Field day with the Canon 400D

I loaded up the 400D into the Crumpler today and went for an outing with the family. Originally, we planned on going somewhere more ambitious but sadly, the day turned out to be a rainy, overcast one. In the end, we compromised by going out just locally and save the more ambitious destination for another day.

I'm finally able to do a somewhat macro picture, yipee :)
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Part 1: Using the Crumpler
The Crumpler worked as advertised. I loaded the Crumpler with the 400D, and a few other knick-knacks (but I removed the laptop). The Crumpler was really comfortable to carry around especially with the nicely padded wide shoulder slings. The slight rain meant I was able to demonstrate to PMS the waterproof characteristics of the bag. The camera compartment was easy enough to access, although it did mean I had to stop walking to open the compartment. I also think the camera should be secure enough.

Overall - very happy with the Crumpler. PMS said it looks good too.

Part 2: Moving to a DSLR
Migrating from using a point-and-shoot to a DSLR, to me, is quite a headache inducing process. One of the first things I noted about a DSLR is that -- argggh, there are just SO MANY buttons and functions! One button for white balance, one button for ISO, one button for selecting where to focus, one button for flash, one for depth-of-field preview and of course - one for releasing the shutter. There are dials as well, one dial for making the selections, and one dial to choose modes. And then, there are like 10 different modes of shooting pictures! One for every situation you could possibly imagine (<- note: exaggeration).

I hope by now you could imply that using a DSLR is EXTREMELY technical. It reminded me of my first few days trying Linux. Despite having read the manual (yup, I've RTFM) I was overwhelmed and was even lost in all the different buttons and dials.

Another thing is for someone who is used to a point-and-shoot like me is, the camera is so much bulkier than the much more pocketable Sony Cybershot.

Having said that, using a DSLR compared to a point-and-shoot is such a pleasure. The camera feels solid in my hand, and it is just SO responsive. Zooming was achieved with just a few wrist flicks and using a viewfinder is such an improvement over the tunnel vision that was using a 1.5 inch LCD viewfinder screen. Being able to burst photos at a rate of around 3 frames per second is also very convenient to finally capture the ever locomotive Sarah.

Part 3: The Pictures
To me, this is the make-or-break part: the picture quality.

Truth be told, I was actually underwhelmed by the pictures. All the pictures I took today does not even compare by a tiny fraction of the picture quality I've seen on Flickr (using the same camera) and some of the talented people on borakphoto. Not even close. Perhaps it was the dull weather, and most likely it's my poor technique but I was so hoping to see a major change from pictures taken with the previous camera.

Infact, I am so ashamed of the pictures that I am reluctant to show them in this post. Maybe once I get more familiar with the 400D beast, and when my pictures improve I'll post more.

Not to disappoint though, above are some sample pictures taken with the 400D.

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A few things I was flabbergasted about today:

1. Urgh, how come I cannot use the viewfinder to preview the picture???
2. How to capture video with this camera, huh?

(LOL, I hope you got the joke)

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Related links:

1. Review of the Canon 400D on DPreview
2. Review on Cameralabs.com
3. Review on PCW
4. Review on The Digital Picture
   

PS
I am still trying to get over the irony of shrinking a stupendous 10 MEGApixel picture to a 400x400 pixel (i.e less than VGA resolution you could get with your mobile phone) in order to display it on this blog.