Photography
Macworld: How to Buy a Camera Lens
Good article on the basics of camera lenses from the folks at Macworld.
Via Daring Fireball
Nikon D40 hands on!
Okay, so a few weeks ago, I wrote about my first impressions with a few Canon DSLR-based cameras and one Nikon DSLR-based camera. If you read that post, recall that I preferred the Nikon D50 over both the Canon Digital Rebel XT and XTi and at the end of that article, I mentioned the Nikon D40, which was announced but not yet released to the retail market. Well, guess what? The Nikon D40 came out close to the start of the month and I’ve been wanting to get my hands on it for a while.
So, seeing that it’s been over two weeks since the Nikon D40 came out, I decided to head on over to the camera shop close to work to get a hands-on impression. Turns out the store didn’t carry it but it did carry a Nikon 55mm-200mm lens, something I’d never seen in person before. Wow, it looked soo cool! Anyway, back to the point. The salesman was kind enough to check if the Eaton Centre branch had the Nikon D40 kit (camera + stock lens) and it turned out the the Yonge/Dundas branch had 6 of them.
Not wanting to go to the big store on Yonge/Dundas, I went to the branch that’s in the Eaton Centre, the same place where I tried out the Nikon D50. To my delight, they had a Nikon D40 sitting up on the shelf and I asked to get my hands on it.
The first thing I noticed was the bright viewfinder. It was something you have to see for yourself. By far, the brightest viewfinder on a DSLR-based camera I can remember using. It also felt much lighter than the Nikon D50 and I confirmed this feeling by asking the salesman to pull out the Nikon D50 to refresh my memory. I preferred the grip of the Nikon D50 but its viewfinder paled in comparison to it’s replacement, the Nikon D40. The LCD on the new model was large and of excellent quality and I also got to see the cool graphical representation of the aperture opening and shutter speed I’d read about in a review. It was cool but not as cool as I’d expected.
All in all, I think I’ll have to have another go at both cameras if I decide to buy one. Hmm…maybe I should try out the Pentax budget DSLR-based camera before committing to Nikon!
Nikon D50 and others, hands-on
So, since I got off work a little early on Friday, I decided to make my way down to the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto since I remember seeing a photography store in there close to the subway station entrance and I wanted to get a hands-on impression of the Nikon D50 (camera) I’ve been thinking about purchasing for the past little while.
Now, in case you’re wondering about why I’ve been thinking about that particular model of camera, wonder no more. The reason is that it was on sale at BestBuy last week and is probably the cheapest digital single-lens-reflex (SLR) based camera Nikon offers. We have a Nikon film camera and its still cared-for by my parents. It’s pretty solid and has gained quite some respect in my family (as far as respect for cameras go). Besides, it’s not just my family, photography professionals love Nikon because due to its professional-level camera lenses.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve given two other camera companies a chance. They are Sony and Canon.
Canon’s Digital Rebel XT camera is probably one of the most popular digital SLRs in the world and its one that I’ve usually kept an eye on in the weekly Future Shop flyers that we get around here. I tried out Canon Digital Rebel XT and the latest Canon Digital Rebel XTi at the Future Shop close to where I work a few weeks ago. To me, they felt uncomfortable. The grip didn’t fit my hand well and I walked away disappointed.
Today, I went into the Sony Store at the Eaton Centre and tried out Sony’s digital SLR offering. I know, it’s in a completely different price range but hey, I wanted to try out a few cameras to get a feel for how different they can get. Two configurations were on display, one being the body sans lens, the other with a gigantic lens. Both felt very heavy so that was the end of that.
Next up was the Nikon D50. It was by far the best camera I’ve sampled, both in terms of grip and overall feel. The body was solid, the controls were easily reachable and the weight was defintely less than the Sony’s offering. In other words, I’m pretty settled on Nikon.
I hear Nikon is set to release a new, smaller digital SLR dubbed the D40. I wonder if that means price drops for the D50!