Reactionary

I played my annual “New Year’s Day” this morning and have yet to leave the house. I probably won’t now since everything’s closed today. I meant to go out and photograph the parade, but that never happened. It’s bleak out.

I’m inside editing the footage I taped at Christmas, listening to the U2.Communication audio, and wishing I had $3000 to buy the Canon 5D and wishing I’d gotten my lens I ordered already. Now that I hear about the digital SLR conversion factor, I’m happier with my old film camera and finding I may be able to wait until I can afford a full-frame SLR. I love the 20D, but it has a 1.6 conversion factor, making it harder to get real wide angle shots. Since I don’t photograph people or animal subjects a whole lot and like lanscapes and architecture where wide angle is a must, I may be able to hold out a bit. The thing is, the 5D is rather new and while it may drop in price a bit, it’s still well over the cost of a new computer. Add to that the fact that with a full-frame camera, I may want a few nice, new lenses. And how long can I wait really to get a real camera that’s also digital? My point and shoot digital doesn’t measure up. It’s slowness and grain is making me crazy. I can’t depend on it for my next forage into another country. My film Rebel has a crappy lens (which I hope to remedy with the purchase of the 50mm prime) and as a camera, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. It’s kind of odd to have a lens attached to a body only worth half its monetary value and half its weight. And then there’s the problem with it being film. One redeeming grace is T-Max 100 film which produces some beautiful prints when done at the pro shop. What’s the equivalent for a pro shop for digital cameras? The online places are fine for picture taken with my A80, but I don’t think they’d do a 20D or 5D justice. For one, the colors always seem to be muddy. Maybe their gamma’s wrong or my gamma (since I’m a Mac user) is much brighter than theirs. Does anyone know? Where can I get the best prints from digital possible? I don’t think my pro shop does it. Maybe I’ll ask. Cuz I’d trust them with my life. They do gorgeous work… but with negatives.

Also, if I go the dSLR route, I’ll need an external hard drive for all those huge RAW images.

Here’s hoping for a new year, but something tells me it’s always the same. New years are just arbitrary dates set by human beings while they continue to do stupid things. Raise a glass for the Latin American leg of the Vertigo Tour. Now there’s something I’ll drink to.

Posted on January 1st, 2006 under General, Life •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed