Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Low end shooter

If you have read a few, or more, of the posts here, you know that I am a huge user of Canon cameras. I have had a Canon point and shoot and a Canon DSLR for almost 10 years now, with frequent upgrades and changes. Lately I have shopped around on craigslist in my area and have a SLR setup of:

Canon Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 MP Digital SLR Camera
Canon Speedlite 430EX II Flash
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro

Not a bad setup if you ask me. I do not really feel a _need_ to upgrade to T2i or even the new 60D. Sure the video would be a nice addition and of course the speed and high ISO would be better, but from a pure image quality, it really do not add much. But... I wish that Canon updated their lenses more. Like the 50mm lens. It is so old and cheap feeling, not to even get started on the noisy and somewhat inaccurate auto focus. Sure, it can take real good photos, but still, why not update it?

Anyway, then while going over ad after ad on craigslist I found a cheap Nikon D60 kit with both the 18-55mm VR and 55-200mm VRlenses for a steal. A broken SD card slot cover was there, but otherwise it had only been used for some 1500 shots. I could not stop from also testing a new 35mm f/1.8G lens, as I favor prime lenses because of the higher quality. And, now I am not so sure I want to be a Canon shooter. I do think the XSi  is a nicer camera than the D60, but with the announced Nikon D3100 the playing field could be different. I could sell the D60 and my canon gear and have money left when done. I guess I have a few more days to think it over before the new Nikon is released. The D3100 seems to have nice features, and a nice decrease in noise at high ISOs. 

Friday, September 03, 2010

This is the time... to go streaming

Amazon just lowered their prices on the Roku box. I did a quick review back here. Since then they have updated the SW to have a super nice browsing and search interface for Netflix. You can get YouTube and many other "channels" on the Roku. This is so nice for a super small box that has built in WiFi. On the plus is also that there is no FAN, i.e. no noise, and it consumes something like less than ~7.5W worst case. Instant on also...

I like it so much that I got a second one for our other TV. There are three versions, the SD (Standard Definition, no HDTV support), HD and HD-XR. I think the only difference between the last two is improved WiFi on the XR. I have two of the HD and am happy with that :) If you do not want to order from Amazon, click here to order directly from Roku.