My Camera Journey (…so far)

camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

Who knew I’ll be into cameras and photography?

I didn’t.

At least until the time about one year ago when I decided that I needed to get some more beauty and color into my life and a camera seemed to be the best device to help me in that quest.

Grabbing a camera might have been a really tiny step for a mankind but to me it was huge.

I don’t really understand how it might work but through the lens of a camera beauty gets magnified, colors become richer, little worlds get bigger, unknown reveals itself and, as a sweet result, a soul gets happy.

Amen.

 

My camera journey started with a cute little blue point-and-shoot from Olympus called Mju: 600.

I love the name.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

When I started to take photos with the point-and-shoot I knew completely nothing about photography.

Still, that little blue thing allowed me to take rather lovely pictures.

Like this one.

camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

Or this one from our vacation in Hungary.

camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

But when it came to food – which meant getting very close to the photographed subjects – it didn’t look optimal.

The pictures were blurry.

Even if I had a sufficient dose of caffeine and my hands weren’t shaking.

I just knew I needed more.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

Since I am a very lucky person in general, I remembered that my boyfriend had bought a big solid camera a couple of months back.

It was Canon 1000D (in US known as Rebel XS).

I knew he loved his camera but I also knew I needed it.

So, what would a decent girl do in such a situation?

She steals the camera and snaps away like no one’s business.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

This is the first picture that I took with my new camera.

I made it after I’d received one minute’s worth of camera-operating instructions from my man.

One minute of instructions, that’s what I asked for because my attention can’t take any more.

Nevertheless, I was impressed with the result.

The pictures were crisper and more professional looking.

I loved it.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

As time went by (and my boyfriend went slightly mad) me and the camera became good buddies.

When the light was sufficient we were able to do wonders.

camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

But when there was little light and I had to bump up the ISO to its full potential – which is 1600 – then that nasty grainy noise appeared.

I hated the noise.

You can clearly see it in the background of the above picture.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

The noise mostly was the reason why I, again, wanted more.

And since, as you already know, I am a very lucky person, the family board (consisting of me and my boyfriend) agreed to buy me this Canon 550D camera (in US known as Rebel T2i).

To make the family board agree it only took a little – basically we are talking about six months of throwing myself regularly on the floor, a lot of high-pitched screaming and many different forms of threatening toward the other member of the family board.

Easy.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

When I got the camera I took a few pictures and then I died.

Then I took some more pictures and died again.

 

The camera had quite a few wonderful features.

I especially appreciated that it had 18 megapixel resolution (the Canon 1000D had only 10 megapixels).

And the second thing which makes me almost cry is its unbelievable 12800 ISO.

That ISO means that you can carelessly stand in the darkest corner of your kitchen on a gloomy rainy day with no lights on over a pan of frying cauliflower and take the most wonderful pictures with your ISO working at only one quarter of its potential.

That’s gorgeous, my friends!

But do you want to know what’s even more gorgeous?

There’s almost no noise!

Oh. My. Gosh.
camera comparison, food blogger camera and lens tips and advice

I just love this camera.

I love it from the bottom of my heart… up to the top of my heart.

Next time, I think I’ll show you my lenses.

I love lenses.

I want many.

I think it’s a dangerous game.

 

Fall at Zoo

canon 550 D sample picture

Camera Model: Canon EOS 550D (…yes, I have a new camera. I’ll be talking about this a little later. Now I really need to spend some time crying …out of happiness. I hope you understand.)

Lens: Canon Telephoto 75-300mm (…yes, I’ve used telephoto to shoot almost macro. When I had a first look through the lens I could barely see one quarter of the leaf. I was standing that close to it. It’s actually not that smart to stand close to the photographed subject when you use a telephoto lens. To maneuver out of this peculiar situation I had to take a few steps back to achieve the dimensions of the photo above. This clearly describes how terribly lazy I can get – I decide to take a few steps back instead of reaching into the bag that’s hanging on my shoulder for a more appropriate lens because it just seems less energy consuming. Sometimes it’s hard to be me.)

Focal Length: 190 mm
(…the distance from the lens to its focus. This sounds rather technical. I have a distant and misty idea what this means but I am not sure I ever want to see into this fully.)


Aperture: F5.0 (…this is a quite small aperture value. The lower the aperture the blurrier the background. Petra loves blurry backgrounds. Sometimes she thinks she loves blurry backgrounds more than sweets. Sometimes she loves sweets more than anything.)


Shutter Speed: 1/100 [s] (…this is the fraction of time I have captured. It always amazes me. My brain isn’t even able to imagine a fraction that small.)

ISO: 3200 (…this is a very high ISO setting. ISO setting this high allows you to take pictures in rather low light conditions. And this number – I mean the number 3200 – is one of the reasons why I am crying with happiness when I think about my new camera. I can’t stop it! I was dreaming about this number for such a long time.)

White Balance: Auto (…the auto white balance of this camera must have been programmed by aliens. It is that good. Another tear of joy is rolling down my face.)
Post Processing: Photoshop Elements 8 (…I mostly played with the Pioneer Woman Action called ‘Soft Faded’.)

The moral of this story: ‘Even not so optimal equipment or settings can create quite an acceptable picture.’
…oh, and here’s the original picture:


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