To buy, or not to buy

In 2004, almost entirely by accident, I discovered that I enjoyed photography. Over the next two years I took tens of thousands of (digital) photographs on a Canon 300D, better known in the U.S. as the original Digital Rebel.

For various reasons, I stopped shooting so much; around the same time that my interest waned, I "upgraded" from my 6 megapixel camera to a 4 megapixel professional model that was several years old, the original Canon 1D. Fewer megapixels, but that doesn't matter much; I upgraded because I wanted a large, bright viewfinder, and because the 300D was terribly slow at autofocus and shooting speed. As I liked to joke, I could shoot at three frames per second...for one second.

The 1D, on the other hand, can shoot at 8 frames per second for several seconds. Quite an upgrade.

Unfortunately, it's also a heavy beast with poor high ISO characteristics, and lacks several other features that a modern camera takes for granted, such as the ability to zoom while reviewing an image on its LCD, and the ability to shoot more than an hour on a single battery.

And the batteries are heavier than a small camera.

So, it's time to consider upgrading again. I probably won't buy anything any time soon, but I'll use this blog to keep track of my thoughts on various options.