Saturday 08h35
It’s time for breakfast at Jafa in Grey Lynn, which should be café of the year in my opinion – the Tone and D-Photo teams spend a lot of time here and I even come back for more on the weekends. I’ve got the Saturday papers, some just right scrambled eggs and a strong latte to keep me happy. At my feel is a heavy backpack with both the 500D and my Fuji S3Pro (got to be prepared for any eventuality).

I took a few shots on the way over and the small form factor of the 500D is no handicap but getting used to the Canon’s single dial to adjust both shutter speed and aperture is proving a bugbear. After a month of daily use with the Fuji and its Nikon style dual dials, I’m already hardwired to the front and back controls.

On the other hand, the 500D’s 3” LCD screen is great, the Fuji’s screen is an old school 2” number, which looks like a postage stamp in comparison.

Saturday 10h40
Walking around the CBD on a tour of galleries hosting exhibits from the Auckland Festival of Photography and thus far, editor Grey has only poked me in the back twice with the monster 70-400mm Sony lens he’s dragging around the city. It’s a review unit attached to an Alpha 900 and it’s an impressive package. I’m not entirely sure if I should be feeling a little emasculated considering the 18-55mm kit lens on the 500D but eventually decide that photography doesn’t work that way, which is a good thing – 600mm lenses aren’t cheap.

The light weight of the 500D is a blessing, if only I’d left the backpack behind, I’d be no more encumbered than if I was carrying a large point and shoot camera. Where’s a 30mm pancake lens when you need one? The handling of the Canon is starting to make sense the more I use it and running it in manual is no hassle at all now that my fingers aren’t automatically reaching for different controls. I’m noticing a tendency to rush my shots though; the minimal mass in my hands is making me treat the 500D like a point and shoot and of course, with all its auto modes, it can function as one but that’s not my agenda. Must slow down.

Saturday 17h25
Shooting the sunset at Herne Bay and finding it hard to concentrate on what I’m doing as the other photographer leaning on the railing has a lovely Leica rig. How much do you get for a kidney these days? He’s had a go with the 500D and his first comment was “so light”, which I’ve heard three times today from different people.

I’d still like a bigger camera body but I could live with something the size of a 500D. I’ll have to try it with a bigger and heavier lens when Dan our photographer shoots it for D-Photo, just to see if the balance and handling go to pot because of the light body. I will also have to grab a Nikon D5000 to compare it to the 500D, these two cameras are going to be hero products for these major brands and it’s going to be interesting to see how they’ve implemented very similar feature sets.

Saturday 18h19
Running images through my laptop and getting grumpy because my usually smooth workflow has been disrupted – Photoshop CS3 supports up to v4.6 of Adobe Camera Raw and that doesn’t support the RAW files from the 500D. I’m using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional to process the RAW images. Mutter moan, I’m a creature of habit and I like using Camera Raw so I’m packing a sad and will look at this situation in the fresh light of day.

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