A New Hope

That is what I did this afternoon. But let me rewind a bit.

Last week, I got word from Henry's that they had a replacement in store for my dead XTi 400D: a Canon Rebel XSi 450D. So yesterday, after watching Miss Lizzz randomly fling pieces of chopped fruit around, I headed to the Masonville Henrys store to pick it up.

It was Saturday afternoon, so it was a little busy in there, but there was AC and I didn't mind waiting to be helped out.  After drooling over Octo soft boxes for a few minutes, I let them know they called etc., and proceeded to do the paperwork for replacing the body.



It was sad really. Not the paperwork, but the process of turning over something has given me and hopefully many others happiness over nearly the last three years. My work, technique and style have developed (pun sort of intended) so much since I got the XTi in June of 2007.

I shot somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60,000 images on that body: of the Canadian Rockies, of Lizzz and Leia, of Missy and Mallory, of Corey and Jen, of Jackie and just a few Kats/Kates/n Katie's. Not to mention dozens of others. I made many new friends and fans because of that camera. One image was even turned into a tattoo. :)

Corey noticed my blahness later in the day when I visited with her. Seems silly I suppose. Some people will wax nostalgic over their cars. I really don't like mine, so I would never do that, but cameras are a different beast. And that XTi, I think, was the 9th camera I have owned. We covered a lot of ground, it and  I. Both literally and figuratively.

My 10th camera, the new 450d, even at around two years old in design, is a sweet piece of kit. I sat and read the manual this afternoon while having coffee. 12Megapixels, has LiveView, a bigger LCD display in the back, and several minor and not so minor tweaks on the design.  I also spent some time reading the exhaustive information on it over on Digital Photography Reviews.  If you own a camera, and it is listed on their site, I pretty much guarantee you will learn something after reading about it there.

A big thanks goes out to Alanna at Henrys for great customer service and making the replacement happen quickly when I was in the store, and to Peter when I called in originally about the Error 99. This was the one time when buying a warranty for something didn't feel like a rip off. Money well spent back in 2007.

Just before heading out, Mike there offered a bit of info I didn't know. If you buy rechargeable camera batteries at Henrys, you can pay a little extra up front and get new batteries for free if yours run down, don't hold a charge, or you just want new ones in exchange for the old. He said they don't make money on it, but it is a Henry's store offer. And when you spend even $40 for a single Optex 'generic' camera battery, or more than $80.00 for a Canon brand one, it's worth doing. :)

I have not shot a single frame yet on the new Canon, but I am going to put it through its paces. It is still a blank canvas, but I have hope of good things to come.

Will keep you posted.

Namaste.

Mike