I’ve not posted much this past week, for the same reason that I’ve been humming an old Paul Simon tune on and off for days. You see, after much thought, and contemplation, and discussion, and research I’ve finally opted to make the move to a fancy “DSLR” camera. Here’s one of the first pictures I took with it.

An “SLR” is a “Single Lens Reflex” camera…which is to say, a camera with a “through-the-lens” viewfinder. That’s the “single lens” part. The “reflex” part relates to the mirror which normally hangs down in front of the film and directs the light from the lens up into the view finder. When you press the shutter release, the mirror swings up out of the way. Your traditional fancy 35mm camera with the big flash unit on top and the bevy of replaceable lenses is an SLR. A DSLR, of course, is a Digital SLR, in which a digital sensor has replaced the 35mm film.

What I ended up with, of course, was a Nikon; why else would I be humming “Kodachrome” to myself? (“I’ve got a Nikon camera, I love to take the pho-o-o-tographs, Oh Mama don’t ta-a-a-a-ke my Kodachrome away….”). In fact, I got a Nikon D80, a newish camera that’s rather a blend of their bottom-of-the-line D50 with their prosumer D200. Needless to say I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last week playing with it.

I’m enjoying many things about the D80. It’s got a great big bright beautiful viewfinder, which has been a revelation. I’m used to composing my shots on the LCD on the back of the camera, so it’s been a long time since I last used a camera’s viewfinder; and as I’ve never had an SLR-class camera before I’d never known what a beautiful thing a proper through-the-lens viewfinder can be. At last, I feel like I can really see what I’m doing. Instead of looking at a little picture on the back of the camera, I’m looking at the subject. Add to this that I’m nearsighted, so I wear distance glasses. When I’m wearing them, it strains my eyes a bit to look at things close up–so using that LCD, either I have to take my glasses off (in which case I can’t really see the scene) or I have to hold the camera far enough from my face that I can focus on the LCD, which just makes the picture smaller. With the D80, I can wear my glasses, and look through the viewfinder at the subject. ‘Swonderful.

Then there’s that delightful little noise it makes when I press the shutter release–that little noise that means that the mirror flipped up and then down again. I dunno why, but there’s something much more satisfying about it than that little pre-recorded click my other cameras have made. And there there’s the low-light characteristics. I took the following picture at ISO 400; there’s no noise, and it’s crystal clear:

I drove into a parking garage this afternoon, and as I opened my window to push the button and grab my ticket I was bemused to see a grasshopper on my hood. It stayed there as I drove around and about and up several levels, and naturally I took some pictures of it. The day was dim and overcast, and even where I parked, at the west end of the structure, the light was none too good. I took the following picture, handheld, using a 300mm zoom lens (35mm equivalent) at ISO *1600*; the grasshopper was sitting on the windshield wiper.

Couldn’t have done that with my old camera.