Upgrading my camera

After managing to drown my 50D taking long exposure shots of the sunrise at Baluran National Park in Java Indonesia, it was time to purchase a new camera. Even though I still have my 30D its tiny screen just doesn't cut it anymore, nor does its lack of bells and whistles.

The new mirrorless cameras really do look like the future, and with cameras like Sony's Alpha 7R with the ability to use your old glass from any make of camera (just add adaptor) I almost made the jump. Except for the price.

DSLR prices have reduced drastically in the last few years, probably because mirror technology seems to be an outdated medium. In fact anyone doing live view shooting or video on their SLR is using mirrorless technology. It's only a matter of time before viewing pictures through an optical viewfinder is obsolete, along with all that heavy mirror stuff that makes it possible. Digital viewfinders, so you can still use an eyecup, actually give you the advantage of seeing what your shot will look like, unlike optical, so it's an advantage along with a drastic weight reduction in the camera.

So instead of forking out for a full frame digital mirrorless camera I decided to buy a much cheaper Canon EOS 70D SLR. It literally cost half what I paid for the body of my 50D back in 2009 but I had to buy new batteries and cards (it uses SD cards rather than CF cards) and chargers so that upped the price a little. I think it's a pretty good reflection of where the market is going, but I'll wait a little for the top end of the mirrorless market to steady. Do I really need a full frame camera when half my lenses are optimised for APS-C?

The 70D has lots of features that the mirrorless cameras have, like live view, video and wireless connections to smart phones. You can bet your bottom dollar I'm going to be using these quite a bit, particularly as I also like the way the camera has been configured to get you easy access to these utilities. OK the WiFi set up is pretty gangly, but once you work it out it's not too hard.

I'm loving the live view, especially as the LCD screen folds out, can be tilted around to give you the best view, and allows for better composed shots from the hip. It also has a viewfinder level to correct my chronic off kilter horizons, and I'm particularly looking forward to getting some much crisper shots by utilising not only its improved sensor but the ability to zoom in on the screen to ensure you've got your focus right. Yes, that last bit requires a tripod peeps!

I'm yet to replace my 10-22mm wide angle lens so no long exposures for the time being (the ND filters only fit that lens) so I will be playing around with the camera using other lenses, maybe do a little macro, and experiment with the video. I'll also transfer some images over to the phone and edit them using smartphone apps. I love using Snapseed to edit photos, and having access to some of the files from my SLR with much larger colour spaces should give me a lot more creative freedom.

Photos transferred from the camera to my iPhone are converted to JPG and compressed, so inevitably I lose some quality The big plus is only needing to use one camera at a time to capture shots, but then being able to edit them in different ways ( I'm usually a bit more creative with my Snapseed edits than my Lightroom edits) on different devices. It means that I don't need to take an extra shot with the iPhone, and can utilise the optics of a wide angle or telephoto lens rather than the digital zoom on the phone. Both the above photos were taken with my iPhone, but I took many more with the SLR at the same time.

Like everyone, I sometimes want to shoot off a quick shot to Facebook to share, something I couldn't do with the old SLR without importing and editing through LR. So I'll take a few iPhone shots instead. They're usually rushed, and not great quality as a result. I'm much more careful with my SLR shots. Even though it will take longer than continuing to rush off some shots, having the option to transfer shots from my 70D to my phone for uploading to Facebook means my pictures should take a great leap in quality. Of course this requires a little self discipline...

There's also the option to connect wirelessly to the internet and to my computer, but since I wish to edit my photos first, and not tie myself to Canon's EOS utility software, I think I'll just keep to my usual workflow of download into LR, edit and publish. Except for my Snapseed photos, which I often publish direct to the web from my smartphone. So I'll stick with just smartphone connectivity for now.

I'm also working out how to do time-lapse using the smartphone as controller. Watch this space...