. This allows pictures in a smokey temple for instance, to be more reflective of the naked eye. Flash tends to wash things out so this is a nice new thing for me and (I keep telling myself) worth the money alone.Colours also pop out a bit more vibrantly, though the haze of the day conspired to dull everything down.
Apart from the pictures, yesterday's excitement was provided by a glancing smack in the head by a bus mirror. I didn't think much of it at the time as it didn't really hurt and the bus was just inching along. Later however, the whites of my eyes had turned red and I'm ashamed to say I went into mini panic mode.
Suffice to say after a trip to the hospital and doc's I've been given the all clear.
The whites of my eyes are returning as quickly as they departed and I feel a tad foolish.
I'm in the Middle East this week and hope my camera skills can cope with the harsh light of the sun in Qatar.
Stay tuned
T

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hows the bus !! thats what i would to my kids when they hurt them self on the pavement ,i know bloody anoying :) penny x

Anonymous said...

i guess that means someone is getting a new camera since your old one is quite fancy!
don't feel foolish! you did the right thing...that's the cautionary tale of what happened to the lovely and unfortunate ms. richardson. quite frankly, i'd rather you feel like a fool than be dead! xoxolisa

Anonymous said...

Good thing you checked your self out - prevention is so worth it!

The chip on the D5 makes a big diff - if you shoot RAW, you can run the image through the Canon Software and choose settings for tungsten, daylight, etc. Then do a conversion to TIFF or JPG. It helps a lot. In addition, you can sharpen the image a bit if things look a bit soft, and lots of other handy things.

I would have run the elevator shots through Tungsten filters and contrast the outdoor ones a bit
but that is just me :)

Enjoy, I love that camera and software!


Take care,
Manya

Anonymous said...

Glad there was nothing serious after all. L

Anonymous said...

An unexpected show of head injury solidarity: I got a fearsome whack on the back of the head today in a freak stupid-steamer-chair-folding-on-itself-whilst-I-was-sitting-on-the-end-of-it accident.

Oww.

Safe travels,
TR-HW