Shoot! Or the post where I talk about my camera

The best money I have spent was on a fancy camera. When me and the hubs bought our first camera with wedding money, I saw the SLR's and laughed at the fools who would spend that kind of money on a bulky camera.

It seems the story of my life is me becoming the people I laughed at. Spandex wearing cyclists, ha! Bird watching, how boring! Morning people, what schmucks!

Now I have wholeheartedly joined the ranks of stay at home mommies who get a nice camera and fancy themselves amateur photographers. In all fairness, I've wanted to take a photography class since high school but could never fit it in. But that's what the internet is for right? Providing low quality education to the masses.

I truly adore my camera though and since a couple of you have asked me about it here are the details.

I use a Canon Rebel T2i. I think I spent around $800 on it originally. I know, yikes, that's a lot of money. I struggled with the decision for months. I wasn't sure if I would use it since I thought it would be more work to get it in and out of a case, turn it on and set up, all before I took a picture. (I was completely wrong about that. It stays ready to go on the bookshelf in easy reach) Then I had my incredibly internet deal savvy husband research for me. Here is a great review that helped me commit to this model. Canon and Nikon are fairly comparable but once you buy one brand, you are pretty much going to choose it for life. Canon was a bit cheaper when I was looking so we went this way. My bro in law bought the T3i that came out after I bought mine and it is a little nicer. I borrowed it in Seattle and felt it was a bit faster on the focusing and was overall a bit snappier. It has a flip screen too that wasn't that big a deal to me, but can be useful.

Here's what I love about it:

1) It turns on wicked fast. My old point and shoot takes twice as long to boot up.
2) I can take pictures with low lighting and they still look good
3) I use the flash very rarely so no more red eye and sickly skin tone.
4) I can take lots of pictures very quickly
5) I can get those pretty pics where the background is blurry but the faces are sharp (never could with my point and shoot)
6) It's not that heavy. It has a nice grip to it that feels natural in my hands (I spent a day in best buy holding cameras and literally feeling them out). It was easy taking it backpacking.
7) It is rugged enough I put it in the space by J's feet in the stroller without having a panic attack that it might break.
8) Nice big screen lets me immediately tell if the picture turned out well or if I should retake it.

Downsides:
1) You can't ask too many strangers to take your picture because they get intimidated.
2) It is much bulkier to pack in a suitcase.

These don't downsides don't come into play very often, so I still have no regrets dropping the moola on it.

I originally shot most of my pictures on the preset "no flash" mode, but now I know my camera better I keep it on aperture priority (Av) unless I'm taking motion shots. Then I put it on Tv which is shutter priority. The presets are very user friendly and are easy to mess with or leave alone.

I bought a new lens which is a 50mm 1.8f prime lens and it was well worth the $100. It doesn't zoom at all, so you have to get used to walking back or forward a few steps, but it takes pictures really fast and the difference in the f stop has really kicked my photos up an notch. It is also SUPER light. The giant aperture has also improved my indoor shots without a flash. The camera was a little pop up flash but I don't like how it makes the pictures. The next investment will probably be and external flash, but they run $300 and are even more bulky. So it will probably be awhile.

So if you are looking at a new camera as an expensive christmas present, go for the rebel. It is a great SLR for learning on and gives you a lot of pretty pretty pictures.