Higher Fidelity

I first bought a 35 mm SLR camera around the dawn of the digital photography age. At the time, digital cameras were large, clunky devices that were capable of taking photographs of only marginal quality. The march of time saw digital cameras shrink in size and increase dramatically in capability. We are now to the point that the camera on my phone takes excellent photographs under ordinary conditions.

I knew that the digital revolution would make its way to the SLR format (although I'm not sure I believed it would take over the film world so comprehensively). I expected that someday I would get a digital SLR once the technology became inexpensive enough to bring the products down in price to the level of ordinary consumers. That happened faster than I expected as well. After conferring with a colleague who is an accomplished photographer/hobbyist, I made the move to a Canon DSLR:


Costco was our friend here, enabling us to get the camera (with a throw-in small zoom lens) cheaper than even Amazon. We got the camera just in time for first-day-of-school photos and, most importantly, soccer season.

With the instant and costless response of the digital image, a budding photographer can experiment and learn how to take better pictures without the cost and delay of film development. After the first day of soccer games, I've already ordered a quality (on a budget) zoom lens:


I'm looking forward to playing with this very nice machine.