Photography

Got interested in photography all over again after a two year hiatus. A brother-in-law got a small digital P&S and rekindled my interest.

Another cousin was in San Jose, Ca at the time so I started hunting on eBay for a good camera. I am a Canon nut. I had a Canon EOS 500N and wanted a better body along with a new 50mm 1.8 II as that was within my budget. Being badly bitten by the bug I decided going retro would be cool as I would be able to get much more gear for my money. So the hunt for a Canon A1 with some FD lenses started in real earnest. Another friend piqued my interest with a F1. Being a long time lurker on http://www.photo.net I started looking at the classifieds there. I decided to check out the secondhand offerings for Canon EOS gear. Pleasantly surprised with the prices there I started a thread on photo.net for suggestions on a second camera body. Amongst the suggestions, one for an A2 caught my fancy. A quick read of the reviews and comments and I was sold on it. In the meantime, I got a call from a local chap about a Canon A1 for sale, cheap. One look at the condition gave me a mild heart attack and I abandoned the idea completely. Another call, this time from a friend whose friend was selling some FD gear. He had (the friend of the friend) three Canon F1s and a Canon A1 with an assortement of FD lenses. So off we went, my friend, significant other and yours truly. One F1 was totally dead, the other one had a working shutter which froze as soon as the battery was inserted, the third he refused to show. The A1 had the infamous Canon squeal. The person selling acted really coy about the prices. We came home with two bodies (both F1s). After the initial rush of madness, my SO asked me, if the Canon F1 is so legendary, how come this person had three non-working Canon F1s? That settled it. The F1 was out. Totally.

Back to photo.net. An A2 with a great price came up. What was most interesting was the person was only 20 mins from my cousin in San Jose. I shot off a couple of emails and a couple of calls. Cousin met seller. Deal clinched. She came back to India on the 20th of Oct. After a long wait I finally got the camera in my hands on the 10th of Nov.

What can I say? Compared to my Canon 500N, which is an entry level camera this one is manna from heaven.

So, watch out people. You are going to be bombarded with pics taken with the A2 with the new EF 50mm f1.8 II.

Whew! that was one long entry.

:D