black gorilla
Let me start out saying I love this camera. The only reason I marked 2 areas with only 3 stars is because I had to base it on the lens that came with the camera, the kit lens. It isnt the greatest, but its sufficient to work with while learning the 1,000 and 1 things this camera can do. (I have now purchased 2 other lens, a zoom and a macro and the pictures with them are simply great!) There are complaints out there that the camera is plastic. Piffle! Its solid as a rock. Anything they can do to minimize weight is fine with me. I have arthritis in my hands and the heavier the camera, the harder it is. I like the camera weight. The lens, of course, are heavier, so the lighter camera works good. When I first started taking pictures, I was disappointed. But, it also takes knowing how to combine the shutter speed, the f-stop and the ISO to get a quality picture. This isnt a camera you take out of the box and it works first time. If you want that, get yourself a Canon Powershot SX30 IS, which is what I had before. I love that camera still (versatile, lightweight and wonderful for quick shots). Super zoom, which I really liked. Rather than print out the manual for the 60D, which I can never understand anyway, I spent the extra money and bought the Dummies book for this camera. I took it on vacation, read and studied it and when I got home and the camera was sitting on the kitchen table waiting for me, I was already well versed in a lot of things. I still refer to it whenever I hear or read something I dont understand. Its a fantastic book and well worth the money. I had to buy a sturdier tripod and a larger camera bag to go along with the camera, too. But, its money well spent. I would like to be able to take pictures without the tripod and Im working hard to build up strength. Its clumsy to carry the tripod around, but I take a lot of shots where it works great and Im pleased to have it. I am surprised at the length of the battery life. I keep checking to see if its about to run out and it just seems to last a lot longer than I thought it would. I use the live view function a lot and thats supposed to shorten battery life, but I havent noticed it. I havent mentioned video because that is something that doesnt interest me. At the moment Im chronicaling the life span of three black swallowtail caterpillars on the fennel in the front yard. When I took the first pictures 2 days ago, they were 3/8 of an inch long. Yesterday they were half an inch. Im getting great pictures of those exceedingly tiny creatures with my macro lens. Ive taken great bird pictures, blue jay, woodpecker, cardinals and squirrels getting into the feeder(!) and of course my flowers. Ive joined our local camera club and I read lots of photography I would definitely recommend this camera.
