I had been contemplating buying a DSLR for quite some time now, however, this decision to buy one was a sudden one with the resolve coming, just couple of days before the day I purchased it. All thanks to the broken battery door hinges of my Canon A720IS digital camera, which ensured that the only way to operate it, is to keep the battery door firmly shut with thumb and index finger and use the middle finger to operate shutter release button.
Broken battery door hinges
While I am still planning to use this camera as a backup one, after coming up with some jugad to get the battery door stay shut, I knew it was time to buy another camera and I didn’t wanted to buy another point and shoot camera this time, even though buying a megazooms seemed quite attractive at first.
Since this was sort of an unplanned expenditure, I wanted to buy only an entry level DSLR, to keep the cost down as much as I can, especially since there are tons of accessories one has to purchase sooner or later, when it comes to DSLRs.
So the fight was on between Canon EOS 1000D, Nikon D3100 and Nikon D5000 to become part of my arsenal.
While Nikon DSLRs had the advantage of more pixals, newer sensor and processor, video mode, features and a lovely 70-300 VR zoom lens, which had won my heart, Canon 1000D had the benefit of being cheaper and coming with optical depth of field preview (missing in both Nikons) and exposure bracketing (missing in D3100) i.e. things which I wanted in my next camera. At the same time, I felt that Canon 1000D was more suitable for one hand operations than Nikon D3100 or D5000, due to the placement of most buttons (barring menu and display buttons).
This was enough to swing me over to Canon’s side and I decided to buy Canon EOS 1000D with 18-55IS lens by shelling out a little extra (in India it comes with non IS lens). To buy it, I first went to Palika Bazaar, and met a guy, I had spoken to, over the phone. However, his way of talking appeared a bit shady to me, leading me to believe that the lens he would be supplying, would likely be a gray market one.
So I decided to head on over to Chandni Chowk, to Pritam Sons, a shop I had heard much about and which turned out to be the same place, from where Salil had bought his DSLR, around 5 years ago (I had accompanied him at that time).
Finally after waiting for a while, I got my brand new Canon 1000D with 18-55IS lens (2 year Canon India warranty), local polorizing filter (planning to buy a good UV filter soon), 2GB SD card, coupons for free lens and sensor cleaning, coupon to attend Canon’s training class, discount coupon for lenses and accessories and a camera bag, which I would soon be getting from Canon India. All this for a princely sum of Rs. 22,200 (US$ 498)!
After purchasing the DSLR, I went out of the shop, only to find procession of Lord Krishna being lead out through the streets of Chandni Chowk, well what better way to start your journey with your new camera than to click the photographs of gods?
So here are couple of photographs I managed to capture, in almost complete darkness.
Of course the journey back to home was a complete nightmare, as we couldn’t find an autorickshaw, despite waiting for almost an hour and had to finally take a bus home. But all is well that ends well and now I can’t wait to click more photographs with my new DSLR, which I would be sharing soon…
10 Comments
Congratss!!
Really Looking forward towards seeing some stunning pics, sply from the Heaven (read LEH-LADAKH) 🙂
BTW, y auto & bus….wt abt ur Pulser :-O
heyyyy…welcome to the canon 1000 d gang sir 🙂 i am planning to buy extra lens for 1000 d. should i go to pritam sons or palika?
Congrats on your new purchase Yogesh!!!
Thanks Rajiv, it was raining in Delhi on Saturday, so I wasn’t really keen on getting it wet on the first day itself :D.
Thanks Piyush, well it would be best try out both. Pritam usually gives good price over the phone as well, so if you want, I can give you his number.
Thanks Mohan.
Congratulations Yogesh,
Infact I bought my Canon 550D kit along with 50mm 1.8 Prime from Pritam’s too. Quick service and quite competitive rates. Infact I was about to buy the 1000D itself, as at that time it was in the range of 25K +/- 10%, but live view, Video Recording and Digic $ processor tipped me towards the 550D. Recently I’ve added a 55-250mm IS lens to the collection.
BTW me too used the metro to go to chandni chowk, the negotiating traffic over there is a nightmare.
Cheers and enjoy your camera.
Harjeev
Thanks Harjeev, how is the 55-250IS lens, especially while focusing at the tele end?
Ohh!!
🙂
Waiting for photos 🙂
@Yogesh:
Just bought it a couple of days back and havent really got a chance to experiment. This weekend I am off to Tordi and Pushkar with a couple of friends so would experiment and see. But at the same time this (55-250) is the cheapest zoom lens on the market so I wouldn’t know what to expect, but I guess that it should be ok for clicking OTR (Off The Road) action and all.
Cheers
In the process of clicking macros and portraits, planning to do a photography outing on Sunday.
Harjeev, all the best. 55-250Is isn’t all that bad and is known in the photography circles as nifty two fifty. So enjoy your trip and have fun.
am planning to buy NIKON D3100 from pritam sons too 🙂