My web sites have forced me into undertaking photography as another pastime. While creating my web sites I used a fine old Sony Mavica MVC-FD71 for all the photos. It was generally satisfactory, but the quality of many photographs was marginal at best. The first attempt to make better photos was to get a Matte Board with two 13W Flip Lights. This improved the lighting but did not solve the clarity problems. I finally realized that there was no way I could get the photos I wanted of pipes in my collection with this old camera so I went shopping for a better one. After consulting with several friends and camera shops, I finally settled on a Canon Rebel XT Digital SLR camera body with a Canon Speedlite 580EX II and a PROMASTER 18-200mm, f3.5-6.3 MACRO lens for general use plus a Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro Lens) with a Canon MR-14EX Ring Lite for the pipe photos. The results are evident throughout this site as well as the site devoted to my pipe collection.

Below are a few photo slide shows that I have created to demonstrate the progress I have made in handling this very fine equipment, which is far better than I deserve.

The Promaster Zoom is heavy and didn't like the 35mm setting which was equivalent to 50mm film so I popped for a Canon 28-90mm zoom lens. But, even then, the rig was too heavy and cumbersome to wear around my neck all the time. As it happened my cell phone was dying and my Palm Zire was also having trouble, so I got a Palm Centro for daily use. The 1.2 megapixels seem to be sufficient for the web postings I do. It looks like I will be using the Palm for most shots and keep the Canon for detail work in the "studio."