I recently bought a new digital SLR camera, a Canon EOS-20D.

For those who have never used this type of camera, SLR is an acronym for Single Lens Reflex. The acronym itself is a legacy of some of the older camera designs, of which some may have dim memories. There were two lenses, one to project the image onto a ground-glass screen for focusing, and a second lens, below the focusing lens, that was optimized to send the image to the film in the camera.

The SLR used a single lens, and the “reflex” part of the acronym described how the image was projected onto a ground glass screen in a viewfinder an image that was through the same lens that the photo was taken.

This makes a huge difference, even to those who have used a digital camera trying to compose the image on a tiny LCD screen on a camera back.

Perhaps it is because long ago (20 years) I had become accustomed to an SLR camera, but I have never been able to use any other type of camera to my satisfaction regarding the quality of the final image composition of my photos.

I received my new SLR camera (kindly re-shipped to me by my father so I didn’t have to pay the almost punitive value-added tax in Europe) on Friday, and I have had only a limited time to explore all the features and options.

Despite that, I cannot describe the feeling I had when I took the first photograph with this camera, the sound of the mirror moving out of the way and the shutter opening to take the photo, mechanical sounds that are so vibrant compared to the artificial sounds of a digital snapshot camera, despite the attempts of the manufacturers to imitate the reality.

Holy cow!

Even though my first photo was of my current computer setup (two computers, my PC desktop and my Mac laptop, each with two screens), the satisfaction of seeing the same image in the digital photo that I had composed in the viewfinder was huge, despite the banality of the subject.

Somehow, I cannot achieve this satisfactory result of “composition on the fly” when using either the LCD screen or the viewfinder of my snapshot digital camera.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed photography.

Now the fun begins!