Nikon D40
A few weeks ago we lost our digital camera. Since it hasn't shown up magically on our doorstep we've decided to replace it. I asked The Internet and the consensus is that the best SLR camera under $800 is the Nikon D40. So far, I agree.
I was going to ramble on about features and specs, but anyone interested can find a much better description at one of the many reviews online. I'll leave it at saying it's a great camera, it takes good pictures and it has all the features I could ever want. It was so incredibly nice to be able to switch to aperture mode, spin a thumb wheel to change the aperture and then a take a nice depth of field shot with so little effort. I used to struggle with our previous non-SLR camera to get anything resembling that kind of picture. Having no shutter lag is also nice, although this camera has auto-focus lag to get used to. However the standard half press of the shutter button when setting up a shot gets the focus and the shutter is instant after that. It also has a continuous focus mode for action shots. Being a real camera, the zoom is only available through the much faster and more accurate lens twist. Using this makes me wonder if in the past I didn't bother with composition as much because of the stuttery nature of the zoom on non-SLR digital cameras. It just took so long to zoom in and out to find the perfect shot.
Now I have a new project of setting up our spare desktop to be a photo processing system to manage these photos and to play with processing in the RAW image format.
I was going to ramble on about features and specs, but anyone interested can find a much better description at one of the many reviews online. I'll leave it at saying it's a great camera, it takes good pictures and it has all the features I could ever want. It was so incredibly nice to be able to switch to aperture mode, spin a thumb wheel to change the aperture and then a take a nice depth of field shot with so little effort. I used to struggle with our previous non-SLR camera to get anything resembling that kind of picture. Having no shutter lag is also nice, although this camera has auto-focus lag to get used to. However the standard half press of the shutter button when setting up a shot gets the focus and the shutter is instant after that. It also has a continuous focus mode for action shots. Being a real camera, the zoom is only available through the much faster and more accurate lens twist. Using this makes me wonder if in the past I didn't bother with composition as much because of the stuttery nature of the zoom on non-SLR digital cameras. It just took so long to zoom in and out to find the perfect shot.
Now I have a new project of setting up our spare desktop to be a photo processing system to manage these photos and to play with processing in the RAW image format.