Wasted Continuum

Today, I finally got my 50mm 1.4 to replace my sad, broken 50mm 1.8. The 50 was by far my favorite lens. I’ve been without it for too long. Not including the last two weeks, I’ve been shooting with the kit lens. Not that I can’t take quality photos with that lens, it’s just much more restrictive. I went to the park right after I left the camera store and took a ton of photos. I uploaded some of my photos to my Flickr.

I just got back from San Francisco Sunday night. I was there to support Mai at her first fashion show. It was held at the San Francisco Design Center on Saturday night. This was the first fashion I’ve been to. It was definitely a new challenge for me to photograph it. I shot over 1100 photos at the show. I blew through my 8GB and had to use my 4GB backup. I almost didn’t even bring my backup card. I shot the whole runway show with the 85mm 1.8 lens that I rented from LensProToGo. I’m loving it so far and I have it for another week and a half. I had a lot of fun and I’m definitely really proud of Mai. I know how much work she put into it and it looked amazing on the runway. I have some of the photos up on my Flickr. I will definitely put more up later.

A little disclaimer before I start talking about the EOS Rebel XSi DSLR, I have to tell you that this is not any sort of a review. Nor is it even a thorough hands on article. It’s really more of a “ooh my co-worker just bought one over the weekend and let me play with it for a while today” type of an article. Let me start by stating what I used today. It was the newest model in the Rebel line from Canon, the XSi. It is the successor to the XTi, which is the successor to the XT, the camera that I own. That means that it is two generations newer than mine and I have to say, it blatantly obvious.

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So one of the worst things that could happen to a photographer happened to me today. I had my camera in a tripod which I though was locked in. When let go of my camera, it came off of the tripod and fell to the hardwood floor. My camera landed on my 50mm 1.8 lens that was attached at the moment. It all happened so quickly. My lens was in two pieces.

I immediately checked to see the extent of the damage, but I already knew that my lens was done for. Luckily my camera body was still working fine. At first I thought my camera broke too because it wouldn’t turn on. After I switched the battery, I saw that my camera was okay. I’m just really sad that my 50mm is gone now. That was my favorite lens. Now the question is should I replace it with another 1.8 or should I save up a little and get the 1.4. The 1.8 is $86.28 and the 1.4 is $325. I don’t know I did get to use the 1.4 for a day and it was fun.

I have made it to 100 photos in my Flickr 365 project. I’m so amazed at that fact, you don’t even know it. The 365 project has been one of the best learning experiences so far for me in the photography world. I think I have really improved because of it. Besides improving my composition and lighting, I’ve also learned a lot about my camera. I’m glad I decided to do it.

I know. Everyone has talked about Flip Video Cameras. I’m about a year late. I never really gave the Flip Video a chance. It’s a barebone, feature-less, relatively cheap handheld camera that shoots 640×480 AVI’s. It’s not exactly a geek’s dream camcorder. It’s almost the opposite. I’ve been researching digital video cameras for about a year now. I’m mostly waiting for a 1080p camera to be priced for a consumer to buy. That hasn’t really happened yet. There are options for that out there. Then I heard a couple people I trust in the geek world talk about the Flip Video so I decided to check it out for myself.

I think the most attractive points to the Flip Video is that it is cheap ($100.86 for the 30-minute and $149.99 for the 60-minute) and simple to use. You basically press the red button on the back to start recording. You press a button to stop. To get the video off the camera, you flip out the little USB connector from the side of it and plug it into your Mac or PC. You can use the supplied software to edit it or even upload to AOL or YouTube, or you can just copy off the MPEG4 AVI files and edit them in your own software. You can even connect the camera directly to your TV and watch the video that way. The Flip Video also runs on AA batteries so when you on the go and forgot to charge your batteries, you can easily go to a gas station or convenient store and pick up some.