It's been a little under a week now with the Canon 7D in my hands and it's really reawakened my love of a good digital camera. For a while now I'd been babying my 30D, knowing that any frame could be its last. So I really hadn't been shooting much, instead using it as a backup even for my film education. Now with a new toy in my hands I've been shooting anything and everything.

As one might expect, I spent most of my shooting time on the weekend playing with my new Canon 7D but I should also mention that I've had a new large format camera for the past couple weeks and now that I have a digital camera again I was able to shoot a gear shot. *

... and just like that I talked myself into filling up my Visa again just as it started to look sane. Yes, I got the Canon 7D.

For a long while now I had been waxing poetically or was it philosophically about having a full-frame camera but in the meantime I had gotten heavily into film and already have several cameras that have a field of view that surpasses full-frame 35mm. Yes, none of them are digital but they have satisfied my need for large resolution.

Video is something that has intrigued me since, well, since I originally did digital video a few years back with the Canon XL1s -- paying substantially more than DSLRs that have video capability now. It will be fun to play with the video mode but that really wasn't what called me to the 7D.

I just got another present in the mail. A few hints.

• it looks like an accordion
• it folds up
• it's essentially a vacuum with holes on either end
• When closed up, it's light-tight

Give up?

It's another 4x5 camera. More later after I finish with my folk fest pictures.

I had another photographer contact of my tell me: "Keith, your shit is always breaking" and it's true but mostly true of my Canon 30D. It seems to die at the most inopportune times and it may be the camera gods telling me to bite the bullet and upgrade.

My friend Michael Kalus has posted a video taken with one of the micro-third's cameras -- a Panasonic GF1 with 20mm -- showing what the weather is like today in Vancouver. In a word: Windy. I'm impressed with the video capabilities of that little camera.

Not so good about the wind: a big tree knocked down two balconies in my neighbourhood. Not a nice thing to wake up to. That reminds me to check out my car after work today.