Selection of DSLR

I had finally made a decision to purchase the Canon EOS 450D or XSi DSLR after reading much of the reviews in the internet. Basically it is a 12 mega pixels camera with superb photo quality at high ISO of 1600 without much noise. There are a lot of technical terms to describe the various parameters and characteristics of a camera and photos, which I am still trying to learn on them. Some of the salient selling points are the CMOS sensors, 3" live view, 3.5 fps, light weight and also the availability of a wide range of image stabilization lenses, 9 auto focus points etc. Basically the deal making deciding factor is because both my brother and sister own Canon brand DSLRs. It would be easier for us subsequently to swap lenses and exchange views. My younger brother KM Lee has been in this DSLR thing for a long long time, he is an avid photographer with great passion on nature and animals. I had chosen the convenient way of taking photos in the past without any thought that I will ever own one of these entry level DSLR; it was simply too bulky and also messy to play with those complicated parameters of light and optics.

For a long time, I had not been interested in knowing about the apertures, the ISO sensitivity, white balance, under exposure, shutter speed, raw files, focus lengths, dynamic range etc. Suddenly I started to dwell in reading this kind of details about those terms in the internet. Fortunately my mechanical engineering technical training background had given me much advantage in understanding those terms and their implication fast within a short period of time.

I do believe in the kind of peer influence after I had gone on a trip with some of my school mates and Singaporean friends to the Sichuan Jiuzhaigou resort; some had brought in the best in class equipment for the shooting and I envied at their expensive camera equipment. Also partly because in the past, thousand of photos were taken by the point & shoot cameras which I own and there seem to be no break through in the sharpness and quality after viewing them on the bigger LCD monitor screen. Perhaps it is time for me to go one step up for better and more professional photos quality.

I would also like to thank the Senheng store sales girl for telling me that I could redeem all my points gathered for years from the past usage of my Citibank credit cards and also Maybank credit card combined to get a total discount in the region of RM600. I am not in the habit of going through the messy procedure of redeeming points for those gifts. This time I had managed to clear all the points other than those forfeited because of expiry. This had quickened my decision and closed the deal in this particular store for the much desired and thought about DSLR !