Friday 16h32
Sometimes the fates are kind, it’s late on the last day of a long week, “beer o’clock” as it’s called in NZ and a courier has just dropped off a box from Canon NZ addressed to photo titles editor Tim Grey. It’s an EOS500D DSLR, come in to be reviewed in the next issue of D-Photo.
Now Tim’s occupied with moving into his first Auckland house and the Parkside photographers are nowhere to be seen, so it won’t go into our studio today. It would be a shame to consign this camera to a lonely weekend in the ultra secure product room in the depths of the compound, so I guess I’ll just have to look after it until uncle Phil Hanson pops in to grab it on Monday.
Friday 18h13
Carefully opened the box (yeah right) and found the 500D has a charged battery and an SD card. Hallelujah! We’re all systems go. I must remember to “borrow’ one of our studio tripods more often because I suddenly feel like charging off into the night to photograph Auckland by night but without a tripod, I’m not sure. Oh well, will have to content myself with arty shots of the inside of my cupboard.
My first impression is a double take of the size difference between the 500D and the old Fujifilm S3Pro DSLR that I’m currently using; fitted with the 18-55mm kit lens, it’s actually tiny compared to the Fuji and so much lighter. It vanishes into my camera bag where the Fuji just sort of sits on top of everything.
The case is plastic like most entry level DSLRs but it’s solidly put together, there’s no flexing or creaking. Initially it felt a little too small for my meaty paws but all the controls fall to hand easily enough, the control layout is logically laid out and the menus are straight forward, especially if you’ve used a Canon before. Gave it to my flat mate to try and in full auto mode, she was shooting happily in a moment, in addition to the manual and priority modes, there are enough other modes (macro, portrait, action, night etc) to keep DSLR novices content as they transition from a point and shoot AND there’s full HD video.
So…the EOS500D is solidly built, seems easy to use and shoots HD vids? I’ve got a busy day in Auckland tomorrow checking out more of the festival, so we’ll soon see this DSLR can live up to its promise.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
