[[  Most recent update, 28 September 2012.  ]]

For several years, I’ve been using a Canon Power Shot A40, 2 megapixel camera, shown below.

This relatively inexpensive & easy to use camera has been adequate for most of my needs.

There are times, however, when the A40 doesn’t quire cut it, so I decided to upgrade with to better camera.  After doing a bit of research, and talking to a friend who is a serious photographer, I decided to go with the Canon “Rebel” EOS T2i, shown at the top of this page.

My T2i “kit” came complete with camera body, two lenses, a well written user’s manual, three CDs, and three “how to do it” brochures, plus a fine camera bag to hold the camera and accessories.

Unfortunately, the CD’s that came with the camera will not load into my iMac – the computer simply spits the CD out of the drive without even trying to read the content.

This makes absolutely no sense to me because I have never had this sort of trouble with reading a CD before.  My conclusion is that there is physically something wrong with the CD’s that Canon sent with the camera.

Fortunately, I have been able to take some amazing photos without the benefit ( if any ) of whatever was on the disks.

I am amazed (read overwhelmed) by the capabilities of the Canon T2i, and anticipate a long, steep climb up yet another learning curve.  There are so many features and options that it will require months (decades?. . . years?) to become fully capable of using them all.

Right now, I have the T2i set to full automatic mode, which turns it into a very smart point-and-shoot machine.  The camera knows much more than I about capturing images.

Here is one of the images coming out of this camera using the 18 to 55 mm lens  . . .

. . . a close-up of a small circuit boards that measures about 4 x 2.5 cm: