Buon Natale a Me! (Merry Christmas to Me) :)

I saw a refurbished, starter Digital SLR camera on woot.com last week. (Starter = "it was a relatively inexpensive SLR when it was a new model, and that was a while ago".) As a refurb, it was in the price range of a high-end point and shoot camera.

I have been drooling over the prospect of having an SLR camera for years. I was even saving for one for a while, but then I opted to spend that on a game-worn hockey jersey. I've certainly never regretted the decision, but the "Gabey wants an SLR camera" fund never really got back off the ground.

It's just as well, as digital photography came on the scene a few years after that, and I greatly prefer that to constantly having to invest in buying film and having it processed.

To make a long story less long, I figured that if I waited long enough, affordable digital SLRs would hit the market. I hadn't quite figured on waiting TEN YEARS for that to happen, but hey. Good things come to those who wait. And wait, and wait. ;)

So I sprang for the refurb camera on woot, and then picked up a couple of lenses for it. (God bless online price-comparison and product-review sites.) Santa had FedEx deliver them yesterday (camera) and today (lenses). So now I'm Good to Go.

When I get really proficient with this equipment, I'll consider starting the "Gabey wants the pro-quality lenses" fund. But just one of those pro lenses costs more than I spent on the camera plus the two lenses combined, so THAT investment will have to wait a good long while. Mind you, a pro photographer can and should make that investment (along with a pro-level digital SLR, which costs at least ten times what my camera cost me). Someone who's just graduating from a point-and-shoot "prosumer" camera to an SLR, on the other hand, should be just fine with the sort of lenses I got.

So... don't be surprised at the sight of me getting acquainted with the New Toys in the immediate future. My favorite images might well make an appearance on this blog.