My Family thinks I’m the Paparazzi Now: Cannon Rebel

Awhile back was Brian and I’s 6 Year Anniversary, and I celebrated with a week of going down memory lane (here, here, here, here, and here). What I forgot to tell you, though, was the awesome gift we gave to each other. You ready? Here she is:

Gorgeous no? Weird taking a picture of a camera… I had to take this on my iPhone so it didn’t come out as lovely.

This decision was a long time coming. When Brian and I are about to plunk down a significant amount of money, we do a TON of research. Here is our little adventure of buying our awesome new camera, and just thank your lucky stars that I’m not letting you in on our car buying experiences (you’d be reading for days).

When we found out we were pregnant with my oldest 5 years ago (has it been that long?!) we got a Canon PowerShot. It served us well. In fact, it lasted through three kids, two moves, and plenty of trips and special events. We used it so much, it was starting to see better days. Also, taking pictures of an unmoving newborn is way easier than three rambunctious tots. You can see the blur here:

Then in July, I started blogging. We weren’t sure how often I was going to blog, but it was pretty clear that iPhone photos and the PowerShot weren’t going to cut it. If you want evidence of jenky photos please refer to my first two months of blogging.

With all of that said. The research began. We first took some advice from a good friend who loves photography, Melissa. She has her own blog called Jamrockstar which showcases some of her photography skills as well as her musings about life. Hopefully soon, she will do a guest post for me (hint, hint).

Melissa gave us the best suggestion. She said we should look at all options, hold them, see how they feel in our hands, practice switching lenses, and play with some of the different settings. So we did. We walked around Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and our local camera shop, and we just held cameras and tried shooting a few photos. This really helped us narrow things down, and I am so happy that I didn’t make a decision without seeing and trying one out.

Speaking of trying out a camera, our friends Lisa and Bill (who also have three amazing kids), own a Canon DSLR that they loaned us for a few weeks to make our final decision.

So, after checking things out, we decided that we wanted a Cannon Rebel T3i. The added bonus of wanting a Canon was that we still had Brian’s automatic zoom lens and removable flash from his days taking and developing film photos for the Purdue Exponent.   

We had a very strict budget in mind, and were even willing to wait until Black Friday to score a deal. The long search began. While we were searching, Canon had just released the T4i model, which was good for us. Stores wanted to get rid of T3i’s to make room for the new model. WOOHOO! Savings galore. For a few weeks, we scoured the internet, store flyers, and eBay. Then one night we happened to go right to the Canon Direct website, and noticed they have a refurbished store, and they had a GREAT deal on the Rebel T3i. It was no tax, free shipping, and was the cheapest deal we’ve seen. It also came with a 90 day warranty AND Brian found an online promo code. While it wasn’t the full year warranty on a brand new Canon, we read some online reviews, and there were nothing but good things to say about refurbished Canon products.

Long story short… well long. We bit the bullet, and bought it.

Now, look at all these beautiful photos that our new Canon has taken. While I still have lots to learn about the camera (I read the booklet nightly and research tons of internet resources on photo editing), I cannot believe that even a novice like me has taken some of these awesome photos.

Also, I’ve been able to practice my photography skills with the November Challenge.

Linking up today at Serenity Now for Weekend Bloggy Reading. Check out everyone else’s amazing projects!