Ben is committed.

Ever since I walked past a 5D Mark II displayed in a small camera shop in Venice I knew I had to have that camera.

My original 5D was dead from a mishap in Rome and I was in need of a SLR for the rest of my trip. the thing was the 5D Mark II was on SALE for $4299 US dollars (or the equivalent of 3000 Euros) in this shop.  I did end up with a nice Japan market leather case for my G10 though.  What stuck with me was the envy for the Mark II.  Previously I was more than happy with my 5D, little did I know what I would get myself into.

Fast forward through 6 months and 8 different camera bodies (2 of them 5D Mark IIs) and I am back in the saddle of a 5D Mark II.  This one is special though, I spent retail on it!  Well, I used a 10% coupon that I retrieved from a USPS address change package.  So I paid a total of $2643.83 (after San Diego tax), not bad for a new body but still a lot of money.

Today, while perusing the Fred Miranda photography forums, I read a quip that the 5D Mark II had received an official MSRP discount of $200 from $2699 to $2499.  Yikes.  I checked the Best Buy page and confirmed that they had lowered the price.  Almost fully panicking, I called my local store in Otay Ranch and the manager there assured me he would honor their policy and perform a price adjustment.  The best part is that he was able to apply my Reward Zone Silver 12% coupon on top of that price.  After about 10 minutes at the customer service desk I was back on the road with $263 dollars in my favor.  After all this hullabaloo I purchased a NEW 5D Mark II for a little bit under $2400 bucks.

Needless to say I will keep this 5D Mark II.

Wait, you don't believe me?

I found the constant cycle of want-buy-want something else-sell to be stressful and my pictures weren't getting better.

The 5D Mark II has what I most need for my photography style:  the amazingly tweak-able and gigantic RAW files, the peerless 920K 3-inch LCD screen and most importantly the super sensitivity and shallow depth of field characteristics of it's glorious full-frame sensor.

I have tried everything else, and there is a reason I came back:  most of my favorite pictures from 2009 came from this camera.

I hope to really improve my photography this year, by forgetting the tools and focusing on the art itself.

No pun intended.