New camera
Last Thursday, we got a new camera: A Nikon D50. This is a low-end digital SLR, and (from our point of view) a very nice camera. We got the default package with the 18-55 lens.
We’ve been using it for a couple of days now, and it’s lightyears ahead of the point-and-shoot cameras we used before. Not just in terms of megapixels, either (although it’s more than twice as good in that respect). The biggest difference is response time. On a PNS camera, you press the button, wait and have a coffee, and then it takes the picture. With a DLSR, you press the button, and the camera takes the picture practically immediately. The pictures of our daughter have improved tramendously with the new camera, just because she’s still doing what we want to capture when the camera fires, rather than having stopped yet.
One thing we’ve decided is that we need a better telephoto lens. The 55mm max on this lens, even with the 1.5 multiplier that digital gives you over film, is not really enough zoom. So, we’ll probably pick up a 200mm zoom telephoto, as well.
One nice thing about the camera is that it can be either mass storage or PTP. The mass storage is wonderful for getting pictures off of it on the computer (or on to it, as has happened once). PTP is very useful for printing directly from the camera.
It has enough manual settings to keep me happily playing with them, but it also does well enough in the auto modes to make our pictures much better than they were before. Above all, however, it’s fun to use. We’re happy with it.