My venerable Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT – not only the first SLR camera I ever owned, but the first camera I ever owned – was a solid little workhorse of a camera that churned out great pictures for fifteen years, and finally gave up about a year ago when I flipped a kayak in Key West and dumped it in the ocean.
I’d been meaning to replace it for a while anyway; I’ve desperately missed not having a good camera this summer; I’m hoping to make a trip down to the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness next month; and I had a mess of credit card cash-back points that I’m not using to rent a car in Spain (the Bisti trip is the consolation prize – thanks, COVID!) so it was time.
The new camera, a T7, was delivered on Wednesday and I took a walk around the lake after work on Thursday to break it in. Unfortunately my telephoto lens picked up some connector corrosion from that aforementioned dip in the ocean, so I didn’t get any good water bird pictures, but I got a couple of perfectly serviceable sunset photos and wildflower macro shots. (I did get the connectors cleaned up and the lens working again, later, so I’ll try again for wildlife pictures.) I’m happy with it. Canon hasn’t changed the basic camera body layout since 2004, so the buttons are all where I expect them to be and it feels familiar in my hand; but there are of course a slew of new features and a lot more power. It will be fun to play around with it and learn what it can do.
