There was a lonely noise coming out of my basement. I went and looked and it turned out it was the Canon EOS 10D I bought in January of this year that I wanted to take on a shoot with Ray. I thought it might be fun if we both spent a few hours using our 10Ds. Ray passed before this happened and my 10D got set to one side.
Strathmore, AB, 2024-06-12
Strathmore, AB, 2024-06-12
Anyhow, the 10D was lonely so I pulled it out and tried to remember how to use it. The 10D’s CMOS sensor was all the rage when it first came out and people couldn’t believe the colour and dynamic range. This was 2003 and the camera was chiefly competing against units with CCD sensors at the time. CMOS is better than CCD, period, which is why no one makes a high-end camera with a CCD sensor it in now.
The dynamic range, which was good in 2003, doesn’t really compare to what you get in one of today’s cameras. Even the 7D that came out in 2009, only six years later than the 10D, almost doubled the dynamic range of the sensor. That means I’m going to need to get back the feel of shooting with this thing in harsh lighting. I have less room for mistakes.
Park, AB, 2024-06-12
Park, AB, 2024-06-12
I took both the Missus and the 10D to Wyndham Carseland Provincial Park this evening. The park is about half an hour south of Strathmore, Alberta. It took us all of thirty seconds to discover that we have a healthy mosquito population this year as soon as we rolled into the park out out of the car. Yow!
I could never afford a 10D back in the early 2000s, but I did have the Canon EOS 300D (Digital Rebel), which shared the same sensor as the 10D, albeit with lower quality construction and a few cripples here and there. I slowly started to get the feel of the sensor back as the day went on, and how it performs well in muted light.
Carseland Park, AB, 2024-06-12
Carseland Park, AB, 2024-06-12
Carseland Park, AB, 2024-06-12
One of the things I did this past winter when I was bored was whip up a colour swapping, faux-infrared Photoshop action that I have been saving for use this summer. You need lots of green foliage to make it work. I live in the town of Strathmore where green foliage is a bit scant. There was lots at the provincial park this evening so I harvested some shots for the express purpose of playing with my action.
I’m not sure if I like the shots or not, but it’s fun to play. I’ll have to take the 10D to Kinsmen Park downtown tomorrow and see if I can get anything else that works for faux, false-colour infrared. However, after a day of hammering shots out of the 10D, I can say that it is still a usable camera and a fun camera to use.
Today’s kit: A circa 2003 Canon EOS 10D in good nick paired with a Canon 17-40mm EF L USM f4-5.6 lens. This is the same lens that my friend Ray left me, but it is not the same lens. I already owned one and now I own two. Note to my daughter if you are reading this, no, the second one is staying mine. I know what you were thinking.
