Canon Digital Rebel 300D / EF-S 24/2.8 STM
I took this photo with the first digital SLR I ever purchased, way back in 2005. Most cameras I've had over the years I've sold off, but this one I held onto. And though the body shows clear signs of wear, the important bits still work. I take it off the shelf and shoot some frames with it whenever I'm feeling nostalgic.
But last night I wanted to put this old camera through some more serious paces -- what would it be like to shoot it the same way I've been shooting my behemoth GFX and cutting-edge Nikon Z? I put a 24mm pancake lens on the thing and placed it on a tripod and walked around some northern bits of Santa Clara.
And here's the results. There's all the things you'd expect: fewer megapixels, less sharpness, more grain, less information in the shadows and highlights. But the overall photo? From the thumbnail alone, I don't know if I'd be able to tell the difference.
The biggest difference by far was the experience of actually shooting the photos -- that's when I was really feeling the two decades of technology. Composing, focusing, exposing are all so much more difficult with the Digital Rebel than with new cameras. The meter is easily overwhelmed by bright light sources, focus is a guessing game, reviewing images practically pointless on the tiny little screen that doesn't even show you the actual RAW file anyway, and composing harkening back to the old film days where "what you see is only sort of what you get".
I don't think any of this is a profound revelation -- it all seems kind of obvious in retrospect. But it was fun to do anyway, and as I edit through the shots I'll post them up here to share them with you. This one might've been my favorite from the night.
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