The wakeup (from point-and-shoot towards SLR)

As I said in an earlier post, I was lying in a point-and-shoot self-satisfaction with the excuse that "I am busy with other things right now". For the record, we're talking about the year 2005.

Things changed when my friend Petru bought his first digital SLR (for those not living on the photographer's planet, SLR= single lens reflex or in other words you look through your lens when you shoot). I was on vacation in Romania and Petru put his Canon EOS 20D (pictured here) in my hands and watched me shoot. I was not so impressed in the beginning, the camera seemed too heavy (for my 2005 photographic material weight standards) and it had so many, apparently useless controls. But it had that "professional" look, so I concluded that it is a nice camera, but it's not for me.

The "impression" came after I received some of his photos on my PC. I was browsing them, admiring picture after picture, staring at every detail, drooling at that nice blurred background (how on earth did he do that?), wondering how it can be that he had no compression artifacts. And then, the decision came: hell, I'll buy a digital SLR, too!

So, after a long discussion with my friend and after an evening spent in an i-cafe comparing on whatever sites we could find digital SLRs, I decided that since the EOS20D is too good for me, I'll buy a EOS350D a.k.a. EOS Digital Rebel XT (in the US).

How you buy a digital SLR camera when you are not in the US, that's a different story!