From military equipments to mobile phones, GPS has come a long way. As a natural progression, GPS chips are now finding their way into Digital camera’s too! Adding the lat and long data to the EXIF can help in preserving more memories and can also be a fun way to view all your JPEGs laid […]
The D40 and D40x, the low end SLR lineup from Nikon ship with a 18-55 mm kit lens. This is a great lens ideally suited for indoor photography. The only problem with this lens is when you shoot in low light situations. Many times, images turn out to be blurry because of longer exposure […]
Some closeups shot with my D40. The kit lens doesn't have great macro capabilities, but still doesn't disappoint.
Fruity Temptations
Shot at Bannerghatta Butterfly Park
More Plums
Abstract
Eventhough the prices of DSLRs have fallen dramatically in the last one year or so, many people still prefer the convenience of Point and Shoots. Most high end P&S cameras now offer super zooms, covering incredible ranges like 24-400mm. Essentially - one lens, all type of shots. This one from Olympus 
One name conspicous by its absence from the above list is Nikon. They just don't have a P&S in the above class. Though Nikon has done a commendable job by helping reduce the SLR prices drastically, they are yet to release a versatile P&S which can be used in all shooting conditions. Once upon a time, they had some gems in the Nikon Coolpix 8700 and 8800 point and shoot cameras, but today the portfolio looks very dull. Its time for Nikon to come up with some good cameras in this segment. A 10x Zoom camera with a 10 megapixel sensor in a DSLR like body will definitely help Nikon regain some market share in the crowded P&S segment.
One of the important aspects in the digital darkroom workflow is to get the calibration of your LCD monitor correct. This will ensure that the colors in your photographs will look like the same when you print them. There are very accurate hardware calibration solutions available, but for hobbyists they are pretty expensive. Best bet is to use a software calibration utility. Simplest one is here. Adjust your monitor's brightness/contrast settings according to the instructions on the website. Make sure that you go into full screen mode before you start the calibration. Use the graphics card properties screen to adjust the brightness/contrast and color temperature to get the best settings.
Worked pretty decent for me.
If you are travelling with your photography equipments, probably you will not like to lug your laptop around. It is simply too much to carry. There are options like PMPs with built in hard drives and SD card slots which you can carry. They are ideal backup solutions, but bit expensive at $200 upwards. I hit up on a simple idea, which can help me save a lot of money but give me an excellent backup option with no need to invest any additional Rupee. I pulled out the following items which I no longer use:
Any PDA with both a compact flash and SD card slot will do. Many older iPAQs had this option. You can get those at a pretty cheap price from ebay. Whenever you want to take a backup, you can just insert the CF and SD cards simultaneously and copy over the contents from the SD card to the CF card. Then delete the pictures from the SD card. The SD is ready to shoot again.
I was just wondering what to do with all the CF cards from my old camera and PDAs. Now they are back in action!
After my trusted Canon S50 died recently, I started my search for a new camera (which was necessary because the cost of repairing it was equivalent to buying a new one). Interestingly, Canon has not announced any new camera in the 'S series' after the S80. The home page at Powershot.com does not show any camera in the S series, a flagship high end camera line, sharing the same sensor and lens from the acclaimed G series.
My search started with the typical prosumer cameras. I shortlisted the following.
Kodak P880. Arguably, one of the best Kodak SLR-like cameras ever created. A wide angle (24-140mm) lens, 8 Megapixels and an asking price of INR 22k at JJMehta made it highly tempting. Unfortunately, it is discontinued now by Kodak. If I get it for 15-16K today, I will definitely buy it as a backup camera.
Fujifilm S9600. Another nice enthusiast camera. Though the 10 megapixel sensor is known to be little noisy, the overall reception for this camera is pretty good. 10x superzoom means this is a real bargain.
Fujifilm S6500FD. Similar in feature set to the above camera, but with a lower resolution of 6 megapixels. But the sensor used is the same as in the ultra populer Fujifilm F30 - that means very good low light capabilities.
Panasonic FZ50. Probably the best prosumer camera out there in the market in terms of image quality. Looks and feels like a Digital SLR. But still, the focussing times are not good as a DSLR.
Other cameras I considered include the Canon G7 too.
After some extensive research, I dropped the idea of going for a prosumer camera. My main concerns were:
Again, I was using a camera with SLR like feature set for more than 3 years. So I thought it is high time to take the plunge. The only problem being my budget. It was very tight. I had a max of INR 30k (which is about $720 in today's excahnge rates).
When I looked out searching for low end SLRs, the following are what I found.
Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi). A superb 10 MP camera from the leader. But way out of my budget. Has all the features an amateur photographer needs. Add a self-cleaning sensor and you have a winner here. But unfortunately, it was way out of my budget. It costs around 44k in the Indian market now with the kit lens. Another reason I dropped this from my list was the poor reviews the kit lens got. I did not consider the EOS 350D(Digital Rebel XT) as it is almost one generation old now.
Pentax K100D. I almost bought this. Has all the features provided by EOS400D. The reviews all appreciate the excellent image quality produced by the camera. An innovative feature of the camera is image stabilization at sensor level, which means that any lens mounted on this camera becomes a IS/VR lens! The price is less than 30k, which means a real bargain. But I dropped the idea at the last moment because of the poor availablility of Pentax accessories in India and the almost non-existent after sales support.
Nikon D40/D40x. That leaves me with only one option, the Nikon D40/D40x. Sure, it misses quite a few features when compared to the above two. Prominent among them is the lack of a DoF preview button, missing auto bracketing, auto focus ability only with AF-S lenses and a 3 point focus system. Everything else goes well for this camera. A nice and bright 2.5 inch LCD, small and a light body and a very good kit lens. Though AF-S lenses where initially expensive, these days the prices have reduced to a level where they are very affordable. So why the D40 and not D40x? While 6 MP to 10 MP pixels looks like a big difference in terms of sheer number of pixels, the effective size of the final photograph when printed, is not significantly different . The D40x gives a better cropping freedom though. Read this if you need a little more explanation on this. For the extra money I spend on the D40x, I can very well buy the Nikon 55-200 mm VR lens, which will be great for shooting outdoors.
So, thats the story. In the coming days, I will post my experiences with this little camera.
Yes. Finally I bought what I wanted to buy for a long time now. My first Digital SLR . Expect a review in a few weeks time.
