Over the weekend I was lucky enough to be hired by a friend of a family to take pictures of the 40th Reunion of their old youth club.
I wanted to make sure the pictures came out well and as I was also lacking a decent flash gun, I decided to hire a Digital SLR for the event. (yeah, yeah, I wanted a new toy too)
A quick Google came up with Guy Thatcher at hireacamera.com. Although he didn’t have the EOS10D (buy) I was after, I got a great deal on a Fuji FinePix S2 Pro Digital SLR (buy), Tamron Zoom lens and TTL Flash Gun. (Overall I highly recommend hireacamera.com, Guy was friendly, helpful and efficient to the point of chasing the courier down the motorway to get the camera to me the next day)
The camera itself was a lot of fun. Very similar to the Canon's I'm used to and very easy to use. In fact, despite the fact I inadvertently left the instruction book at work, I found it very easy to get to grips with. About the only problem I had was that what looked like bright, focused images on the LCD came out a lot darker and sometimes unfocused once in PhotoShop. (I'm guessing this may be down to differing display gammas)
I was less impressed with the Tamron lens, which was very slow and noisy to focus. I spent a lot of time pining after my fast, silent and stabilised Canon lens.
The reunion itself was also a lot of fun. It was great to have a captive source of people to photograph, especially as I still find it hard to stick the camera in strangers faces to achieve the shot I'm looking for. There was a fairly quick learning curve of when and how to use the flash and I still find it a lot easier to get good shots in natural light.
There are only a few shots I'm really happy with and one too many slightly out of focus, but the whole experience taught me a lot.
I also spent Sunday wandering round the docks of Bristol (the same ones I walk past every day, to and from work) and the Industrial Museum (where the above picture of the Bristol Car is from). I hope to add more pictures as I get the chance.