The Camera

In February of 2018, I switched from a point and shoot camera (the Fujifilm FinePix XP55) to a DSLR (the Canon Rebel T6). By that time, most people were using phones as their primary photographic device, but I was not for a couple reasons – 1) since my first cell phone in college, I’ve had non-flagship TracFone phones with terrible cameras [my current phone is the first one I’ve owned that even has a front camera (that I essentially never use)], and 2) I’m legitimately quite awful at phone photography, to the point where there’s about a 50% chance any given photo isn’t even in focus. From a technological perspective, the XP55 actually has specifications that are comparable to an average phone camera from around 2018, but the point and shoot market has since been more or less obliterated by phones.

Icy grass [117 mm, f/8, 1/160 s, ISO-400]

Since I’m apparently not capable of getting good phone photos, I was still using a dedicated camera in 2018. After getting increasingly dissatisfied with the XP55, I upgraded to a DSLR. At the time, I knew that Canon and Nikon were two of the major names in the DSLR market and that the Canon Rebel series was frequently recommended for good entry level cameras. When I started shopping around online, the Canon Rebel T5 had been superseded by the T6 for close to two years and was getting harder to find. The T7 was, it turns out, weeks from being announced, and I didn’t know that I’d want any of the features (e.g. more megapixels and autofocus points) that made the T6i more expensive, so I ended up with the relatively affordable T6.

Squirrel [157 mm, f/5.6, 1/160 s, ISO-800]

Broadly speaking, a larger camera sensor tends to improve the overall “image quality,” increasing sharpness, how much you can crop or enlarge a photo, and low light performance. Going from the XP55 to the T6 increased my available sensor area by over an order of magnitude, so that was an immediate upgrade, even if I had stuck the T6 in auto mode and left it there. I was, however, also interested in learning about having control over aperture, shutter speed, and other settings, so I spent some time with photography books and dragging my camera a lot of places with me.

Trumpeter swans + ducks [121 mm, f/9, 1/160 s, ISO-400]

I’ve now had my T6 for just over four years, and taken close to 12,000 photos with it. My camera’s ridden with me on Amtrak to Chicago (twice), flown to Houston for the Society of Rheology annual meeting, gone to see family in Singapore, been dragged to Orlando for AIChE, visited Acadia, taken a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and gotten biked all across and around Ann Arbor. As of late, most of the big players in the field are focusing their development on mirrorless cameras, but I’m still a fan of this entry level DSLR. I paid $330 for it new with the kit lens, so it’s not so expensive that you have to worry about every bump and scrape, but it’s still a nicely built piece of equipment that has plenty of capability, though not all the bells and whistles of a flagship camera.

The T6 doesn’t have in-body image stabilization, though all the lenses I have do. The general rule of thumb is to keep shutter speed faster than the inverse of the focal length, which I find works fine to get acceptably sharp photos, especially with my lenses rated for 3-4 stops¹ of image stabilization. The T6 also isn’t weather sealed, so I wouldn’t put it in a puddle or go out in a downpour, but it’s been fine in light to moderate rain and snow as well as cold. It further lacks a touchscreen, a tilt-out screen, and a live histogram (though does have live view, which I use on occasion), but I’ve never had any of those features so I’m fine without them.

The T6 has a bunch of photo modes, but I used auto for about one night to try out the camera, then it’s been in manual since then, and I’ve never taken video with it. I also don’t use burst mode, which is important for sports/action shots. I prefer shooting in full manual mode, but I use it very similarly to aperture priority a lot of the time, and I’m currently in a months-long trial of back button focusing², which I think I like. Although above around ISO-800, the noise starts being not great in certain situations, it’s a huge improvement over my point and shoot, so I’m not complaining too much. Overall, I’m very happy with the T6. It’s not the most brilliant camera out there³, and sure, I’d like to have the latest and greatest equipment, but the T6 is a more than capable camera for my adventures, and I’ve enjoyed my time with it so far.

[This post features photos from my newest telephoto lens. I also have a new-ish ultra wide-angle lens, which a lot of the photos from my Acadia and Upper Peninsula trips were taken with.]

¹Camera stops are a measurement of how much light the camera is seeing. One stop is half or twice as much light as the stop lower or higher than it. You get more stops of light by opening up the aperture, lengthening shutter speed, or increasing ISO. Image stabilization helps to eliminate blur caused by motion of the camera, which allows the shutter speed to be increased.

²Instead of half pressing the shutter to (auto) focus, you focus using a separate button on the back of the camera (hence back button focus). This decouples the actions of focusing and taking the picture, which allows you to set the focus where you want it, compose your photo, then take the shot instead of constantly having to refocus, assuming the focus point isn’t changing.

³It’s maybe just a little short on megapixels compared to newer cameras, and the lenses often aren’t the sharpest in the world, but since most people apparently only look at photos while scrolling through Instagram on their phone, no big deal, right?