It's here...

Well, perhaps as a reward for voting on Sunday, or more likely because I ordered it several weeks ago, my new Canon 50D showed up today from Amazon. Had just a few minutes to look it over, but it feels really nice. The new LCD on the back is razor sharp, and some of the controls and interface elements have been fine-tuned. Looking forward for a chance to put it thru its paces and see what I can do with it, especially how the new sensor performs in low light.

(And please spare me the "it's not the camera, it's the vision" lecture posts. I KNOW that a great camera does not a great photographer make, and that some amazing photographers work with very simple and modest gear. That doesn't mean "real photographers" don't appreciate the advantages that technology has to offer.)

Also had a shoot yesterday, violating my self-imposed hiatus because she's a great model and a friend and she'll be moving to the east coast very soon, so I wanted to get in a shoot before she left. Since the new camera hadn't arrived yet, I had to shoot with my back-up camera, the Rebel Xsi. While it is a fine camera, for some reason, the controls are arranged somewhat differently, and it took me a while to get in the groove with adjusting the exposure, etc. (Why would they make a camera where the f-stop has to be adjusted with essentially a "shift" key?) A little like shaving left-handed at the start, but I got the hang of it and we got some very nice stuff. I remember a couple years ago going through the same kind of transition when I upgraded from the Rebel XT to the 30D, and I did OK with that eventually.

Anyone still out there?