My First Digital SLR Camera
Digital Day 2008 (or D-Day as it might be)… I begin my digital camera research. (hey, I know it’s November, but I’m just getting everyone up to speed here). D-Day was THE day where the planets aligned interms of deciding to make a purchase of my first Digital SLR Camera.
I woke in the morning, grabbed a cup of coffee and started to read the paper. Pretty much the same headlines, the same news, the same stories. There was really nothing new to report on in the world, but then I turned a page in the sports section and there it was. One of my favorite local camera stores (National Camera Exchange) was running an ad for a three day “Digital Camera Sale”. It was music to my ears…
I then remembered the name of a web site that once came highly recommended by a co-worker. The site was www.dpreview.com. It’s a great camera site, with a ton of product reviews and an active user forum to get different viewpoints from. I knew what my budget was… basically I was shooting for an average to slightly above average SLR in the $400-600 range.
One camera that was mentioned over and over again at www.dpreview.com was the Canon Rebel. I don’t recall the exact model number, but it was basically in the $600 range.
Minolta XG1
I should back up a bit here. To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t want to spend even $1 on a new camera until I made sure that my old film camera was truly past it’s prime and couldn’t be resurrected (history to come). My old film camera was a Minolta XG1 which had served me well. Over several years I had managed to add a couple of lenses and several filters to it. In total I probably had about $1000 invested in this camera. It would have been shame to at least not try to give it one more chance so it became part of the decision process.
What I did on D-Day was to gather up my old equipment, complete with lenses and filters, and head off to my favorite camera shop for some expert advice. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I knew that I wanted to discuss options in person with a knowledgeable salesman.
This store was pretty busy with the sale going on and all. There must have been at least 15 sales people tending to a long line of customers. I wanted to find a sales person who looked like they knew what they were talking about. Fortunately they all looked this way and were more “mature” than you would find in a “big box store”. All looked like avid photographers, so I knew I was in luck.
I stood at the counter and waited for an open sales person. I hoisted my old camera bag onto the counter when my time came and asked the sales person if this camera was worth keeping in the new digital age. He looked me squarely in the eye and pretty much convinced me that my film camera’s days were over. He also mentioned that I wouldn’t be able use any of the lenses with a digital camera. It honestly had a similar feel as if being told that my dog needed to be put down or that I had lost an old cherished friend.
I took a deep breath and told him that if this was the case, I wanted to look at the Canon Rebel. He brought out the Rebel as well as one other camera, the Nikon D40. The Canon was about $200 more than the Nikon, but the salesman claimed that the quality and features of both were comparable.
Nikon D40
He did mention me that Canons are typically higher priced than Nikons because of the advertising that Canon does. He also mentioned that the Nikon lens that came with the D40 was higher quality than the lens that came with the Canon Rebel. I then asked my standard salesman question, “if you were personally looking for a camera in this price range, which would you choose?”. He told me the Nikon, and didn’t flinch an eye. That was all I needed. I was in a store I respected and speaking to someone who knew cameras.
The D40 it was then. I ponied up to the cash registered, handed over my card, paid for my brand new Digital SLR camera and headed out the door into the new digital camera age.
Source: Digital Camera Notebook
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