My New Nikon D90 !!!
A couple of days ago I popped into the Santa Ana location of Samy’s Camera and found out that not only did they have the Nikon D90 at a very attractive price, they were also offering them without sales tax.
I scurried back to a computer and once I saw what used D80′s were going for on eBay, I called the store and told them to hold one because I was on my way over.
Why did I make the jump to the D90 over something like the D300 or the D700 besides the obvious price difference? I wanted a body with a little boost in MP but mostly, I wanted a camera that worked better in low light and higher ISO. To be honest, I was only really considering the D300 as a potential upgrade and after reading all the reviews about how the D90 has the same guts as the D300 without the heavy duty case. With the sensor of the D300 so apealing and the lack of need to hammer nails with my camera, my mind was made up.
It has barely been out of the box for couple of days now and I haven’t had much of a chance to play with it yet but I will say that the hang-held images that I took in the house at ISO’s of 1250 and 1600 look amazing.
I am thrilled with this purchase and I will be posting more of a review on it with some photographs soon.
A New Lens …
I have been itching to get a faster lens for a while now to use as my standard, walk around zoom-lens. When I say ‘faster’, I mean a lens is one in which the lowest aperture goes down to f2.8 . Having a larger aperture allows for more light to get into the camera which in turn allows for is faster shutter speeds in low light situations.
Of course I was dreaming of either the 17-55mm or the 24-70mm lenses from Nikon but with a little digging, you will see that the prices of these lenses are a little staggering. With these being my options and my budget being limited, I was forced to do the ‘unthinkable’ to Nikon enthusiasts. I went with a third party lens.
I did not have to look long or hard. Many on the discussion groups on Flickr and the salesman at Samy’s raved about the 17-50mm lens that is made by Tamron.
When initially trying it out at Samy’s, I was immediately impressed with the weight and sturdiness of the lens. While it may not be built like tanks that are made by Nikon, it has a considerably better build than the Nikon kit lenses that I have been accustomed to.
When researching reviews on the lens, I had seen mention that the lens was not that fast to focus and that communication errors were experienced if the lens was not seated properly on the body. In my use of the lens, I have found no issue in either case. I find that the lens focuses quite quickly and I have had no problem with the lens ‘talking’ to the body.
I am sure that I would be beaming even more were I able to get the Nikon glass but at a price tag 1/3 or even 1/4 the price, I am VERY happy with what I got and recommend this lens to others.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to add them below.
Newport Landing Whale and Dolphin Watching Cruise
My wife and I got up a little earlier than usual on a Saturday morning for a trip down to Newport Beach this morning to jump on a Newport Landing Whale and Dolphin Watching Cruise. We were told that there had been recent sightings of Gray Whales migrating on the coast. Sadly, on our 25 hour tour, we did not see any whales. We did see a ton of wonderfully playful Bottlenose Dolphin and some Sea Lions which was amazing.
It was a tremendous amount of fun watching the dolphin swim up to and around the boat. I had my D80 equipped with my AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED in order to get really close. While I got some great shots, I was a little slow in capturing a few of the jumps that we witnessed. It was the first time I tried to use the 70-300mm VR to capture live action and I have to say, the lens was fast enough. I on the other hand was not.
Please click on the photograph to open the gallery.
As always, thank you for looking. Your comments are always appreciated.
Random Shots
Here are a few random shots that I finally got around to working on. I hope you like them …
A Few New Photographs From Around the House
With the evenings being short these days it leaves me little daylight to shoot by the time that I get home. Feeling in a bit of a slump, I decided to start shooting around the house tonight. Here are a few that I would like to share.
Please click on the photograph below to view the gallery.
Photographs from Catalina Island
Here are a few of the landscape shots that I took on a trip to Catalina Island today. It was a beautifully sunny day with temperatures in the mid 60′s. It was quite nice to be there when there are so few people on the island. With the weather warming as it has, I am sure that it will not last long.
Please click on the photograph below to open the gallery.
