Roblog

I got my much-anticipated Nikon D60 DSLR yesterday. I was very excited to get it and relished the unboxing and assembly of all the parts: body, lens, camera strap, little viewfinder cover when taking timer or remote shots. Holding it in my hand and just operating the zoom on the lens feels wonderful. I’m really happy that it was delivered to our house in time for my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday get together this weekend. I’m looking forward to getting to learn its many controls and taking some fabulous pictures in Richardson.

The back display was particularly striking. It had a full-screen dashboard of the various settings of the camera, including a visual representation of the aperture and shutter speed. It looks really nifty. But I then quickly realized why those graphics were so impressive, taking up the entire display: the D60 has no live preview, so that I have to look through the viewfinder to frame the shot.

I was dumbfounded. What digital camera doesn’t have a live preview? Isn’t that one of the great advantages of a digital camera – being able to view the picture you are about to take without having to hold the camera up to your eye? Surely the most expensive digital camera I’d ever purchased would have such a basic feature, wouldn’t it?

After some research, the answer is decidedly “no”. Apparently, there are rather tricky technical issues with providing a live-preview in a DSLR that are only recently being overcome, not to mention that it drains the battery very quickly. My father’s Nikon D90 (which is the only DSLR I’ve used for any length of time) is the cheapest Nikon DSLR to offer it, and it is twice the price of the Nikon D60. There are other DSLRs to offer live-preview, but it’s by no means a standard feature.

So I’m working on getting over that shock. I have to get back in the mindset of my old film-based SLR, which obviously had no live preview. Compared to that, this DSLR is exquisite. I’m sure it will help once I start getting some results out of the new camera. I’m fully expecting the pictures it takes to be wonderful. I need to get over it - with a computer purchase looming in our near future, I don’t see upgrading to a D90 just yet. Maybe someday. Of course, by the time that “someday” comes around, I suspect there will be other options that will make both the D60 and D90 look rather outdated.