I have recently taken a lot of photographs, albeit on my Nokia E71. This has fuelled my desire to take more photos, so the other day I went out to see a dog called Myron, one of Sam’s friends off Facebook. So I went along, armed with my Canon EOS400D and the smaller of the two zoom lenses, 18 – 55mm. The shots I took, came out alright, but for some reason, they just don’t jump out and grab you. The sharpness is quite soft if anything. I have used 35mm equipment most of my adult life, starting from an extremely basic camera to a Minolta Dynax 8000i even dabbled in medium format with my Yashica Twin Lens.
Of all the cameras I have had, the Minolta 8000i, is the best one I have used and the most easy to navigate by means of all the controls are to hand and not difficult to use, even with its plug in cards for Multi-spot, Multiple exposure and bracketing features for both flash and for daylight. Every picture that was developed, always looked sharp. Going back to the days when film was fussy and processing varied no matter where you took the films to be developed.
Even now I find myself wanting to go back to 35mm, as I know I have a camera that helps me deliver the kind of shots I like, regardless of composition and exposure, as for the most part, I would get it right, even in manual modes on the Dynax. This is where the Canon seriously lets me down, to the point of I would gladly sell this camera and not miss it one bit. Sadly I cannot sell this as I feel the Camera is not always to blame, Bad lenses and end user issues can also contribute to some bad shots. I would say that 50% of the really bad shots are down to me. I know I have taken some bad shots, even before I clicked the shutter. I am being kind here, as I believe that figure to be less. I have spoken with a few other people and they have said the same about this model of Canon.
I have looked through some of the Forums on this camera and discovered that I am not alone in my thoughts. There are those that will defend this camera to the hilt, but I for one am not convinced. The only time this camera comes into its own is on a tripod and you are using long exposures. Daylight shots are, for the want of a better word – Crap.
I have bought 2 more lenses for this 400d, a 50 mm lens and a 55 – 250 EF-S 1:4 – 5.6 IS. This lens actually locked my camera up the first day I bought it and worried me slightly (understatement). I have only had one camera do that to me and was rendered completely U/S and that was a Minolta XD7 with a motorwind, 28mm wide angle, 50mm standard and a 135mm telephoto. That was a sad day for me as the camera worked well.
Look, I know I have complained about this camera before, but it really irks me that you buy a well known brand and find yourself wishing you hadn’t parted with the cash.
My reason for this rant is simple. I drove passed our house that is being built to follow up on the progress. So I took my old Fujifilm Finepix S -5600. So I quite happily snapped away and had to use a real basic view finder, too much sunlight to use the LCD. Upon arriving home, I powered up the Mac and plugged it in (as expected, it just simply found the camera). I quickly went through the pictures and was amazed at the quality. For something that is older and about a third of the price, simply wiped the floor with the sharpness. Ok, so it is only an astounding 5.1 Megapixel camera, but sure enough, the pictures were pretty good for shots of concrete, mud and a gorilla (don’t ask). I have spent about 2 grand on a camera that can be out performed by a simple point and shoot pocket camera. I think I will be moving away from Canon, Nikon seems like a good option (I hope!!!!)
