Mixed Feelings

I finally got my 2008 Business Taxes done. It was nice to finally have confirmed that we aren't losing money! Yippee. I was celebrating this fact yesterday in my mind when I suddenly decided I should buy a camera to celebrate. :) I had been thinking this purchase over for a while and on the spur of the moment decided the company could afford to buy a camera. I somehow managed to forget that we are still paying off opening expenses, and that I'm making less than minimum wage but who wants to dwell on that! It was time to celebrate.

And no more messing around, I was going for a full-frame (aka "professional") camera. I phoned up Dad (aka "Mr. Conservative", aka "Money Manager") to make sure I wasn't being a complete idiot and he assured me I wasn't. So off I ran to get a camera. I walked into the store, got the camera I wanted and rushed home to wait for the battery to charge. While the battery was charging (the longest 2 hours of my life) I flipped through the manual and put a lens on just to look through. Weird. You can see big dark edges. Must just be a weird view finder thing. At least this is what I told myself.

Apparently not.

That photo was taken with my "good" lens. The expensive one that I bought. The one I was told would work fine with a full frame sensor camera. I am so disappointed.

I phoned the camera store to make sure I wasn't just being an idiot and he told me to come down with the camera and lens. Apparently for a second time, I wasn't being an idiot. They just won't work together.

So now what? Buy another lens? Buy a different camera?

Buying another lens is something I really don't want to do and it really increases the price of a new camera. One of the reasons a new camera was financially doable is because I won't need to buy any more lenses!

I have heard conflicting information about the other camera I was interested in (7D). No two salesmen have told me the same thing. But this guy convinces me to exchange the camera and get the 7D instead. He said I could try it out for a few days and bring it back if it wasn't what I wanted.

I run home and charge yet another battery. By the time it was ready, it was too late to try it out outside. This morning, I went out with the girls to try it out. So far, I have pretty mixed feelings.

Pros:

• 8 frames per second is pretty freaking amazing. It is so fast it is almost impossible to only take one photo when you have it on this setting.
• It has spot metering (which my current camera doesn't) and I LOVE it.
• It definitely focuses faster than my current camera

Cons:

• Coulee looks orange in all the photos - inside and outside. I might have to do a custom white balance all the time.
• I'm not that impressed with the quality at the higher ISOs. And this is something that the other camera is supposed to be good at.
• I got some good photos with it, but I'm just not convinced I couldn't have gotten these with the camera I already have.

I think the last two Cons are the clincher for me. It doesn't really improve upon what I already have and a camera that performs better at higher ISOs is a key feature for me.

Sigh. At this point, I'm leaning towards returning it. I'm not sure what my next step will be.