And so, I received my birthday gift from my husband seven weeks ahead of time (and it’s not even July yet). But that’s okay. Getting a new digital SLR camera right now, when most of my cameras — both the point-and-shoot types and the SLR ones — have died on me, feels like seeing the light at the end of a photographer’s dark tunnel.
I feel good about the whole thing. Never mind if I originally wanted a Nikon D80. The Canon EOS 450D, as consumer and expert reviews claim online, is an equally powerful digital SLR camera. And it’s light and cheaper than the Nikon D80, too!
I’m so ready to use this DSLR camera ASAP. But let me browse through the instruction manual first. Gee, what a thick lot this is, all tightly wrapped in thin plastic.
Okay, I see four mini booklets. That looks promising, hmm. Presenting the Canon EOS 450D user manual kit in four languages — German, French, Italian and Dutch.
Dutch. It just had to be Dutch. Anything but English.
If I want my new Canon EOS 450D to join all my other broken cameras in camera heaven sometime soon, I guess all I need to do is to use the pocket guide in Dutch while I test the camera features. Gosh, reading the Dutch words alone makes me feel dyslexic. Aan de slag. Basisfuncties voor het maken en weergeven van opnamen. Geavanceerde opnametechnieken.
As I hold the four pockets guides (DE/FR/IT/NL) in my hands now, a thought suddenly pops into my head: all those years spent studying English as a second language become useless in moments like this.
Ladies and gentleman, I have an announcement to make: I’m now an illiterate owner of a Canon EOS 450D. I don’t know how to read anymore.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Sining // Jun 20, 2008 at 9:03 am
Hi, Jayred.
Teeheehee. I know what you’re going through. It’s that “It-all-looks-Chinese-to- me” phenomenon. Can you just imagine if we both lived in countries with a different writing system??? Dutch seems to look like a special German dialect with its spelling.
2 BW // Jun 20, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Wow, congrats on your new camera ! That’s a great camera.
No English manual?
hehe Well, perhaps you should just download the manual from the Canon website.
Now, I may have a problem reading those strange words on the knobs and dials I remember many years ago during the VHS days when I bought a JVC video camera and the knobs were all in Japanese! But when I opened the manual, there were small stickers in English and I had to patiently stick them at the right places
3 Thess // Jun 21, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hi Jayred,
Congratulations on your new Canon EOS 450D, that’s one great camera, I assure you! I’m wondering how come you don’t have the English manual? It’s a shame I don’t have the EOS 450D (I have the 350D and 40D) otherwise I will send you the english manual since I can understand Dutch.
Maybe if you can find the word ‘TAAL’ on the MENU of your camera, that means language then you can set it up in english so that, at least you can choose your camera settings.
I’m here to help if you need any.
Enjoy your new camera, God Bless and a pleasant weekend to you and hubby.
4 Jayred // Jun 22, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Hi, guys. Nice to see you here even though this site is still under renovation. Thanks for the messages.
Sining, yes Dutch looks and sounds a bit like German, being a Germanic language. This is the nth time I received a user manual in DE/FR/IT/NL languages. But you know, I can imagine myself living in a country with a different writing system (e.g. China/HK, Ukraine, Israel). I’m all for mega linguistic adventure.
BW, my husband was able to find already a Canon EOS 450D user manual on the Net (Australian site), after a challenging Google search. About your JVC video camera, it was a blessing that there were English stickers in the manual, huh.
Thess, thanks for your nice offer (user manual) and tip. As I mentioned to BW, we were able to find na a 196-page instruction manual online (there was a Brit guy selling Canon user manuals, but he didn’t have the Canon EOS 450D manual on his booklet list; and the manual was not available on http://canon.com). As to your question, well, it’s quite common here not to have user manuals in English (e.g. DVD player, washing machine, video camera, etc.) Yes, I’ve read a lot about the “power” of the award-winning Canon EOS 450D (actually, I’ve been a Canon user all this time up until I had this nice Nikon prosumer CoolPix 8800 in December 2004, which got broken during our Moroccan trip last year). I’ve no time to play with my new camera yet since I’ve got to attend to renovating this blog, among other things (”offline activities”).
*****
P.S. Happy weekend, everyone!
5 Gigi // Jun 23, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Congratulations! I will eagerly await the fruits of your Canon 450D. Knowing how you shoot - I’m sure they’ll be beautiful photos.
6 Dan // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:40 am
Congrats on the new camera! =)
Visit the link below for a shorthand version of your manual:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d/
That should be an adequate quick start manual for you. =)
7 Jayred // Jun 24, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Gigi, thanks for your vote of confidence! (When I read your comment, I suddenly remembered my missing Payatas analog photo collection.) Hey, good for you to receive that 8-gram gold nugget during a press launch!
Dan, I’m really sorry I didn’t buy a Nikon DSLR, although I planned to (I really did) — in HK.
Thanks for the link (I also visit that site). If I’m in Manila, I should attend your photography workshops.
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