10 Years of dSLR

[boBQuincy]

It has been just about 10 years since I got my first dSLR, a Canon D30. The 3 MP camera was groundbreaking, the first affordable consumer dSLR at about $2000. I still have it, it still works, and the images it produces have a smoothness that many digital cameras still can't match.

On the other hand the LCD is about the size of a piece of 35mm film, the camera weighs a lot and ISO 1600 is kind of noisy.

In the first full year I took a total of 18.3 GB of images although that was almost 18,000 of them (and I rarely used RAW then, big mistake but I didn't have enough memory cards). Now most of us carry more the 18 GB with us! The number of images I take each year has stayed fairly consistent though.

Let's hear about your first dSLR!

 

[larryz]

My first Canon was the AE-1, bought to document damage from a midnight vehicular visit in my backyard in 1978.

33 years later, it still takes great photos (despite minor cosmetic damage), and the kids have most recently used it in photography classes at school.

Everyone in the family has their own digital point and shoots, but I have long desired the flexibility and creativity available in a dSLR. (Why couldn't Canon make a reasonably priced digital back for their film cameras???)

So, when Hilton offered the T2i as a premium for a "price" just under my hhonors point balance last month, how could I refuse? This baby's carrying 18 MPs, offers native ISO up to 6400, and does 1080p video as well. Although it has the compact sensor, I haven't noticed any detriment to my photos so far -- I just have to plan on shooting like I'm using a longer lens than the one mounted.

And although it mates natively to EF/EF-S lenses, I quickly googled and found an FD to EOS adapter, allowing me to use the 28mm and 50mm lenses from my old kit (in manual mode, of course).

A bonus - my Speedlight 188A (well over 25 years old) works in TTL mode on the T2i's hot shoe!

I love having the high MP available -- cropping doesn't push images to grainy/noisy, and like you said, shooting in raw really opens up the image manipulation options. I also love how easy it is to flip between programmed shooting modes, and how easy it is to manipulate f stop/ISO/shutter speed when you want to make slight variations. (and sometimes, full auto is just easier to deal with when you don't want to get creative...although that makes it a very expensive point and shoot)

I like the stock kit lens (18-55mm, 3.5/5.6) and I found a non-IS 75-300 EF at the local Target for a decent discount, as they had discontinued it. I'm waiting for the battery grip, interval timer, close-up rings and AC adapter to show up from Amazon any day now.

Fast frame shooting, full HD video, remote control thru the laptop, great image processing both in the camera and with included PC software -- what's not to love???

Photography is fun again! I can't wait to drag it down to WDW for some serious workouts...

 

[Pooh2]

Just got mine 2 1/2 years ago and was reluctant to retire my nikon fm2! Have not had the fm2 out of the case since!

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

My first slr was a Minolta SRT-101, which I bought while I was in Nam in 1968. I later sold that one and bought a Yashica rangefinder camera for the DW. Then another Minolta. Then came the deal of the century. I was working at a catalog retail outlet (W. Bell) when Pentax had a sale for behind the counter sales personnel. I sold the Minolta for $300 and bought the Pentax Lx for $275. At that time the retail on the Lx was $1,000. We used that camera until we finally switched to our first DSLR in 2007, the Pentax K10D. We had some of the early P & S', Kodak, etc., but still shot film. We still have the Lx in a camera bag in our closet. Now we have two K10's and the K5 and are having a blast. I remember seeing my first DSLR at New Hampshire International Speedway in 2000. Winston Cup Scene supplied the cameras to the folks because the photographers couldn't afford to buy them for themselves! They have come a long way in the past 10-11 years.

 

[larryz]

My first SLR was a Pentax -- i just about wore out the shutter on that thing.

 

[photo_chick]

I didn't get a DSLR until 2005. They were out of my price range so I used a digital p&s (I got one '99) for some things and I used my 35mm SLR's for most stuff still. But then my dad bought himself a Rebel XT. He had me come over and watched me ooh and ahh. I drooled over the ability to shoot digital with all the things I loved about my SLRs. He handed me the manual and I poured through it that afternoon, looking at the features, changing settings, and I tried out RAW for the first time. About a week later he took his own life and he left me all of his cameras, including the Rebel, so looking back I know he'd bought it for me all along.

The Rebel XT was my primary camera until I got my 50D in 2010 and I still use it when I want a second body so I don't have to change lenses at events. Honestly at lower ISO's the Rebel has a little bit better clarity than the 50D. And when I put the 50mm f/1.8 on that light Rebel body I can hand hold it at stupidly slow shutter speeds.

My first SLR was a Pentax 110 my dad handed down to me in middle school. Followed soon after by a Pentax SV that my dad had been using since the 60's.

 

[LordAthens]

I started out in the SLR field, apparently like many, with a Canon AE-1 (Program!) from my grandparents. It had a 1.8 prime with it (I think it was a Vivitar) and a 80-200mm Vivitar tele-zoom. That rig got me hooked. I still have that setup and while I haven't used it in ~6 months, last time I did it still took beautiful pictures. It also reminded me on how easy it is to focus a non-AF body. I'm seriously considering replacing my D7000's screen with a KatzEye screen, but then again that $200 can always be put towards new glass. Decisions...

Anyhow, after I got hooked I decided to upgrade to a AF body. Against the preference of my Dad and grandparents, I went to the darkside and came home with a shiny new Nikon N90, shortly after that I sold the N90 and picked up one of the finest bodies I have ever handled, a Nikon F5. That reminds me of what it was like to be in high-school, having nothing but a cell phone bill and a well paying after school job.. God I miss disposable income!

Shortly after I got out of high school it was finally announced, Nikon's first consumer-affordable dSLR, the D100. I pre-ordered mine through Ritz and sold the F5 to a gentleman in Germany. I had a few digital point and shoots that went along the way that always accompanied my film body, but now this was real. I had always lusted after the D1 and the other franken-digitals that Nikon and Fuji came up with (Fuji bodies with Nikon innards) but they were just to expensive. So I kept waiting for the pro-sumer model to come about and it did.

I was able to sell off the F5 for enough to afford the body, some memory and a SB-80DX. I ordered a MB-D100 vertical grip shortly after I got it at well, after the F5 it felt to small. New body prices haven't changed much over the years, nor have speedlites, but man, memory prices! I really don't remember what memory I first used in the D100 when I bought it (I seem to recall some basic Sandisk cards, I believe 128meg and I know there was a 1GB IBM Microdrive in there somewhere too), but what I do remember was buying my first "pro" cards, a year later right before a trip to Disney. I'm sure I must have made the Ritz guy happy, I walked out of there spending over $1000 on 2.5GB of memory. I remember the 1GB Lexar Pro 40x cards were $399 a pop and I think the 512 was $249! 3 little memory cards, $1000!! 8 years later, I just paid $50 for a pair of 16gb (32gb total) Lexar Pro 133x SD's.

I really loved my D100, I still do in fact. I only recently finally replaced it with a D7000 just this past year when the D7k was release. The D100 never failed on me and the resolution was enough to do 8x10's with. Sure, the LCD is tiny, as BobQ mentioned, about the size of a 35mm film frame and the AF wasn't the fastest, especially compared to the F5, but I've never been much into shooting birds or sports. Really the only thing that the D100 wouldn't let me do was shoot high ISO. It's realistic limit was 640, maybe 800 before it got really bad, though it would of course go higher. I still have it and it still takes great shots, though it was a few months ago when I used it last. With the D7000, I really don't have a reason to hold onto the D100, but for some reason I can never motivate myself to sell it. I don't do anything that would require a backup body and while 9 years old, it still has some life left in it, enough that someone else could probably still get the same joy out of it that I did for a while longer (plus it would pay for that KatzEye screen...). We'll see I suppose.

 

[Gianna'sPapa]

I didn't get a DSLR until 2005. They were out of my price range so I used a digital p&s (I got one '99) for some things and I used my 35mm SLR's for most stuff still. But then my dad bought himself a Rebel XT. He had me come over and watched me ooh and ahh. I drooled over the ability to shoot digital with all the things I loved about my SLRs. He handed me the manual and I poured through it that afternoon, looking at the features, changing settings, and I tried out RAW for the first time. About a week later he took his own life and he left me all of his cameras, including the Rebel, so looking back I know he'd bought it for me all along.

The Rebel XT was my primary camera until I got my 50D in 2010 and I still use it when I want a second body so I don't have to change lenses at events. Honestly at lower ISO's the Rebel has a little bit better clarity than the 50D. And when I put the 50mm f/1.8 on that light Rebel body I can hand hold it at stupidly slow shutter speeds.

My first SLR was a Pentax 110 my dad handed down to me in middle school. Followed soon after by a Pentax SV that my dad had been using since the 60's.

I don't know quite what to say, only that it sounds like you share your Dad's passion for photography and he was thinking of you. Its a sad story with some uplifting thoughts.

I have had the same experience with my K10's and K5. The K5 is a much more advanced and superior camera, but at ISO 100 the image produced by the K10 is just unbelievable. I'm not totally versed in the inner workings of DSLR's, but I believe it is just the difference between the K5's CMOS and K10's CCD.

 

[photo_chick]

I didn't realize how depressing that post sounded until I read it again. I don't look at it that way. To me, my dad always believed in me and my talent.

 

[larryz]

New body prices haven't changed much over the years, nor have speedlites, but man, memory prices! I really don't remember what memory I first used in the D100 when I bought it (I seem to recall some basic Sandisk cards, I believe 128meg and I know there was a 1GB IBM Microdrive in there somewhere too), but what I do remember was buying my first "pro" cards, a year later right before a trip to Disney. I'm sure I must have made the Ritz guy happy, I walked out of there spending over $1000 on 2.5GB of memory. I remember the 1GB Lexar Pro 40x cards were $399 a pop and I think the 512 was $249! 3 little memory cards, $1000!! 8 years later, I just paid $50 for a pair of 16gb (32gb total) Lexar Pro 133x SD's.

I hear ya' on the memory prices. The Transcend 32gb class 10 SDHC media I just bought for the T2i was $39.75.

It'll probably drop by half in the new year... (sigh).

Shooting combined raw and highest-detail .jpg mode gives me enough capacity for ~850 photos.

I guess there was a slight advantage to waiting for the full 10 years to get a dSLR...

 

[1Grumpy9]

My first DSLR was the Minolta 5D. Which is still functional and my parents take it to Daytona every year for the races. I have always used Minolta's and now I am using a Sony A300. I love the camera and have taken many pictures with it (and still do). I just bought a new lens for it to go to Disney this past October/November.

After the holidays and closer to spring I am going to buy a Sony A55. I really wasn't in the market to buying another DSLR, but while in Disney my back LCD screen got bumped, so I bought a replacement LCD screen (it looked like it was cracked, but wasn't), while in the process of changing the screens out, another piece broke of the Mounted C-Board. I thought about fixing it but it would cost me another $150 to get it fixed and the part.

I decided that totally I would be out $200 and that is almost half of what the A55 body only is, so I am saving up my money and waiting to get it in or around May. I still use the camera, I just can't review my pictures until I transfer my pictures from the memory card. The drawbacks of not having the LCD is not being able to change any of my settings in my menu screen and knowing my battery life.

 

[wbeem]

My first SLR was an Olympus OM-10 I bought in high school back in 1979. I loved that camera. It's still here, though I never use it anymore. A few years later, I picked up a Minolta Maxxum from my mother, since she never really used it. I fully expected to become a photographer and was looking at photo school programs at Daytona Beach Community College or Brooks (both outstanding programs).

However, I was interrupted by the development of something new - personal computers. That completely changed my direction and I spent the last 30 years in IT.

I was still shooting my film cameras into 2004, though I had a small Nikon digital point & shoot camera. Took them all to Alaska. My film cameras utterly failed me there, and the point & shoot had too much shutter lag to capture the whales swimming alongside our boat in Misty Fjords. I knew it was time to look into something else.

I got a Nikon D70, and then about a year later, upgraded to a Nikon D200. When my current camera, the Nikon D700 came out in 2008 (I think), I sold all of my crop-body cameras & lenses and concentrated solely on full frame digital - never regretted that decision at all. Except when I'm carrying it, because this stuff is heavy!

 

[My2Girls66]

I started with a Nikon D50 in Jan. 2006. I bought 2- 1GB Sandisk Ultra cards for it for $120! In the fall of 2008, when DD started college, I gave her my D50 and bought a D80.
My 1st digital camera was a Nikon Coolpix 4500 that my dad bought for himself in 2004, he couldn't get into digital so gave it to me. We've had quite a few since.

 

[boBQuincy]

Funny enough, almost 10 years to the day since I bought my first dSLR I am getting out of dSLRs. Just as the Canon D30 was the end of film for me, the Panasonic G3 is probably the end of dSLRs for me. The little mirrorless camera does just about everything the larger dSLR can do, in a much smaller package.

From 8x10 view cameras to 120 film to 35mm to digital to mirrorless, I can't wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!