I purchased my first DSLR, Canon’s 20D, on 22nd February, 2005. Although I have had owned close to a dozen of digital cameras before taking the plunge on DSLR, I hate to admit that I have wasted too much money on those “toys” (two of which were the prosumer grade cameras, Olympus’ E-10 and Konica Minolta’s A2). But, of course, the 20D only came out last November. I have already taken thousands of photos before that.

The 20D is so much more responsive than all the cameras that I have owned that it allows me to take pictures that are just not possible with even prosumer cameras, especially in low light situations. I have taken a lot of amazing pictures with the 20D handheld without using flash at night. During my trip to Kansai of Japan last week, I have passed the 10,000 magic number with it. Yes, 10,000 photos in just 8 months. The counter had reset to zero and it is already closing in on 3,000 again. The move to DSLR also means I get to learn a lot of new things about photography and post-processing with Photoshop. I am enjoying the learning process very much. The Internet is just so much full of resources on digital photography, I really have a lot of fun learning from it. Of course, the community of Flickr is fantastic.

I still have a Panasonic FX-7 with me, but I don’t use it any more. It is a very good compact camera to carry around, and I am sure its successor FX-9 is even better. But for snapshots, I now use primarily my Sharp SX833. This 3G cameraphone is a real breakthrough in the sense that it can take some really sharp pictures that match those taken with compact digital cameras. But, in order to do that, it does require very ideal shooting environment. But, it’s just snapshots, so I am less demanding on the picture quality. I have set up another photo blog at http://www.flickr.com/photos/49002037@N00/ to host my pictures taken with cameraphones. Please visit it if you are interested to see what I capture during my daily life. If you want to know more about me, you are most welcome to visit my weblog at http://www.rodkar.com.

The following is my list of current DSLR gear:
-Body: Canon 20D
-Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm; EF-S 60mm Macro; EF-S 17-85mm; EF 70-30mm DO
-Flash: Canon 580EX

Everyone is talking about full frame sensor now. But I see a lot people still shooting amazing pictures using 10D. So, unless Canon is releasing a full frame DSLR that matches the price I paid for my 20D, I will be sticking with my 20D gear. The 5D is just way too expensive for a body that is essentially 20D with minor upgrade yet without a built-in flash and weighs heavier. Although it costs more than 2 times the body of 20D, its performance is only 60% of 20D. For me, the 5fps of 20D is barely enough. I like shooting people in action, so the higher fps of 20D gives me more comfort to buffer for missed shots.

Roderick Kar
Hong Kong SAR, China
27th October, 2005

This is actually a Pro account given free to me by Flickr when I purchased my first Pro account from it. I was given an additional two free Pro accounts to give away as gifts. The two persons that I gave to never make use of them. What a waste! So I took one of them back (from my wife) and made it my moblog. I am using this to host snapshots that I have taken with cameraphones. I own quite a few phones and change them not too infrequently. As of writing this profile (26/10/2005), I own 5 phones, they are Motorola A1000, Dopod 575, XDA II mini, Nokia 6680 and Sharp SX833. Unless I have run out of battery, which is not unusual, I now only use the Sharp to take snapshots. Snapshots taken in the early days were really ugly and manufacturers didn’t bother to embed EXIF data in the pictures. Nowadays, manufacturers have realized the importance that users place on the photo-taking capability on their phones and have begun to embed EXIF data in pictures to ease photos organization.

If you are interested to see my other photos taken with DSLR (I am using Canon’s 20D now), you can visit my other Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodkar. If you want to know more about me, you are most welcome to visit my weblog at http://www.rodkar.com.

Roderick Kar
Hong Kong SAR, China
26th October, 2005

Return to the book, the edition I looked at was a new edition that was published in 1997, almost 34 years after the first edition was published in 1957. This new edition had since been reprinted almost every year up to 2005. No wonder Richard Mason said he was able to retire after this book. Anyway, Richard Mason talked about his habit of writing 1,000 words a day in the morning while he was still very much a writer. He also talked about how this had also been the habit of many serious writers that he had known. Of course, I have no aspiration of becoming a writer. But I thought it would be a rather good habit to develop to kick start my daily routine. Since moving my office to home the beginning of this year, I have had a lot of troubles with keeping myself disciplined. The lack of discipline, together with several personal issues that had come and go during the last nine months, had greatly distracted myself from working diligently. Now that everything seems to be going back to normal, I figure it is the right time to resolute on something to instill discipline on myself. 400 words a day may well be the perfect dosage for curing my lack-of-discipline syndrome.