I never was a shutterbug. In fact, I could not recall the last time I had a real camera (yes, the ones on your cellphones don’t count). I was only reacquainted with the art of taking pictures when my wife and I went on our honeymoon. Obviously, someone had to take pictures of the newly married gal while she was basking at the Dos Palmas sun. It would have been really funny if you saw me taking pictures as I had to deal with a hot pink Sony point and shoot cam. Being the geek that I am, I started fiddling with the manual settings in the camera and realized that there could be nothing more fulfilling than getting the right settings to have the camera capture what you composed in your head. Needless to say, from that point on, I was hooked.
My curiosity with DSLRs heightened further when my wife and I together with another couple went on a vacation to Bantayan, Cebu. They were carrying with them the Canon 450D which is relatively one of Canon’s newer model entry level DSLRs. After taking a few shots with it, I was convinced, I want one of ‘em. I started looking around for these cameras and started my price hunting. Luckily, my wife and I had booked in advance a flight to Hongkong taking advantage of Cebu Pacific’s low fare promos. After some research, I was able to make it to HK’s DSLR Mecca. Amazingly, in HK, they do what they call parallel importing which basically allows local traders there to source their goods from regions offering the same products at lower prices. I originally allocated a budget to buy a Canon 450D as in Manila, this was the model within my range of Php30K to Php40K. Fortunately, imports from Japan for the higher model and feature packed Kiss X3 (500D) was selling for roughly Php36K and this was already the kit package that included an IS 18-55 lens, a 4GB card and a camera bag. Was I thrilled to have bought this piece of digital marvel. Shooting with it so far has been phenomenal. I have yet to understand all that it has to offer and yet I’ve managed to take some really good photos with it.
More of my adventures with my new toy in the next post. Meanwhile, enjoy the snaps taken with the cam
