My first digital camera.
My first digital camera was a Fujifilm FinePix 1300, which I bought in college. It was a terrible 1.3 megapixel, point and shoot camera, with a 38mm equivalent lens. It didn’t even have one of those cool looking telephoto lenses that popped out of of the camera, when you wanted to zoom in. But, it did have an LCD screen on the back and you could connect it to your computer via a USB cord or with an SD card. The first cell phone I bought, had a 3 mp camera.
My second digital camera was a Kodak EasyShare Z650. This was a 6.1 megapixel camera with a 10x optical zoom. You essentially went from 38mm to 380mm. Not only did it come with it’s own printer, which you could dock the camera to, but it even had one of those cool looking telephoto lenses that popped out of the camera. Moving up in the world. I used this camera for vacation photos and a wedding, where I did manage to catch some really nice moments. That was when I realized I really enjoyed photography.
Fast forward about 13 years, and life has just taken over. It tends to do that. I don’t know where motivation or the itch came from, but I was in the mood to do some research, spend some money on a really nice DSLR camera, and take some classes. Well, I stumbled down a rabbit hole. YouTube is quite literally your best friend. My biggest two motivations and go-to channels for advice would have to be Jason Lanier and Jared Polin. Followed by David Yarrow, Tony and Chelsea Northrup, Peter McKinnon, Jason Vong, Michael Sasser, and Kai W. I learned more from watching free YouTube videos, than I did from any class I took in high school. Everything from basic photography questions, to gear reviews. It all helped. I’d type in a question in the search bar, such as “what is an aperture” (remember, I’m brand new to all of this), and I’d watch a tutorial on what an aperture is. I’d follow my question with one of the aforementioned names, in hopes that one of them had done a video on my subject. I’d type “Canon vs Nikon” to help me figure out which platform I’d use. All I knew, is I wanted to spend some real money on a high quality camera with interchangeable lenses, to take great photographs of the girls I coached, as well as use it for my own hobby.
I was struggling with my camera choice. I had settled on 3 Canons. A T7i, an SL2, and an 80D. They each had their own pros and cons. I finally found a great deal on a refurbished 80D body and took the plunge about 10 months ago. I bought a 50mm 1.8 lens and a 70-300mm 3.5-5.6 lens. It was a great camera, and served me well, but I soon realized that I was about to head in the wrong direction, as far as what I wanted. I didn’t even know what a mirrorless camera was before this journey, but after doing my homework, I knew I wanted one, no questions asked. After learning what an electronic viewfinder (EVF) was, it just didn’t make sense to me, to use a camera with an optical viewfinder (OVF). With an EVF, you see your exposure and your depth of field, before you even take the picture. As a beginner, why would I want anything else? Why would I want to have to look at LCD screen on the back of my camera (chimping), after taking the picture, and then make a correction, if I could just see what I’m going to get before taking the picture? This was a no brainer. I also wanted silent shooting, zero blackout, eye auto-focus (eye AF), animal eye AF, and more frames per second for sports. I’ll include a link to Jared Polin discussing an EVF vs an OVF.
Everything was pointing me in the direction of Sony, who has been leading the mirrorless market for at least 5-6 years now. I also knew I wanted a full frame camera, instead of a crop sensor (APS-C) camera like my 80D. So, before I got too vested in Canon, I went ahead and sold my gear, when I found a great deal on a used Sony A9. No camera is going to be perfect, but this one is about as close to perfection, as I could have imagined. It has made learning the art of photography, incredibly easy and fun. I would tell anyone else, who is interested in learning, to go the route of a Sony full frame mirrorless camera, with eye auto-focus. You won’t be disappointed.
Wrist watch check. A Neymar, introduced to me by Jodi over at Just One More Watch. I thought they had discontinued this watch, but it’s back at Amazon again.
Neymar Diver