Thank You

For a long time I’ve been writing about wanting to upgrade from my old Canon Ti1 to the T3i which is really only about $600 because the T4i was just released.  Well, money times have been tough again, so although I could just about afford the T3i I decided to hold off until some sort of big project came through – and there are a few in the air.  So I was surprised yesterday to get a UPS delivery of a small box from B&H Photo.

I asked the delivery guy if he was sure it was for me, and yes it was.  I hadn’t ordered anything from B&H in a long time.

But I took the box inside, and opened it carefully to find that it was the Canon T4i.  I went and looked at the receipt and sure enough it was sent to me by an old friend, a follower of the blog and somebody I may have met once or twice in real life – and no note, no nothing.  Just a gift.

The last time I had spoke to him he was in financial trouble.  Apparently his fortunes turned around.  And I had so many email addresses for him, collected through the years, I wasn’t which one to email.  But I got in touch with him and thanked him for his generosity.  I was genuinely touched.

I’ve spent a fair amount of the day going through the manual which is about 400 pages long.  They’ve added so many features since the T1i that you really should take a course in using it.  I just wanted it because of the higher usable ISO and the swivel back with the grid.  That grid reminds me of my days with the Rollei TLR and the grid on the view camera.  I like being able to look down and compose on a screen.  But of course this is beyond that as it is a touch screen.

In live view you can not only pick your focus point, but you can click the shutter from the touch screen.  Talk about sneaky.  On top of that you can basically set anything you want on that screen.

I have had a chance to do similar things in my life.  Maybe three or four times.  And I will tell you that giving a gift like that is good for the soul.