| The Equipment | |
Most of the pictures on this site were taken with my snazzy new Nikon D70 SLR Digital Camera (which came with a super nice Nikkor 18-70mm F3.5/4 lens). The older pictures were taken with my Kodak DC290 Zoom. Other misc. equipment that I have (for the Nikon) includes a little desktop tripod, and a IR remote shutter release (useful for long-exposure shots). |
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Camera HistoryBack in the glory days of High Tech, when I had REAL job, I was given the task of sourcing and analyzing digital cameras for our Image Acquisition software. Here began my love of digital photography. One of the main things were were looking for was the ability to control the camera directly from the computer (ideally with a live-preview). The DC290 fit this profile, but the software interface was seriously lacking. Still, it was a great camera, and I took the opportunity to pick one up for myself. At the time, I had been using our Kodak APS instant jobbie whenever I traveled, and it bugged the crap out of me. So on my next trip (to Hong Kong) I brought the DC290 along, and had a BLAST. You'll find several pictures from that trip in the Photo Album. At the time, the DC290 cost about $800. Quite a price for a camera that is outperformed these days by $150 cameras, eh? At that time, there were several Digital SLR's on the market: notably, the Nikon D1, and the Kodak DCP line. The Nikon, with lens, was worth $9,000.00, and the lower end Kodak was worth $7,000.00. Not surprisingly, I didn't buy either of 'em. The wife would have killed me. Besides, even then I realized that the price point of good D-SLR's was coming down (at the time, about $1000 a year). I constantly kept my eye on the digital SLR scene, but nothing really excited me until the Canon D30 came out. Here was an almost affordable D-SLR! Of course, by "Almost Affordable", I'm talking $3,000. Nice, but still too rich for my blood (and I wasn't entirely sold on the CMOS technology). The D30 beget the D60 (also Canon), and Nikon began playing catch-up, and then I got downsized, and cameras became the least of my concerns. Fast forward to a few months ago, when I walked into the local Future Shop, and spied the Canon EOS Digital Rebel sitting on their Camera shelf. I'd still kept an eye on the market, and I hop up to www.dpreview.com on a regular basis, so I already knew it was a decent, inexpensive camera, but seeing it in a Future Shop really hopped up the drool factor. Less then a day of begging my wife later, I whipped out the old Future Shop credit card, and was shortly the proud owner of a brand new Canon EOS Digital Rebel. Love the EOS. Love the price more. However, there were a couple of things I didn't like...specifically, the lack of a spot meter, and the lack of flash exposure compensation. A bit of research later (more dpreview.com!) and I was sold on the more powerful and much much faster Nikon D70. The rest, as they say, is history! |
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