I’m $1,000 poorer but 1,000 times happier.

I moved up in the world of digital photography and bought myself the brand new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi SLR camera!!! It was a semi-impulse buy; I knew I would get a digital SLR camera eventually but I didn’t think it would be this soon. However, the planet and stars aligned (read: new job, just got paid, new camera on the market, one-day sale) and now I’ve got a brand new toy.

I bought the camera + lens kit and I’m pretty stoked. I’ve never used an SLR before so the 18-55mm lens that was included should suffice for the time being, while I learn how to use this beast. There’s so many buttons and controls on the camera that I was overwhelmed at first. But once I took it for a test drive, I was starting to feel more comfortable. I pressed all the buttons and tried all the adjustments, just to get a sense of what everything did. Later on, I’ll actually learn how to use the functions properly. So far though, I’m impressed with what’s getting spit out. It shouldn’t be any surprise that the quality of the photos are better than that of my Canon PowerShot SD870 IS camera.

I’m a big fan of education so I’ll have to pick up a user’s guide for the XSi once they come out. There’s only so much I can get from the tiny manual that was included with the camera so I’ll need to put some money down for a real tutorial guide. But in the mean time, the Interweb will be my guide as I learn all about aperture, ISO, depth-of-field, exposure, and much, much more. I know all this stuff to an extent but there wasn’t much application with a point-and-shoot camera. Now I’ll be able to see real-life results when I adjust all these settings and see the differences in the photos I take.

I plan on getting out every day this week after work and just taking pictures. Hopefully I’ll end up with some good photos by the end of the week.