When I moved from a 20d to 5d. Initial shock and then amazement at the IQ difference going from crop to FF. At the time I was doing a lot of concert photography and seeing a useable ISO1600 file added to the amazement.
The other moment relies to PP. It was moving to blended exposures. Never a fan of HDR processing and after a few attempts to make it work, left it and relied with proper 1 shot exposure. Blending multiple exposures in LR has given me the latitude I desire coupled with a natural look.
Aha for sure when I realized my iPhone had a camera and I could take a picture of my rental car so I wouldn't forget what it looked like and lose it in the parking lot...
1996 - First SLR: Canon Rebel IIs with 35-80mm and 75-300mm lenses - crappy lenses for sure, but I loved the control I could get from an SLR over a P+S.
2003 - First digital camera: Canon Powershot G3 - Unfortunately couldn't afford a DSLR, but wanted a decent amount of manual control - the 'aha' was that shooting more shots was free - so much more freedom in taking a few extras and editing the set down later.
2008 - First DSLR: Canon EOS-40D - night and day compared to the series of Powershots I'd used for 5 years.
2009 - First L series lens: 70-200 f/4L - sharpness and AF speed are off the charts compared to what I had been using.
2009 - First prime lens: 50mm f1.8 mk I - still have this one and I still like the images and DOF control it affords, just not the AF speed and noise.
2013 - First Full Frame DSLR: EOS-6D - This one is only a couple months old, so I'm still pretty amazed at the results I can get at ISO 3200 + . . .
JustinR wrote:
2003 - First digital camera: Canon Powershot G3 - Unfortunately couldn't afford a DSLR, but wanted a decent amount of manual control - the 'aha' was that shooting more shots was free - so much more freedom in taking a few extras and editing the set down later.
Wait, for it's time, wasn't the canon G-series almost as expensive as a DSLR? I remember looking at a Canon G-series but it was $699. or $799. somewhere in that price range, Digital Rebel was $999. so after reading a few reviews and looking at a few other high-end digitals, I settled on the digital rebel instead. I did eventually get an older G-series for a trip (this was back when the G-series had a very low aperture lens, f/2 to f/3.3 or something like that).
I do remember my dad having a 'wow' moment when I let him try out my digital rebel -- he was a big into digital cameras at the time and had some pretty high-end ones. After trying it he had to go out a buy a 10D, giving my mom the excuse that he couldn't stand someone in the family having a better camera than he had.
When the D30 came out, it blew my mind. First real affordable DSLR with an amazing smooth sensor. I think I paid 2399 at the time, which was an absolute steal.
My ahh moment was 10 years ago, had only recently made the change to digital with a 20D and did not have good lenses. I borrowed a 17-35/2.8L from a friend in the biz and took it to my first daughters delivery. My father snapped a few photos with that lens and with the crap 18-55. I got home a looked at the images and realized Dad had bumped the control by accident and was shooting at 2.8/ISO 200 and 17mm and I could see the second hand on my watch... Wow they were sharp!
I have only purchased clean used L lenses since that time, with the exception of a 28-105 for my IR body... no hotspot and a 100/2.8 macro because I just don't do enough really small stuff to justify the L.
Danny Michael wrote:
My aha moment was when I first used off camera flash. Opened doors I didn't know existed.
Yeah mine too... maybe 7 years ago moving from "available light" to any damn light available to me It's also opened far more wtf moments
I think my first aha moment was using an cp-e4 battery pack for my flash. I could shoot almost a full day of a wedding without changing out batteries, and I got faster recycle times to boot. Blew my mind.
Second aha! moment was using the 1DIII for the first time in a paid setting and in the heat of the moment when one memory card was filled up, it transitioned to the other one seamlessly! Unlike the 1dII where I was ..'oh snap', let me putz through the menus to switch to the smaller sd cards!
Of course nothing compares to the aha moment you have when you say "Aha, that's where I left the car keys" just after accusing the wife of moving them.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Of course nothing compares to the aha moment you have when you say "Aha, that's where I left the car keys" just after accusing the wife of moving them.
> Several days ago as I left a meeting at a hotel; I desperately gave myself a personal TSA pat down. I was looking for my keys. They were not in my pockets.
> A quick search in the meeting room revealed nothing. Suddenly I realized I must have left them in the car. Frantically, I headed for the parking lot.
>
> My husband has scolded me many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. My theory is the ignition is the best place not to lose them. His theory is that the car will be stolen.
>
> As I burst through the door, I came to a terrifying conclusion. His theory was right. The parking lot was empty. I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and that it had been stolen.
> Then I made the most difficult call of all, "Honey," I stammered; ( I always call him "honey" in times like these.) "I left my keys in the car and it's been stolen."
>
> There was a period of silence. I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard his voice.
>
> "Are you kiddin' me", he barked, "I dropped you off"!!!!!!!
>
> Now it was my time to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, "Well, come and get me."
>
> He retorted, "I will, as soon as I convince this cop I didn't steal your car."
>
> Yep it's the golden years................
the barely functioning TLR i bought a few months ago is blowing my mind. my keeper rate with that thing has got to be over 50%, compared to like 5% with digital or something like that. something about square composition just feels so right in my mind. when this thing dies i'm definitely getting a hasselblad to replace it because no matter how much i like any of my other cameras, there's just something about ground glass and a square format.
i don't even care that it's bulky and i don't have a meter and it's a total pain in the ass to carry around.
that's exactly the sort of mistake I might make! 
