I'm thinking of documenting the renovations on the house I'm buying. I don't really want to put the DSLR in harms way or try to use my phone.

Any recommendations to record video that may be posted online at some point? GoPro, knockoff GoPro, camcorder?

TIL that there's now a whole new product class of video cameras under $100. They are know as "Vlogging Cameras".

Finally did my taxes today. I kept putting it off because I thought I was going to owe a bunch of money like last year. Turns out, I got a nice refund. I haven't used my old camera gear in awhile because I've had a ton a problems with it the last few times I used it, especially with the focus. My first mistake was not buying a Canon or Nikon years ago and going with the Olympus 4/3 system. Which I liked because the lenses were superb. But that whole system is dead and the adapters to use 4/3 lenses with Micro 4/3's are complete trash.

I really wanted new gear for my trip this summer but I didn't want to spend the money thinking I owed at least a grand in taxes and my trip was expensive, but I already have the money set away for it. Much to my surprise, I got a nice refund. Enough to buy a bunch of new gear. It took a bunch of shopping around, especially for the body (since just about everything comes in a kit). I ended up with the Canon Rebel T7 body which I ended up find new on Amazon for $270. I didn't want the kit, just the body because the 18-55mm lens is just so-so. So for $900 I ended up with:

Canon Rebel T7 body ($270, kits are around $450)
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM Telephoto ($183)
Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM ($338)
128GB 150mb/s SD Card ($29)
Car charger for the battery ($20)

Really wanted a faster lens instead of the kit lenses they offer. The kit lens with 3.5 aperture would just drive me nuts. Really looking forward to getting back into it. Will probably end up buying a 2nd SD card as well as the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 before we leave next month.

Nice. Is that still a crop sensor? In the end I wish I bought a 40mm instead of a 50mm for my Rebel.

Uncle Milty wrote:Nice. Is that still a crop sensor? In the end I wish I bought a 40mm instead of a 50mm for my Rebel.

Yeah it's not full frame. I wanted to spend the bulk of my money on lenses right now.

New Canon body and Sigma lens arrived today. Got to shoot for about 20 mins and did a quick run through Lightroom. There's a lot to learn with Canon.

I have about 1000 images to go through ... Here's a few from our campsite at Badlands.

Awesome

great pics

Nice

cal, you get any great pics on the bike ride? i can't seem to remember

I didn't. By the time I caught up to my friend i would just want to chug water, eat and collapse. Haha.

take the brain pills so the images stay in yer head

I still have 700 pics to go through FML.

We were only is Badlands just to camp. It was pretty hard to get there due to the Native American Reservations shutting down entrances to the area.


It added about 3 hours to our drive on top of a flight cancellation which cut our Badlands trip short from two days to a quick overnight stay.

Flight out of PHL to DEN was delayed by 4 hours due to a bad bathroom. Our itinerary changed quite a bit.

Turns out it was for the better. Got an extra day in both Yellowstone and Moab. Definitely retiring our west. Utah was out of this world with activities.