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Purchased an Eye-Fi Card & Becoming One With My Canon

So I've been wanting to purchase the larger sized cards, but caught a sweet deal on woot.com that I couldn't pass up. It came out to a total of $28 for the same card on Amazon.com (Eye-Fi Connect X2 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Wireless Flash Memory Card EYE-FI-4CN). The card was listed as Refurbished, but I wasn't worried since I knew it wouldn't be permanent for my Canon or Olympus.

First impression = was pure awesomeness! The setup was simple and the Eye-Fi View software was awkward at first, but after taking a few shots and seeing them upload to my computer and then uploaded online, I was blown away. The online Eye-Fi View storage is cool, but not anything I could make use of right now. The ability to take pictures and have them transferred to my computer and ready for editing in less than 5 minutes is enough :) I'll definitely be upgrading to the Pro versions of the card with more space soon.

For anyone looking for more info on Eye-Fi, have a look at this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHMFa29pVJM .. Plenty more online you can find.

I also wanted to profess my love of my Canon T3i. It's in my hand every chance I get, and though I haven't shot anything really worth sharing, I've been messing around with the menus and settings and taking plenty of test shots to compare with my PEN E-PL1. It seems to perform a tad bit better in normal shooting environments, but extremely better in low-light environments with the kit lens. The E-PL1 is said to be an incredible camera once the 20mm f1.7 is mounted, but I have not decided to bite that bullet yet. I guess the fact that my T3i kit lens is performing so well, it makes more sense to invest into it like and purchase Canon Speedlite 430EX II flash. The overwhelming performance of the camera has blown me away. I use M mode to shoot most of my photos, but the auto mode performance is also noteworthy.

With the few shoots I have coming up, I've found a gear rental place in NY: http://csirentals.com. Their prices seem very reasonable and they were helpful over the phone yesterday. They have a nice selection of lenses too. This gets me thinking about the "try before you buy" concept :) Anyone who has any feedback about this place or anyone who has a better recommendation in NY, please do share! 

Until the next time – take care!

New addition – Canon EOS Rebel T3i

OK – Sooo .. Originally I was going to purchase the 20mm panny for my e-pl1 that I talked about here. That changed when I ran into a good deal for the Canon EOS Rebel T3i with a EF-S 18-55mm lens, a EF-S 55mm-250mm lens and a 8GB class 10 SD card with a nice sturdy and strong Canon bag. Couldn’t beat the deal I caught on this so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. First impression is – I love it! It has a very different feel to my e-pl1 that I'm very much like. I think because of the fact that I have such big hands, the e-pl1 sometimes feels like a toy in my hands: P .. The t3i just feels perfect in my hands.

Out of the box I took some pretty impressive shots in a very low light room. This was and is still a challenge with the e-pl1 and the kit lens. I plan to take some more shots, when I find a good subject and I'll post them up shortly – yes I know all I've been doing is making promises on pictures I'll be posting :(
I'm also thinking about getting a ef-s to m4/3 adapter so that I can use the lenses interchangeably.

I'm still very interested in that 20mm for my e-pl1, I'm hoping to make that the next purchase for sure this time. Eventually I'd like to get the Sigma 20mm 1.8 or the Sigma 24mm 1.8 for the Canon, but let’s see how comfy I can get with the kit lenses I have already :)