A quick followup

I just went on a trip to Yellowstone National Park with my brand new Nikon D80. Great trip and I loved the camera. I managed to take some great pictures and some not so great. But that is very normal for an SLR or DSLR unless you are an absolute pro.

In a DSLR you always have the option to go fully automatic, i.e., treat your camera as a point and shoot. Well, while you have that option you are also wasting your money. The beauty of a DSLR is to have the ability to control various aspects during photography.

Now if you are novice like me, these manual adjustments often end up making a bad picture :-).

Some of my pictures turned out bad because of what I think is a poor design issue with the Nikon D80. Don't get me wrong. I am loving this camera. The D80 does not display the currently selected ISO anywhere by default. You have to press on a button to see what ISO setting you have. So if you are in a forest and under the trees and hence in shade and you see some moving animals, you rapidly switch your camera to 800 or 1600 ISO to compensate for the low light and take the pictures. Then you walk away to your car and drive to a nice wonderful sunny lake and take more pictures. Oops!!!!! you are taking pcitures at 800 or 1600 ISO. You are compromising quality even though sufficient light is available. I wish the view finder or the main monitor had a continuous ISO display.

Now if I find out that there is a way to continuously display the ISO then I will rush back and correct this statement.

I soon hope to start posting some pictures and explain what I was attempting. But before that I may have a discussion of what software to use and whether to shoot RAW or JPEG or both images.

Nikon D80 My First Impression

So I finally bought my Nikon D80. I have not been able to use it as the lens arrive tomorrow .. grrrrrrrrr......

Since I have been a Minolta person up until now I can compare my "opening the box" experience only with Minolta cameras.

Honestly, I am super excited about my new camera. But I did notice a few negatives as compared to the Minoltas I have owned.

I have to admit I am a little disappointed with a couple of things. (Everything in comparison to Minolta)

1. The manual is made from poor quality paper. I hope they have a PDF on their web site because I am sure the manual will tear soon.
2. I dislike the eyepiece cap. Its doesnt just snap into the eye piece as it does for the Minolta. You have to slide of the eyepiece guard/pad and then slide in the cap. Seems like a tedious process. I was afraid I was going to break something.
3. I wish the manual had some instructions or information on the CDs and the software on those CDs. What is PictureProject? Do I need it? For now I am not installing it. I have a feeling its useless.Buying experience. This has nothing to do with Nikon.

I now know why I started buying everything online. No its not to save $10 on taxes. Its the avoid the used car salesmen. This guy tried to sell me evrything from an extended warranty, to courses in photography, to membership to their store, to photo printing services and on and on. I was standing there credit card in hand and all I wanted was for him to charge it and give me the damn box. What should have taken 5 minutes took an hour.

Also like a moron I bough a SD card from the camera store instead of CompUSA right next to it. I need to return the card tomorrow and buy one from CompUSA. By then hopefully the lens will arrive. Then wooooooooo hooooooooooooooo.

BTW. Best place for the SD cards is still www.newegg.com. I have a bunch ordered. They should get here by Tuesday. I just need one to play around with over the weekend.More on this new adventure later :-)

More later.

Decision almost made - Nikon D80

I feel like some politician flip flopping on issues. The one big difference is that I am not trying to evade questions. In fact I am trying to answer questions posed to me by me :-)

Earlier I indicated that I was leaning towards purchasing a Canon 30D. I still believe that the 30D is a great camera. Essentially both Canon and Nikon offer great camera systems. I have mentioned earlier in my posts that buying an SLR or DSLR is a lot more than just buying a camera. Its about buying into a company that can offer a vast array of equipment and accessories for years to come. For anyone who is serious about photography or learning photography, in the long run the camera will matter less and the lenses and accessories will matter more.

As time goes by I have looked at some additional reviews and sample pictures from the Nikon D80 including some high ISO pictures. A popular criticism of the Nikon D80 is that it has poor high ISO performance. Most of this criticism comes from the fact that Nikon uses a Sony CCD which gives some pretty poor high ISO results.

However, based on a few high ISO pictures I have seen of the Nikon D80, I find that the D80 pictures are better. I have even shown teh pictures to friends without telling them which camera they came from and people tend to select the D80 pictures. Even at high ISO. This is in comparison to the Canon 30D.

The most ppoular camera review site www.dpreview.com , however, has not yet reviewed and compared the Nikon D80 to the Canon 30D. Here is an example of a high ISO Nikon D80 picture from the D80 review at http://www.dcresource.com

Nikon D80 at ISO 1600: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d80-review/nightshot1600.jpg (if image does not show then just hit refresh on the page)

Please read the full review at http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/nikon/d80-review/

Canon 30D at ISO 1600: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/eos_30d-review/nightshot1600.jpg (if image does not show then just hit refresh on the page)

Please read the full review at http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/eos_30d-review/

I have also heard that the canon D30 should be compared to the Nikon D200 not the D80. I disagree. The D80 has all the features the Canon 30D has. The 30D is slightly faster and is $200 - $300 more expensive.

So, lets do another review of the Canon 30D vs the Nikon D80.

1. The D80 is cheaper by $200
2. The D80 offers all features that the Canon 30D does, except for time elapsed photography.
3. The Canon 30D has 1/8000 max shutter speed the D80 is at 1/4000. (Not sure where I would use either).
4. D80 has multiple exposures capability. I believe the only DSLR that offers this.

For $200 less and in my opnion equivalent quality pictures I think the Nikon D80 is a good camera to buy. With regards to lenses etc the Nikon and Canon family are equally large.

So until I have another swing in my way of thinking I think the Nikon D80 is the way to go.

As though decision making was not tough enough

Just as I was about to purchase the Canon 30D out came a rumour that Canon will release the 40D on September 26. The 40D is supposed to be Canon's reply to the new generation of 10 megapixel DSLRs that have been released by Nikon and Sony. Canon has already announced the release of the 400D which is an entry level 10 megapixel DSLR. The release of teh 40D is just a rumor so far. Will have to wait and see if there is any truth to it.

Then just today Pentax announced the release of their 10 megapixel DSLR the Pentax K10. From preliminary information this camera has some amazing new features that are not supported by other cameras in its class. Notably:

1. Weather sealed body. One would think that expensive and sensitive equipment is always weather sealed but apparently only super expensive ($3000 and above) cameras offer that. This feature is not new for Pentax.
2. Very reasonably priced. I think $899 which puts it par with the Sony A100 and cheaper than the Nikon D80 ($999) and much cheaper than the Canon 30D ($1200).
3. 3 Frames per second (Canon 30D is 5) but can keep going till the memory card is full. Most cameras stop after 20 maybe 30 pictures. This guy will keep clicking to 70 or more pictures at the rate of 3 per second.
4. Two new exposure priority options unique only to the K10. Sensitivity Priority and Shutter and Aperture Priority. For the former you choose the ISO and the camera will automatically determine shutter and aperture. With the latter you select the shutter and aperture speed and the camera will automatically detect ISO speed based on the light available.
5. From the looks of it great ergonomics. A lot of cameras are menu driven. Pentax seems to be living up to the tradition of providing the photographer with easy access to change settings.

What remains to be seen is the quality of images the camera takes. I do not know for certain but I am guessing that the Pentax is using the same 10 megapixel Sony CCD that is used by the Sony A100 and the Nikon D80. If that is the case the quality of images could be, though not necessarily be inferior to picture taken by Canon's CMOS sensor.

This is becoming a very interesting time to sit and watch rather than buy a camera. Technology is always changing and one cannot keep waiting to buy the best because you will just keep waiting. However, in the DSLR market there appears to be one year cycle and right now we are witnessing the release of cameras by all major manufacturers in the 10 megapixel class. In about a month or so detailed reviews on most of these camera will be available. It only makes sense to wait out this month or so. So that the expert reviews are complete. Perhaps late October or early November is the time to buy.

I doubt christmas or post christmas season will have much impact on the price. One may get lucky and find a bargain but I think the current prices of the new models will stick till about March or April 2007. Want to buy then? Bad idea, new models will start trickling in and then you will be enticed by them :-)

Yet another delay in my purchase of a DSLR

So now I hear a rumour that Canon is about to release the 40D late September and that the 40D will be a 10 MP camera. By itself 2 MP is not a reason to upgrade your camera. But I see no reason to buy a 8MP camera on Sep 12 to see a 10MP camera released on Sep 26. Also, from what I hear Canon is known for dropping the price of their new model.

So it just makes sense that I wait for a month and then make a final decision. Sigh! I want a camera. LOL