Introduction To Photography. Review on Canon EOS-300

Photography is not a subject to be mastered in one or two months or years. It’s an art form with an ability to communicate, convey and explain what words can’t and comes with years of experience and work. Don’t we know that ’A Picture is worth thousand words’. Imagination, money, understanding science of Optics, Chemistry is what characterizes quality, magic and excellence of Photography. I’m not an expert or professional photographer by any means, but definitely an appraiser of the aesthetic faculties of the science. I could easily use pages to describe my like for photography and its beauty but would stop by saying that if you go beyond conventional snapping and forgetting stuff there is a endless, nameless, bottomless world of nature and its miracles.

I developed the interest during my graduation years. As stars, planets, comets, constellations fascinates and fascinated everyone from our ancestors to us it attracted me. Seeing the heavenly pictures of galaxies, planets, moon, eclipses I couldn’t help myself from diving in to the abyss of science of photography. Astronomy is the first science human has developed and documented. All sun, moon, stars and dark voids have been there way before creation of earth. So even though we couldn’t discover fire we knew sun gives light and goes away at night to let the way in for moon (just kidding!). The above nonsense is to make you aware of the expanse of photography.

Novice me started of with snaps of family with a cheap Kodak camera. Disillusioned me soon realized the limitations of this homely, poor camera. All I wanted is a camera with good lens, medium zoom, Auto & manual focus, aperture control, Exposure control (i.e. shutter speed control), Timer, Powerful flash, tripod, auto film rewinding abilities (Overmodest me has almost covered everything a professional would desire). Well you don’t always get everything you want, so did I and had to satisfy myself with Kodak KB 10 and ordinary family photography stuff. I had to wait till 2001 to get my hand on Canon EOS 300, a camera which could only be described as a masterpiece. My brother who works in Germany bought it for family for $ 250. Please don’t convert it in to Rupees you will only get disappointed. (I want you to read my review).

Finally a desperate got his desperation pacified. Some hobbies don’t come by cheaply. Canon EOS 300 is a compact and lightweight camera with hell lot of functions. It takes time to learn all those functions. Most of the functions are automated (with an option for manual control) in the camera.

Autofocus Mode (AF mode)

I personally don’t use AF mode. In Autofocussing mode, focusing is done automatically to match the picture-taking mode. Shutter is not release even if you click, till complete focusing is achieved. For still object Autofocusing locks once the focusing is done. In case of failure of AF function focusing ring can be adjusted to achieve focus. User selectable 7-point focus is provided. For a flexibility and freedom I suggest using manual mode. You can set your own aperture priority auto exposure, shutter speed etc. and get the hold of the situation. That would give you feel of how different functions operate and what are results. As you go along you would understand what I mean by flexibility and freedom.

Auto Exposure

Exposure means for how much time your film should be exposed for light. Shutter speed is the parameter, which decided the exposure. For low light you require good exposure meaning more exposure of film and there by increased shutter speed. To set these times you need a lot of experience. For wannabes this function is useful. The camera senses the available light and decides the amount of exposure is needed. In Astronomical photography you require long exposure times and tracking devices since the light received from them is very low. Nine-hour exposure cameras are used for picturing Galaxies and sky. I have a special interest in night photography. Focusing and Exposure are sort of inter-related. For low light it becomes difficult for camera to focus, so you need to manually do it. Shutter speed ranges are from as high as 1/2000 sec (for moving object photography) to low of 30 sec for dim light conditions.

Flash

This Built in pop up Flash range is 1 to 5 meter based on film. Attaching a external powerful light disables built in flash. Flash output is controlled depending on the requirement. Flash covers 28 mm lenses. The sync speed depends on the exposure setting. Maximum flashing speed is 1/90 sec. Do not try to stare at the flash at this speed you won’t be able to stare at anything for few minutes.

Other

In fully Automatic mode camera shaking warning helps prevent blurring of images. Automatic roll rewinding is a convenience. But if you want to take pictures like shades of eclipse on one film then you need a mid film rewind provided in camera. Magnification is 0.7 times with 50 mm. Lens is 35 mm.

There are many other minor features and function of the camera. I have tried to cover important once. In the jargon of technicality I almost forgot to tell you about the picture quality. If have you seen pictures in magazines or books then outcome of this camera is no different or short of excellence? I really wish one should have a camera like this for true experience of photography.