Get a life — and upgrade now
DON’T fix what ain’t broke. Though I relentlessly upgrade some technology, I am a great believer in this maxim. Sometimes, technology hits a sweet spot and seems to be the perfect combination of everything. Ask anyone still using Nokia’s 6310i cellphone — the first phone to use a range of then-revolutionary technologies like Bluetooth, GPRS data and storing more than one name, or e-mail address, under one contact name.
One of my most trusted and reliable pieces of technology is my Nikon D70 — one of the first digital SLR cameras on the market at the then-breakthrough price of 1000. Canon’s Rebel was the other one that broke this all-important barrier. Early single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras were outrageously expensive and only affordable by newspaper photographers and other professionals.
I have had my D70 for four years — a seeming lifetime in this age of six-monthly upgrades. A friend despaired after buying the latest, greatest new digital camera a month before it was surpassed with a better, cheaper one. Sometimes, being on the upgrade treadmill is a lousy way to indulge yourself.
The new generation of mik-en-druk compact cameras is amazing. I bought a Sony T1 a few years ago after reviewing it for a day — the first of the ultraslim shirt-pocket cameras that are now everywhere.
I upgraded about a year ago to the Sony T200 — a wide screen, touch screen miracle that has facial and smile recognition software, and is as small and light as the average cellphone. It’s already two generations behind what Sony has released, but it hits the sweet spot for me and the touch-screen interface is truly brilliant.
But nothing compares to the picture quality of a digital SLR (dSLR) camera. They really are in a different league.
I’ve been playing with two cameras lately that have hit a new sweet spot. The first is Stuff’s camera of the year, the Canon EOS 1000D. It’s a light but powerful camera with a large 2.5-inch (6cm) LCD screen and Live View. It can store 10 megapixels and uses all of Canon’s lenses. It’s a very good entry-level dSLR.
Another new and desirable dSLR camera is the Nikon D90, the bigger brother of my faithful old D70.
I’ve been amused at watching my friend Greg Gordon — the Business Times technology correspondent, who has been a photographer for National Geographic, among others — fall in love with consecutive new Nikon models. It’s amusing because I realised that I must be just like that to my non-geek friends in my relentless upgrading of laptops, cellphones and other gizmos. He also still has his D70.
The D90 has warmed my heart. I admit, with a combination of sheepishness and a fear, that I need to get out more. I used it recently to take pictures and videos (it’s the first dSLR to offer video capture) at my god-daughter’s school play. The picture quality is just superb. With the accuracy and control of a dSLR (and a decent long lens) you can capture really amazing pictures.
The camera industry has smirked at the slowness of dSLR video when it’s so readily available on low-end compact cameras and even cellphones, but with varying quality. This, perhaps, is the key — until it is of sufficient quality you wouldn’t want video on your dSLR.
The D90 changes all of that and is lighter (a seemingly irrelevant concern) but with the same ruggedness of Nikon cameras since the immortal F4, used in every war zone since Vietnam.
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