New Camera Time
 

Ok, I've got my running shoes and am back at that (which is awesome).

But I've been looking into DSLR's lately since I am taking more photoclasses over the summer and in the fall just to fill in credits. No more film classes (darn). So I was looking at a Nikon D60. Anyone here have one?

D60 is a nice camera, great for non-professional photo buffs. Good pics and plenty of options with scene selectors. Have to say I have used a D40, D60 and D80. For the money I would go for a D40 just as good cheaper and there aren't a whole lot of reasons to buy a D60 over a D40 or a D40X. But thats just my 2 cents worth. Or if you can really afford it the new D90 is really really cool (the one I am going to get when my wife will let me)

I was looking at the D80. I'm not sure if best buy had the D90 on the shelf to play with.

Wouldnt a Canon be better?

- Peter.

I've used the Nikon brand before.

The D60 doesn't have an auto focus feature(If I start to get lazy lol)..hmmmm

They're all good
 

Picking a brand for the camera body depends on what lenses, flashes and other accessories you already own [or can get cheaply].

If you have no current investment in photo hardware, you can be more flexible. [See what fits your budget, hands & brain]

I would recommend the reviews [and forums] over at http://www.dpreview.com/ [the forums have a fairly good signal to noise ratio].

Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Leica use lens based optical image stabilization [not all lenses will have the feature]

Pentax, Olympus and Sony use in body 'sensor shift' image stabilization. This is usable with almost any lens - but not optimized for any particular lens

A new alternative to a DSLR is an 'EVIL' [Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens] camera. The first production camera in this category is the Panasonic G1.

D90 is a 12.3 MP still has all the great Nikon features but this one can take Full res. video clips. Its sweet. and it does have faster FPS than the D80 (if you take sports photos or live aciton type things)

I believe it does.

this might help

http://www.nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25438/D60.html?KAC-olmkwd08&ATTR=srch08good60&cid=srch_08good60&gclid=CPqw09_J15gCFQVuswodJxCqcA

And when you “Find-your-Nikon”…. See what Canon has to compete with it, and buy that. :D


Check with B&H for whatever you decide on. They may have a demo (or G-Market unit. sorry, no warranty there) that could save you some $$ too.

dlevitt’s post is a good one. X2, what he said.

We’ve used that review site quite a bit as well. Nice site.

Check out SONY Minolta Alpha 700 or 900, uses Minolta's legendary metering and focusing technology and lenses with SONY's CMOS, SONY makes CMOS for Nikon and Canon as well.

I had a beautiful pentax picked out, not to the scale you are looking at, but after I saw it had a big bulky charger and a special plug on the communication cable, i ended up going back to Canon. they have very nice plug in cableless chargers and us common usb cables. I guess now a lot are wireless but I still like the canon chargers best of all.

I've been looking on the dpreview forum. Best Buy has some canons and sony DSLR's to handle. If not I can head out to the massive camera shop in orlando.

IMHO sony's are good but I don't think they have the kind of accessories that Nikon does. And there is a reason why Canons are cheaper.

D80 is good but
 

The D-90 has all the bells and whistles and supports a larger format (true 24x36mm CCD and much sharper images due to more pixels per image %).

I have the D-80 and really like it and I am a lifelong Nikon user that still has my original Nikkormat Ftn on the shelf.

The VR lenses are really fine (I like the Image stabilization for Sports and long lens shiots to lose the vibration and shake) but the Nikon wide angle lenses are the best, the 10.5mm 2.8 Fisheye and 20mm 2.8 are AMAZING in their sharpness. The long zooms (80-200 and 70-300) in the new glass fiber/plastic housings seem a bit light and I tend to use my older D series metal housing zoom (80-200 2.8) instead. The 18-200 is really a nice lens but the design results in a really slow maximum apreture at the 18mm end of the lens. I'd rather have the wider F stop of a wide angle single focal length or short zoom over a small apreture "do it all" zoom.