Known as the Canon EOS 500N or New EOS Kiss in Japan and Rebel G in US, this was the very
first SLR camera I owned. How I came into investing in this camera? Thanks for
asking ;p
As a student back then, I used to commute in my trusty motorcycle (the
folks here referred to one as ‘kapchai’) it’s a rather small Suzuki Best 110cc
bike that made me looked like a performing circus bear when riding it as I’m
rather huge.
What does this bike had to do with my eventual foray into owning my
first SLR?
One evening, while resting at home, one of my students (I used to
conduct private tuition to secondary school students to earn some extra income)
came over to my place and asked to borrow my bike. He said his dad was involved
in a traffic accident and he needs transport to get to the scene. I gave my
keys to him without thinking twice.
Until very late that night, there was still no sight of this guy and my
bike. Then I walked to his house which was just about 200m away from mine. To
my surprise I saw his dad, and his car at home. So I asked his dad if he had
been involved in any accidents and where the boy was. He replied in the
negative and told me that they have had an argument earlier in the day and he
ran off from house.
Reality set in. My bike has been stolen! Although technically I
actually gave the keys to him…so in essence I was duped into parting with my
bike.
I made a police report the next day and went shopping for a new bike a
few days later because I was not confident that the police would eventually
find it but within a month, the police had found the boy and my bike. By then I
had already gotten myself a new (and bigger) bike, a Yamaha TZM 150.
When the bike was found, it was already heavily modified, probably to
make it difficult for the police to identify it. Kid’s got great talent in
modding bikes I must say. If not for the chassis number stamped on the engine,
I would not have recognised my bike at all.
I brought it to the very shop I purchased it from…the same shop I had
purchased my new bike to replace this one and I asked the owner of the shop to
give me a good price for it. The owner said he’ll take it for RM1,400 (USD450
at current exchange rate). I took the offer and he paid me cash for it.
It was also during that time that I started surveying for a new camera,
one that would be my official first SLR. There were not much of information on
cameras on the Internet back then and couple that with my online search skills
that was mostly limited to searching a certain types of pictures ;)
I had to resort to the shop owner’s recommendations, and the fact that
he has a pretty assistant in the shop helps (for his business of course)…naïve
young man meets pretty sales assistant with a cute smile = higher rate of
securing sale! Simple equation.
He took out a Canon EOS 500N and a Minolta (can’t remember the exact
model). I was immediately attracted to the Canon design. Now looks actually
counts when it comes to product selection, at least to a novice who does not know
what he’s buying.
He gave me some discounts and freebies in the form of a Canon camera
bag, some 6 rolls of films, accessories such as cleaning kit, etc in a ‘starter
kit’ bundle, all for RM1,400!
Coincidence? Perhaps.
I was now a proud owner of this EOS 500N. I was indeed a beauty of a
camera, at least that’s how I thought of this camera. It comes with an 18-55mm
EF kit lens to get a novice like me started in photography. I recently took
this out from my store and tested in out and it still works! My habit of taking
care and storing my stuff well contributed to this.
Click here for the complete specification of the 500N
I would later add a battery grip, a Canon Speedlite 380EX, a Canon EF 75-300mm f4/5.6 III USM lens and some pretty neat camera support to the kit :)
More on the upcoming posts ;)
Note: Product pictures shown here are from Google Images
