Relief, Part II

The deed, she is done.

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I made the difficult decision to buy a new digital SLR to replace my outdated Minolta.

After nearly 20 years of photography using the amazing Minolta system, it was time to say good-bye.  It was harder than I thought it would be.

It was in fact ... beyond time.  A 6-year-old digital camera these days really is just a fancy paperweight.  Still, it has served me well and this has been a very difficult decision.

Not lessened in the least by the costs of the new equipment.  *gasp*

I went with this - Nikon D7000. I opted to purchase the kit which consists of the camera body and a 18-105mm f3.5 lens.  It is a basic lens - if quite fast - for now.  I currently have specialty lenses with my Minolta that I hope to add to my Nikon kit over time.

Plenty of time.  Just one of those specialty lenses will set me back $500 and the other would cost as much as I just paid for the camera kit.

Patience.  I didn't build my Minolta kit in a day or even a year.  And the lens that I just got will do the job for the most part for a while to come.

In the meantime, so much to learn about play with this weekend.  This camera has 16.2 megapixels (compared to the 6 in my Minolta!) and actually shoots 1080p HD movies.  All I need is the remote microphone.  The features are endless; it's going to take me months just to learn half of it.

For now I'll learn what I need to know to do the charity golf tournament photoshoot in September.  I have extra memory cards and batteries (!) so at least I won't need to worry about that going in. 

And it is coming up on the perfect time of year to play, play, play - autumn in New England. My favorite and absolutely sublime for photographers.

On the road again...

Comments

[Pogue]

Cool! I know how you feel - I still have my OM-1 & OM-2 with lenses even though I know 35mm is ancient history. I got the Olympus E-620 which I'm happy with, and even got the OM to 4/3 lens adapters to make me feel better about my old lenses. :-)

[Buck]

Cool... reason prevails! I was serious when I said put the Minolta in a glass case.

Hey... six year old digital camera are much more than paperweights. I love my Powershot G5... which is at least six years old... and it's the camera that's in my backpack for the day-trip to Lubbock, as we speak.

[Kris]

Pogue - it is very hard to let go of a camera kit that has stood by you so well. I do have one recourse with my MInolta lenses and this a Sony camera. And that is NOT gonna happen; those cameras suck and for service Sony is the worst in the industry.

Buck - yes, reason and a credit card. Until I can afford the macro lens I want for my Nikon, I'll continue to use my Minolta for just that one reason. I'm hoping the Minolta lasts long enough, that Nikon macro lens is the cool $500 mentioned above. And it is my go-to lens for much of my nature work.