GrumpyDaddy

Sorry you had to put up with all that guff about selling my Canon gear. It was clearly madness, one invests in lenses, and I have two f2.8 I love and would be bonkers to sell.

Anyway I solved the whole "small camera to carry around when with the family - but with enough control to appeal to the nerdy photographer" (very long-winded) dilemma.

The answer was a Canon S95 thanks to some money that fell into my lap. A compact for folks who like to dabble with SLRs. I promise to shut up about cameras now.

In this post a few weeks ago I talked about possibly selling my Canon photo gear and moving over to Sony.

The reason was the newly announced A55 camera which really looked like a technology I wanted to invest in - especially given my eyesight problems. The only thing nagging me about this move though was that I'd be moving down from a "prosumer" camera to something slightly flimsier.

Well it looks like the rumours of the higher-end A77 were true. Take a look here. I'm completely sold. It's the A77 for me please.

Anyone want to buy a used - but mint - Canon EOS 50D?

I have one of these - Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera. It's a brilliant camera, rugged, packed with features and has very good image quality.

But I'm thinking of selling it and getting one of these - a Sony SLT-A55V. This is a very high tech camera which ditches the traditional optical viewfinder for an electronic one. This has many traditional photographers crossing themselves and reaching for the garlic, but for me it has many plus points.

My eyesight is pretty poor and I often struggle when using optical viewfinders because even on very good cameras like the EOS 50D they aren't particularly bright. This makes it harder for me to judge composition and more importantly focus.

It was very windy in West Bay in Dorset at the weekend. We took the twins for a walk there in the evening with my in-laws and the weather was biting cold. And as it was a walk out with the family I only took my walkaround lens (Sigma 18-200mm DC OS) and one ND Grad filter. But I reckon the following handheld landscapes still aren't too bad and capture some of the drama of the weather...

I'm in mourning today. My beloved Canon EOS 40D is going in for repair. It's not a big repair. Truth be told I'm not entirely convinced that the little bit of foam that needs replacing even does anything. But if I'm going to sell the camera in the future when it's time to upgrade¹ I'll need to make sure it's got all its bits and pieces.

So this morning I removed the tripod mount, the memory card and the battery. I even removed the strap. She's all bare and unloved, stripped down to just the basics for her journey to Canon for some 2mm foam to be glued inside it.