Xmas Comes Early
I didn’t want to spend the money, but alas, I needed a new camera. My trusty Sony DSC-V1 took a few bads bumps it seems and started rendering images with colored lines through them. They appear sporadically, but more and more often, making the camera basically useless. It’s a shame, too; the Sony was compact, built of sturdy metal (so I thought), and had a sharp, Carl Zeiss lens. She was a good camera that served me well for years.
My dilemma while shopping was whether to go with another small, pocket-sized camera or to step up to a digital SLR, which is bulkier but obviously a much more professional and competent camera. I spent a lot of time reading on dpreview.com, which I highly recommend to anyone looking to buy any kind of camera gear. They appear unbiased and do remarkable research on pretty much any camera out there.
I have to say that I really liked the Nikon D70. It feels great in your hands, it’s solid and metal, I know it takes great pictures (dpreview also show lots of sample shots taken with each camera reviewed). But the price for admission was just a little too steep for me; over a grand with a decent lens.
So, I went with the Canon Digital Rebel XT shown above. This thing is the real deal. It feels remarkably similar my old Nikon SLR, which I always loved for its design. The body is heavy plastic, and while I’d much prefer something metal it seems able to get bumped around a bit. And of course one of the real draws for buying Canon cameras is that all their lenses work on all their cameras (alas, none of the lens filters for my film SLRs fits on this camera). At 8 megapixels, this thing is shooting some really gorgeous pictures.
I also went with Canon because my favorite camera was the Powershot 100 I bought years ago. At only 3 megapixels that little beauty snapped some really beautiful pictures and could fit in a shirt pocket. Reading and shopping, I soon realized I’d be going back to Canon.
I’ve been spending time getting familiar with all the features of this camera and soon will be posting some samples on Flickr and tabblo.
December 19th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Ooooh, that’s pretty. My house covets that piece of hardware as well. And the price point for that amount of megapixels is now affordable. Huzzah!
You must let your readers know how well it works.
Meanwhile, check out a serious, detailed review on digitalcamerainfo.com: http://tinyurl.com/dv8jx
It has a lot of really great, technical information.
December 19th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Lizzy and I finally bought our first digital camera to have at my graduation. A Nikon L3 for $129.00. For that price, it’s pretty darn amazing (at least to me).
I went and checked out that website and people trashed the L3. Ha. Ha. Oh well, for my purposes it’s pretty groovy.
I still have the SLR, but film is becoming increasingly obsolete. And expensive.
I can only imagine how wicked awesome your new camera is!
Let’s see some pics!
–Rodger
December 20th, 2006 at 7:29 am
I don’t believe people trashed it …. I looked at the specs … and Nikon makes such great stuff .. I bet it’s a fabulous camera!!
I still have my Nikon SLR … it’s a great camera … (I also have great, and very old, Pentax … nice solid metal, a real tank) … but as you say film is obsolete … and for me impractical … I go out with the family … take some shots … and want to get them on the web.
(Really great to see you reading and posting …. waiting for more from you too!)
_____
Thanks for the link, Paul. Still, you gotta check out dpreview.com for really thorough, in-depth (and unbiased) reviews. Cheers!