pattycakes77

iTrader: (2)

i was doing some research online and thought, "hey, i always see those great pics on yotatech, i'll check there!". so, after looking around at some of the great pics here and seeing that at least some people have suggested or said they use the Nikon D40 / D50 / D60 and the "out of my price range" Canon DSLRs, i'm going to the local Best Buy and buying myself a Nikon D60. they have a special on it right now and it comes with another lens in a package. i've always been a shutterbug, but always lacked nice equipment. never had a SLR and now that i've gone digital and i can't stand missing all kinds of great moments to blurry pics, i'm going to drop a little cash and go with this for my first beginner DSLR.

seems like my eyes are trained for good pics but i never have the camera with me. hope to snap some good pics when i see something now, and traveling for work (still local) is going to be nice to see some new things from a different view point. thought about documenting the aftermath and reconstruction of my town of Cedar Rapids, Iowa after the colossal flooding in June. the company i work for just relocated to a building in the heart of the worst part of the flood, and seeing the destruction around makes me want to take some pics of some of the old houses and buildings before they are demolished and save a true piece of history or show how some things were saved.

i hope to post on here some in the future as i learn how to do all this stuff. i'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of my little dog Bella too!

wow, yotatech has a photography forum too? i'm never leaving this place!

tc

IMHO, if that's the case, I would get an advanced P&S like the Canon A650IS, as a DSLR is too big and expensive to carry around all the time. I have an A610 and I carry it ALL the time - so I definitely have the camera when I see something worth taking a picture of! Could be a D3 - if you don't have it with you when the light is right, it doesn't matter ... Anyways, as for the D60

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond60/

You can't go wrong with one rated "Highly Recommended". The article brings up some good points about the Canon and Olympus cameras...

pattycakes77

iTrader: (2)

thanks TC, maybe i was stretching a little about saying i'd take it with me everywhere just in case i see something i want to snap a pic of. i might take it along once or twice a week, if i wake up one morning and things look like they might be prime for some good shots, or just take it on a dedicated photo hunt. since i have the nice SLR now, i'll keep one of the old cameras in the car as a back up and just make sure to take a million shots if something comes up so i'm guaranteed to have a couple that turn out OK.

when i'm up and running with the new device i'll snap some rookie pics and see what ya'll think.

pattycakes77

iTrader: (2)

i've got to say that i love this camera so far. i haven't got to the nitty gritty stuff yet, it's a little overwhelming so far, still reading the 150+ page manual. but, right out of the box, on Auto setting and experimenting with the other settings on the dial, i'm taking some great pictures of the dogs so far. i could never snap any good pics before since they are always moving around, used to just get nice backgrounds with big blobby blurs resembling the shape of a K9.

here is my 23lb "miniature" dachshund "Heidi":



i'll have to mess around with resizing since what i've read so far tells me that compressing and resizing in different formats and programs will get me better results. the clarity of this picture is so much nicer than when i host it on photobucket and it gets compressed. this is the best purchase i've made so far this year or maybe for the last couple years. it's so nice getting great results with a camera finally, i can't wait to dive deeper into all the features and really get creative. i guess i'll have to get Photoshop as well and learn how to use that too.