a new focus

It was a long time coming. I have been hankering for a new, more up-to-date camera for a long time now. Our old Olympus Evolt E-300, purchased as a kit on a whim at Costco in 2004, was a great camera...at the time. But the technology has come a long way since those early days of DSLR technology & I have longed for the crisp, crystal-clear images that I know are possible if only I had better gear. Last summer I assuaged my urge to upgrade by buying a new point-and-shoot, -I figured it would be nice to have something slim & light to slip into the diaper bag & carry with me, & while it is a great little camera, it didn't quite return the results I was looking for in terms of improved image quality. I realized that ultimately what I needed was a faster lens, but I hesitated to tether myself to my old Olympus system by any new purchases when I would need to upgrade eventually anyhow.

We decided we could swing it financially, so this week I spent far too much time reading about cameras & researching my options. I narrowed it down quickly to either a Canon or a Nikon. Suddenly, I remembered that I had an old case full of antiquated SLR equipment that I used to use regularly over a decade ago. I remembered having an old Minolta and something else, but I couldn't recall what. I dug it out and sure enough I had a Nikon FM and a whole host of amazing Nikon-compatible lenses. Most of the lenses are too old to use on a newer Nikon in any sort of auto capacity, but they should work fine manually --and I mean fully manual -manual focus, manual exposure, manual everything -but thankfully, with digital you aren't burning through film taking test shots...

So, as of today I am the proud owner of a brand spanking new Nikon D90, along with a really decent kit lens (18-105 f/3.5) and an amazing 50mm f/1.4 lens. I am so excited to start taking photos with this thing. I may need to invest in additional digital storage, however, as I have a feeling I am going to get altogether carried away.

While I have obviously got a lot of learning to do about how to optimally operate this amazing piece of equipment, here is one of the first shots (taken in the evening at a relatively high ISO setting in the dim indoors -imagine how great they will be in good lighting?!?!):