Photos – Tall Ships, 2009
A few weekends ago, 49 tall ships sailed into Boston Harbor for Sail Boston 2009 and the Tall Ship Atlantic Challenge. They spent the weekend here, drawing over a million visitors.
I wanted to share a few photos I took. This time around, I want to use a Lightroom Flash gallery instead of the inline site galleries I’ve used in the past. Let me know what you think of this. To view the photos, click here or click on the image below.
Nice pictures! What kind of camera are you using? Recently I’ve been thinking of buying a DSLR too. Any recommendations?
Well… I kind of have a “problem” when it comes to camera gear. I recently bought a Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105 L f/4 lens. I love the camera dearly, but that’s a pretty hard core purchase for most people.
When it comes to SLRs, there are really only two brands that actually matter: Canon and Nikon. In third place is Sony who has recently started releasing some serious gear, but they’re a new player and haven’t shown a long enough track record yet.
So my advice is to go try a Canon and a Nikon and see which has the features you like at a price you want to pay. On the “starter SLR” side, I think that Canon has the technology edge right now, but those things tend to flip-flop about once or twice a year.
Don’t forget that when buying an SLR, you’re also buying into a lens system. Most SLR owners probably won’t go nuts buying lenses, but if that’s important to you keep in mind that Canon has a slightly stronger lens lineup. Although Nikon’s lenses are still excellent by any reasonable standard.
Comfort and handling are the other things that people usually consider. Nikon’s camera bodies are usually said to be easier to use, and from my experience they are very nice. I’m a Canon user and switching would be a freaking pain at this point, but my friend’s Nikon D700 nearly converted me.
Lastly, consider buying a “cheaper” body and a nice lens. For example, Canon’s Rebel 450D is a decent camera, but it’s $589 cheaper than a Rebel T1I (AKA the 500D) and $810 cheaper than the Canon 50D. Now, the T1I and 50D are nicer than the 450D, but they’re probably not that much nicer. Save the money and buy yourself a great lens instead. You’ll get significantly better photos.
Some websites:
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/ – great Canon reviews.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ – probably the best place to buy camera gear on the Internet.
Sadly, I’m not a Nikon owner, so I don’t have a good resource for Nikon gear information. Don’t let that sway you. They have some awesome stuff as well.
(Was I supposed to get an email notification of your reply? I didn’t see one in my inbox).
Hey, thanks for the tips! I have a bridge camera (Canon IS S1) which I’ve enjoyed, but sometimes it’s frustrating to use with the delay to take shots, focus and shake problems and a poor quality LCD screen. I saw my friend’s Sony a200 the other day and started thinking about getting a DSLR for myself. Yuka and I are going to Japan in August and I thought that would be a perfect time to buy. I’ve been looking at the Canon 1000D with two lens (EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS and EF-S 55-250mm F4-5.6 IS). The Olympus and Sony models have more attractive prices, but it seems safer to stick to the Canon/Nikon duopoly.
Happy Birthday BTW. :)
–Ben
Sadly, no email comment notifications. It’s something I should add the next time I do a blog design.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!
By the way, I forgot to mention: a lot of SLRs are coming with video now. Video SLRs are still pretty immature and the market is rapidly changing. If you want video on your SLR, all bets are off. Nikon and Canon are still the leading brands, but which camera to buy becomes way more complicated.