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| Thursday, April 13, 2006 |
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Looking for my next camera 
| | Well, I've reached the point when I'm about ready to get a digital SLR. While I'm pretty good at getting mileage out of the Nikon Coolpix 5700 (nearly all of my Flickr collection of 7000+ shots were taken with it), it has a number of drawbacks that are frustrating beyond endurance when shooting, say, a wedding. It sucks at focusing in low light, has a huge shutter lag time, and sometimes just refuses to focus correctly in any case. To name just a few issues. And it's old. I've probably shot 30-40 thousand pictures with it, and it's a 2002 design. |
| | So here's what I'm looking at. |
| | The Nikon D50 and Nikon D70 are just 5 megapixels, but I don't consider that a big drawback. Most of my shots go up on the Web and not in printed photo albums. They may be artistic, but are not hard-copy Works of Art. Also, I don't have to downsize them to upload them on Flickr or other similar services. An advantage in either case is that I already have the flash that goes with it, plus memory cards that work with it. And the price isn't high, especially with the D50, which has been around awhile. On the downside, I'm not crazy about the UI. Last September I rented a D50 to shoot a wedding and it drove me nuts. But then, the UI on the Coolpix 5700 is no bargain and I've mastered it anyway. |
| | The Canon EOS 5D is a big step up from the Nikons above. More than twice the resolution (again, not a huge advantage for me), but generally a top-grade camera. Alternatively, the EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT is an excellent camera for the money. I've played with the Rebel and have been very impressed. Much easier UI than the Nikons, it seems. And I don't know anybody who has a Canon of any kind and hates it. Generally, you can't go wrong with it. I do know people with Nikons that don't like them. |
| | The Olympus E-500 Evolt is an 8 megapixesl camera I hadn't considered until I encountered it yesterday at a camera store. The big advantage is price. It's nearly as good as the Canons and the Nikons, but comes with much more stuff at a much lower price. The store sells the body and two lenses (19-45mm and 40-150mm zooms) for $795, after a $100 rebate. A flash would bee another $400. A 50mm +macro lens is another several $hundred. Still, helluva deal. The camera's UI is quite good. It takes the same CF memory cards I already have for the Nikon. Plus it's light and I like the way it feels. Downsides are the veiwfinder, which is relatively small (though not intolerably so), and poor performance at ISO 800 and up. Picture quality is reportedly very good, but not quite equal to the Nikons or the Canons. Looking here, however, I'm hard pressed to tell the difference. |
| | Money matters to me, but I'm probably going to live with this thing for another several years. Sooo... what to do? |
| | Wondering what the rest of ya'll think. |
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