At one time, I was the family photographer. But that was back in the days of film. By the time digital cameras became all the rage, I had moved on to video, and Number One Daughter had taken over the family photographer duties. I still, of course, had all my lenses.
Over the years, I idly considered getting a digital camera body and an adapter to use the lenses. I have quite a range of lenses, including some extreme close-up lenses, plus some major telephoto lenses. I have a 300 millimetre Russian-made telephoto lens, that *looks* like it's Russian made. It's built like a tank. I've got one that's actually a telescope and gives me 4,000 mm close-ups. It has an adapter that'll extend that to 8,000 mm.
In the furor over the move, while Gloria was dying, I didn't get a chance to sell the lenses. When I moved to Port Alberni, I tried, but nobody was willing to pay any kind of reasonable price for the equipment. Shortly after I got here, I realized that I had the second best view in Port Alberni, and why try and get rid of the lenses? I figured I should just get a digital camera body and an adapter for the lenses.
Well, one reason is that there is no camera store in town.
I did have a couple of digital cameras over the years (including an older Canon), but none was a digital single-lens reflex with interchangeable lenses. But I thought about it off and on, and even tried to buy one once online. Only to run into some bizarre problem that many companies use a database which says that my postal code doesn't exist, so a number of them just won't deliver here.
So I was interested to see something pop up on Facebook advertising a cheaper Canon EOS R10. So, with some family support, because I've never done any of this marketplace stuff, I bought it.
And it wouldn't work.
The seller said maybe the lenses weren't seated properly.
So I tried different lenses, taking them on and taking them off, and it didn't work.
So the seller asked Claude to figure out why, and Claude gave a suggestion, something about a setting on the camera that said to release the shutter even if there was no lens on the body.
There was no such setting on the camera. The camera had an older version of the firmware. Claude, of course, was looking at the firmware for the latest version. Claude told the seller to get me to update the firmware.
So I did.
First of all, I managed to find the right Canon website.
Then I managed to find the R10 firmware installer package.
Then I managed to use a bunch of adapters to get it from the computer onto the camera.
Then I managed to find the right buttons on the camera in order to start the firmware update process.
Then I managed to find the right submenu under the menu and the right menu item to release the shutter without a lens.
I have taken one picture. BUT IT *&$$#% WORKS!!!!
So I've got a whole lot of experimenting to do with the different lenses and the different adapters and the older Canon camera and the battery in it and the charger for it and the Wi-Fi connection to the computer and a few other things like that.
As if I didn't have enough to do ...
It'll be fun. I like learning new things, and there will be an awful lot to learn about this new camera. I have already learned about SD cards, and I already have SD cards. I have various adapters to allow me to use micro SD cards in the SD card slot, and then to use the micro SD cards in a USB port on my computer. So I've already got the picture transfer thing down. At least one version of it.
But I'm going to have to learn a lot of the settings on the camera. I'm particularly going to have to learn how to set the shutter speed as high as I possibly can. I've done a little bit of experimenting with the 4000mm lens.
Okay, it's not great. It's fuzzy and blurry. I haven't yet figured out how to use the eyepiece viewfinder on the camera, which does have some kind of an adapter, so I should be able to see it clearly at some point. I'm going to have to fiddle around with the adapter in order to do it, and I'm going to have to do that at some time when the camera isn't shaking.
Or use one of the shorter lenses. Possibly a 4000mm lens isn't the greatest when you are testing a new camera out and your eyes are going and your hands aren't steady anymore anyway.
Oh, and that little island in the foreground? That's two km away. The far shore is possibly a bit under three km away.
Yes, that's with a tripod, but even having my hand on the camera so that I can press the shutter means that the camera is moving. There's probably a self-timer on the camera, but I'll have to read through an entire 920-page manual in order to find how to set the self-timer. I think that there is also a way to use my cell phone as a shutter release, but that involves getting a Canon ID, then getting software installed on my cell phone, and then figuring out, from the 920 page manual, how to get the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection so that I can control the camera from my cell phone.
O, and there's also the issue of figuring out how the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections work, and using them to transfer the pictures directly from the camera to my computer.
So yeah, I've got some learning to do yet ...
My best attempt at a picture at extreme range, so far. This is the famous Orange Bridge here in Port Alberni, taken at a distance of 5.5 km.
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