New Camera 


But point a shoot digital cameras have nice delays in them from startup, auto-focusing, to actually taking the picture. Trying to chase a bunch of kids around the backyard as they were looking for easter eggs was very hit and miss from a camera perspective.

...When I first started looking at new cameras I was looking at the new high end prosumer cameras like the Canon Powershot Pro , Nikon Coolpix 8700 and Olympus C-8080 . These are a new generation of 8 megapixel point and shoot cameras that also try and provide some of the functionality of higher end digital SLR cameras. But after reading reviews I read about noise problems at ISO levels above 100, purple fringing on images and slow auto-focus.... The I ran across this great article about the new low end Digital SLR cameras that cost about the same as the high end prosumer cameras.

As I started researching the Digital SLR market it quickly became apparent that the Canon Digital Rebel or the newer Nikon D70 camera were the two to be looking at. I quickly found that camera people have brand loyalty and there were many wars on camera sites from Canon users against Nikon users. But looking at the facts the D70 costs a little more then the Rebel, comes with a much nicer default lens and offers some of the controls the Rebel has disabled. But what really sold me were the reviews saying that the D70 was very fast at taking pictures (remember my action shots from Easter) and had very little noise at higher ISO levels.

...I've very pleased with the camera and would recommend anyone who enjoys taking pictures. 

From a camera perspective Easter was a very frustrating day for me. I love my PowerShot S45 camera, it is small an take very nice pictures. But point a shoot digital cameras have nice delays in them from startup, auto-focusing, to actually taking the picture. Trying to chase a bunch of kids around the backyard as they were looking for easter eggs was very hit and miss from a camera perspective. I ended up reverting to just taking a ton of shots and junking the ones that ended up with no kids in the frame. Even though I got some great shots I also missed some great shots.

When I first started looking at new cameras I was looking at the new high end prosumer cameras like the Canon Powershot Pro , Nikon Coolpix 8700 and Olympus C-8080 . These are a new generation of 8 megapixel point and shoot cameras that also try and provide some of the functionality of higher end digital SLR cameras. But after reading reviews I read about noise problems at ISO levels above 100, purple fringing on images and slow auto-focus. Definitely not a solution to my problem. The I ran across this great article about the new low end Digital SLR cameras that cost about the same as the high end prosumer cameras.

As I started researching the Digital SLR market it quickly became apparent that the Canon Digital Rebel or the newer Nikon D70 camera were the two to be looking at. I quickly found that camera people have brand loyalty and there were many wars on camera sites from Canon users against Nikon users. But looking at the facts the D70 costs a little more then the Rebel, comes with a much nicer default lens and offers some of the controls the Rebel has disabled. But what really sold me were the reviews saying that the D70 was very fast at taking pictures (remember my action shots from Easter) and had very little noise at higher ISO levels. This was enough to sell me and I found a camera at The Good Guys on Sunday and picked it up.

Since then between kids and work I've had very little time to play with the camera. Today I finally got some shots in the backyard. You can view them here and here. I've very pleased with the camera and would recommend anyone who enjoys taking pictures. Now I've got to learn how to use all the extra controls I have. 

Posted: Thu - April 22, 2004 at 12:42 AM          

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