I love photography since I was a boy, everything before my eyes are beautiful and I want to memorize them all. But as human I can’t possible remember every details of them. It’s so fortunate that we have tools to capture the magic of nature, and nowadays it gets simpler as digital photography becomes affordable to everyone. 

My fist SLR camera that I used was Film Camera Yashica FX-D with Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm/f1.7 T lens. It’s not mine; my friend lent me for some period of time. That was a wonderful moment, everywhere I went, and the camera had to go. After trial and error, can manage to use it properly, not the best, but at least I could have image on my film (although I spent a lot of effort on that-especially money)

When I had enough money, I bought my own SLR camera; Canon T50. There is only few setting in this camera:  Timer, Point and Shoot, Lock. It makes easy to use with few settings. Until I need something more to explore, like if I want to capture moving car or sport event, I felt a bit down because it has no control over shutter speeds. Manual aperture settings make shutter speed lock at 1/60s. Max shutter speed on auto is 2s min is 1/1000s. Not enough range or control over the shutter is the only problem I have with it. But for beginner like me, it’s still ok (although the main reason was money) and I still keep my canon T50 until now. 

I work on a company as a designer and illustrator several years ago. Since I had stable income, I consider buying a new camera – the first thing in my mind was a digital camera. It has more flexibility. I could explore more without worrying running out of film. The other advantages are that it can do things film cameras cannot: displaying images on a screen immediately after they are captured, storing thousands of images on a single small memory device, and deleting images to free storage space.

I decided to buy Olympus E-500. This camera has a lot of features 8-megapixel digital SLR camera that was designed to be used easily by photographers of any skill level. The E-500 is compact (approx. 5 x 3.7 x 2.6 inches), lightweight (15.3 oz.), durable and packed with Olympus innovations like an exclusive Dust Reduction System for spot-free photos, a TruePic TURBO Image Processor for fast response time, and a large 2.5-inch HyperCrystal LCD. Compatible with a wide range of Olympus Zuiko Digital Specific Lenses, the E-500 delivers a SLR performance. Select from one of the 25 Exposure Modes (Easy, Basic and Creative) that make it easy to get the results I want. The 15 pre-programmed Scene Select modes to achieve the optimal results for: Night Scenes, Fireworks, Sunsets, Beach and Snow, Children, Landscape, and more although I rarely use those setting since I am more comfortable to capture image manually.

"The Morning"

Photo by Yustinus susanto

Olympus E 500

However, ignoring how the good the camera is, I felt there was something missing. It was personal, that I used to have canon camera (I have it for 10 years now) and it felt comfortable with me, again it’s personal. After 5 months I sold my Olympus E-500 to buy another digital camera; Canon 30D with new EF-S 17-55mm. One of the EOS 30D’s greatest advantages is the EOS system: compatibility with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses, EX-series Speedlites and EOS accessories. The EOS 30D’s EF-S lens mount allows connection to Canon’s range of lighter and wider angle lenses, including the new wide aperture EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM standard zoom lens. 

Photographed using Canon 30D

But for me the best feature is Picture Style, Picture Style pre-sets simplify in-camera control over image quality. Picture Style pre-sets can be likened to different film types – each one offering a different colour response. Within each easily selectable pre-set, photographers have control over sharpness, contrast, colour tone and saturation. The camera’s factory default configuration is set to deliver immediately-usable JPEG images without need for additional menu settings. Picture Style presets applied to a RAW image does not degrade the image in any way and can be revised with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software.

The six pre-sets include: Standard – for crisp, vivid images that don’t require post-processing; Portrait – optimizes color tone and saturation and weakens sharpening to achieve attractive skin tones; Landscape – for punchier greens and blues with stronger sharpening to give a crisp edge to mountain, tree and building outlines); Neutral – ideal for post-processing; Faithful – adjusts color to match the subject color when shot under a color temperature of 5200K; Monochrome – for black and white shooting with a range of filter effects (yellow, orange, red and green) and toning effects (sepia, blue, purple and green). The User Defined pre-set can be used to store up to three customized pre-sets, or any of the pre-sets available for download from Canon’s web site.

Other photos using Canon 30D,

I took this photo on the way to Tembagapura, Papua, Indonesia just when the sun was about to go away to the other side of hemisphere

I use my Canon 30D for 3 years now, and I purchased some accessories that I need; flash, battery grip, tripod. I still love it but most of all I can capture the amazing view of the world, from human, landscape, animal and other object the way I want it.

This is the photo of two Kamoro young boys, kamoro is one of tribe in the beautiful island of Papua. I use Canon 30D