The most important addition being a new Canon EOS 40D dSLR body.  This is the bigger brother to my previous body, the 400D.  While i won’t bore you with technical specifications, they can all be found HERE, including a detailed revie, there are a number of differences which make is simply easier to use and can help produce better images.

Here’s a short list of relavent differences.

The 40D has a newer generation image processor which is capable of capturing more image detail, colour and range of tones compared to the 400D.  It can also do it all at a faster speed.

It is a physically larger and heavier unit than the 400D, which aids in stability when using long lenses and flashes, as well as being more comfortable to hold on to and operate.

It has more “steps” is some of it’s main settings, which allows you to make finer adjustments to the image controls, for cleaner and crisper images.

It’s image capturing sensor has some minor differences which allow it to produce sharper images with less “digital noise”.

And finally, it has more controls available via the dedicated buttons on both the top and rear panels. While this may seem a little daunting to someone not used to using a digital SLR, it makes adjusting the settings a much more intuitive and speedy process. Rather than having to dig through menus to find the control you need, it’s right there at your finger-tips. This time saving can be the difference between capturing that special or exciting moment, that you would have otherwise missed while searching through the maze of menu’s available on modern digital cameras.

Hopefully over the coming year I will be doing more and more work on progressing my skills and techniques and actually beginning to do some “real” photography work, outside of taking photo’s for my own enjoyment.

My other major purchase, I have just collected today. It’s a “Standard” Zoom Lens, the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 it’s main purpose it to be a very versatile lens, that can be used for a variety of different types of photography.

It it wide enough to be used as a lens for taking landscapes, it’s mid-range is suited to taking group portraits at indoor or outdoor functions or parties, and with the zoom fully extended to 50mm, it’s a great lens for classic 3/4 length portraiture.  The actual optics of this lens are of very high quality, and it has the ability to be able to be used in a host of low-light situations (indoors with no flash, for example).

I’m yet to take any real test-shots, but i’ll add some to another post once i’ve had a chance to get out and shoot with it.

Hopefully it meets my expectations.