Quick thoughts...

[kimana517]

+ Happy birthday to Isaac! He is now only 12 years away from 40. Hehe. And he is the best husband ever!

+ I feel like I live at Home Depot and Walmart. I've been to each of them at least 4 times this week.

+ I'm trying to laugh at the fact that the first night this week that I finally got enough sleep preceded the one day I really could've used an extra few hours of awake time.

+ Ghirardelli chocolate chips being the same price as Walmart brand makes me very happy.

+ Apparently I've been lusting after cashmere sweaters all these years, when I could've just bought them; there are tons of them for great prices on Ebay! Oh, this is a bad, bad discovery for my budget.

+ 30% cash back on Ebay Buy It Now purchases is love.

+ Can any of you convince me that the quality of photos taken by a DSLR is worth it despite its heft when compared to a good digicam that has all manual options but an attached lens? I love the quality of DSLRs, but I also like having a camera that fits in my purse and doesn't weigh 3 lbs because of the lenses. So, yeah - convince me.

+ Hanging pictures is a lot easier than I thought it was. Therefore, I hate myself for waiting 3 years to do so.

+ I have an unhealthy obsession with soft blankets. And Cherry Coke.

+ 18 people have RSVPed for the party tonight. That is workable, assuming they don't all stay for the debate and want to sit in the living room. (Our dining room is basically just an extension of our living room though, so it'll be fine.)

+ I don't actually believe that it's October. Everyone is lying to me.

Comments

lenses

[katharhino.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I were going somewhere special like Europe, I would probably consider the zoom lens too. I've definitely thought about getting one, but I've used my camera mostly for just average daily life kind of stuff. I do like to take pics in the woods near my house at close range, but I've never felt too restricted by my lens there either.

So it really depends on what you're going to do. And as you said, it's not something you'd need instantly. It probably also depends on how serious you are about photography and whether you're likely to get annoyed when you can't do a long zoom. Me, I'm a contented amateur and I don't do much traveling.

MY photography teacher in college had all Nikons, which is why I looked at them first. I really like my D50, the way it fits in my hand and where the controls are. But my mom has a D40 and I don't like the interface as much. And my brother is REALLY happy with his Canon. So... yeah, preference.

Re: lenses

[craneke.livejournal.com]

Ditto the "all about preference" thing - I've used both Nikons and Canons and prefer Nikons, but I know people who are as equally passionate about Canons. The one REALLY nice thing about one of the highest-end Canons is that the sensor is the same size as a 35 mm, so you don't have to do any "focal length conversions." Most DSLR's have sensors that are smaller than a 35mm frame, and so there's a conversion factor - multiply the number on the lens by 1.5 to get what your focal length really is. An 18mm lens looks like 27mm, 200 is 300, etc.

One thing re: needing a telephoto or not - if you have 10+ MP's, as long as you don't want to enlarge anything massively, you can often crop an image pretty far to zoom closer. I do this especially when I'm in low-light situations and can't afford to lose the open aperture when I zoom in closer. You could also probably get yourself an old manual telephoto lens pretty cheaply if you really felt like you needed it; you'd just have to learn to use the manual controls on the camera quickly. Add an extra pound to your bag, though.