Mama's got a new toy

I have a new camera.

We've gone back and forth for a while about upgrading, especially after having to have my trusty 30D repaired twice in the past year and a half. Then we decided to be extravagant and wreckless and just go for it, counting this as my birthday/christmas/Marcy-survived-the-summer/Zachs-got-a-job/etc gift (though some would argue this is a gift that benefits the whole family, ahem).

We went with a Canon 6D. It's a full-frame camera which is very, very exciting, but still small-- it's just about the same size and weight as the 30D.  It took me a good 5 years to feel like I was outgrowing the 30D, and I feel like the 6D is enough of a step up that I'll have another good 5+ years of growing into it. It arrived Friday evening right at dinnertime, and so I let Zach put the kids to bed while I (im)patiently waited for the battery to charge and read the manual from cover to cover, drooling over the new features and dedicated buttons and stuff I'd soon get to play with. One of the things I've been most excited about is the ridiculously high ISO range (25,600!!!! vs the 30D's 1600) and much better low-light sensitivity. As I started taking pictures around the house I was just blown away-- I kept thinking of that scene in Spinal Tap when they're talking of the amp that goes to 11, except I felt like yelling, "But THIS one goes to TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND!!"

Below is a bunch of Random Shit I Took Pictures Of while first testing the camera out friday night.  They're really, really crappy pictures, except they're also INCREDIBLY AWESOME in that they were taken at night in my dark house and are remarkably un-grainy considering they were taken at ISOs of 5,000-12,800. So, yeah. (all of these are straight-out-of-the-camera jpegs, using my sigma 50mm lens)

 

f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 10,000

 

f/4, 1/125, ISO 12,800

 

f/3.2, 1/160, ISO 12,800

 

f/3.2, 1/160, ISO 6,400

 

This one's from this morning. And sure when looked at blown up it's noisy and not that sharp, etc etc... BUT it was taken in a very dark room at ISO 25,600 and is actually usable. That just blows my mind. 

I'm also really loving the wider perspective of the full-frame sensor. It's made my 50mm lens more usable again and I'm looking forward to trying out my 35mm on it and seeing what that's like. For one thing, it helps make for easier handheld mama-and-me selfies (you can see how thrilled D is about this).