Equipment My upgrade 'Wow' factor. What was yours? (Must be Photographic!)

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I've only recently started back to the SLR thing with a modest Canon 350D (after posting on this forum a while back)

I was really pleased with the camera until last weekend. For the first time I was taking shots indoors at a magnificent wedding reception laid on by the mother of the bride (It was me getting married )

Trouble was, I only had the onboard flash and the kit 28-105mm. The onboard flash is absolutely dire and the lens wasnt wide enough for half the shots.

But I'm actually lucky, cos as a result of my rubbish pictures I've just bought a Nissin Di866 flash and Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC.

Now I have the 'Wow' factor, especially for the flash. I love it !

So what was you last 'Wow' purchase ?

Why was it so good and what difference did it make?

 

Going from a GF3 to a Radeon 9800. Man, that was awesome.

 

for me going from a standard def 800x600 projector to my current epson 1080p projector

 

19" CRT to 2x24" LCD

 

I was considering moving back to film after becoming disappointed with my 450D's low light performance. The 5D Mk2 put all of those thoughts to bed though... It's a stunning camera.

 

integrated graphics to a 8600 gt, then I was blown away by my 9600 gt.

 

Getting a 70-200 IS F2.8 L lens - amazing bit of glass!

 

Going from a Nikon D80 where I avoided going past Iso 800 at all costs, to a Nikon D700 where Iso is pretty much no longer an issue for what I shoot. You get the idea.

 

Going from stock glass to L glass. The speed, the quality and the IS all at once made me think thrice about lenses.

I think I'll have another moment in the near future with my tax return - Hopefully going from a 32" LCD to a 55"+.

 

Oh and here's a reverse wow moment for ya, owning a 35mm F2D, and buying the thrifty nifty fifty 50mm 1.8D and seeing what cheap really feels like xD

 

For me its going from the 50D to my 5DmarkII, as good as the 50D is/was its nothing compared to the 5D which just blows it out the water. The IQ i've noticed is much better, crisper pictures and am not afraid to crank the ISO up now, its fatter which in all respect doesn't mean much but just feels more comfortable over longer periods of time, for most though its the FF sensor and IQ that i went for as im doing more & more portraits and studio shots.

As well as the 5D my 50mm f1.2L actually had the OMG factor when I first used it, shooting at 1.2 is a bit tricky as the DOF is a pin head but makes for some nice pictures and can shoot in some really low light with the ISO still fairly low, it is just so lovely to use coupled with the 5D and stopped down to f8-11 it is so crisp and tack sharp in the studio.

I think I'll have to update the above post when I get my mits on the 85mm f1.2L T-minus 1week and counting .

 

Defiantly a wow factor when i moved from a opty 165 to a Q6600!

 

Several for me, recently i've upgraded from,

• 3MP Kodak to a 10MP Fuji HD S2000,
• 1.8GHz, 2Gb RAM, 250GB HDD, Onboard graphics to 3.2GHz Phenom, 8Gb RAM, 4Tb HDDs and 2 x 1Gb Graphics,
• 27" Bush TV, PS2 to a 37" Samsung LCD, 5.1 Surround Sound, PS3, Wii
• 3 Bedroom Terraced House to a 3 Bedroom Semi.

And now i'm skint

 

Good Effort!

I have just upgraded from a 14" laptop (2ghz core duo, 2gb 4200 ram, 120gb hd, geforce 8600m) to my second desktop ever (replacing my 2003 self build) i7 920, 6gb 1600 ram, 5tb hdd, ati 4890 and 24" lcd screen! ---- WOW!

 

Mine is going from a Value brand 19" lcd to a Dell 2209WA. The difference is like night and day.

 

Canon 50mm f1:1.2L

both the price tag and the performance

 

Getting MF instead of digital slr

 

A £50 awful P&S camera to a Nikon D60.

An 5200 to 8600 to a GTX 260 (All with considerably better computers each spec)

15" 1280x720 Monitor to a 22" 1080p Monitor

A 13" old colour TV to a 32" HDTV

 

From not getting laid... to getting laid WOW

Other than that I got to play with 5D + nice lenses... so now I have the opposite of wow with my own camera.

 

Not an upgrade, rather an arrival at or return to normality. 2 Norwegian blond chefs at 45,000 ft would be an upgrade.