Ordered New Camera

Earlier today I ordered a new Canon T2i DSRL. This camera has some really great video recording modes that I am hoping will be useful for making promotional videos for the hobby.

Camera Bag Now (Well... soon)

18MP Canon EOS-550D - Rebel T2i (Review)

I have been very happy with my Canon XTi but I am really looking forward to taking 1080p HD videos of the ships in action. I also think the cropped 640x480 mode will be very useful as it essentially magnifies the lens by 7x. That gives the camera an optical magnification of 77x when using the 55-250mm lens! Originally I was simply going to keep buying better lenses but HD video is enough to justify upgrading my camera body

This is not the first Canon DSLR with video but it is the first affordable one to support 30fps at 1080p and that has an external microphone jack. The choppy 24fps and poor sound quailty of the previous Canon DSLRs were common complaints.

Lenses

Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (Review)

This is the kit lens that comes with the camera. It is basically an upgraded version of the old 18-55mm I used with the previous two cameras. This lens is very light and should preform well when I don't need a lot of zoom.

Canon 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS (Review)

This is the lens I took to Europe and is my general purpose lens. It produces great images over a fairly wide range of zooms.

Canon 55-250mm f/4.5-5.6 IS (Review)

I am looking forward to this lens for getting a lot more zoom out when photographing battles!

Previous Cameras and Lenses

10MP Canon EOS-400D - Rebel XTi (Review) / 8MP Canon EOS-350D - Rebel-XT

The XTi is the camera that I've been using since 2006. I love the camera and have never had any problems with it or the pictures it captured. The only reason I am replacing it with the T2i was for the HD video capability. I did briefly own an 350D but the 400D came out within the return time for the old 350D so I returned it for the newer model. My only complaint with the XT was the very small LCD screen.

Lenses

Canon 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS (Review)

I am keeping this lens and it will probably be the one most often seen attached to the T2i.

Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 (Review)

Despite medocre reviews I always felt that I got decent images out of this lens. It certainly is not as nice as the 17-85mm nor does it have the zoom. However, the 18-55 is also a LOT lighter.

Way Back: Minolta Dimage 5 (Review)

This is the camera I took pictures with from 2001 until 2006. It took very nice pictures for the time but was very slow to start, focus and shoot. After missing some pictures of my oldest nephew because he was faster than the camera I decided to upgrade to a DSRL.