Cameras

As I reported in a previous post, I broke my digital Panasonic Luminix camera while I was in Tucson. There was no way I was going to continue the trip without a camera so before leaving the Tucson area I went to Best Buy and bought a Nikon D60. This was a step up, for sure, from the Panasonic but I had had a Nikon N60 film camera a number of years ago so I was looking forward to pushing my photography envelope.

One of the things that I really wanted to explore with the new camera was HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and most SLR digital cameras sold today support this with auto exposure bracketing (AEB).

Notice I said "most". To my horror I discovered, after plunking down a chunk of cash, that the Nikon D60 does not have AEB....and by this time I was a couple of days down the road and I had disposed of all the boxes etc. This was a big time quandary and I felt stupid for not realizing this before I bought the camera. The options were not good. The Nikon D90 does have AEB but the body alone costs about $1200. To make matters even worse I discovered that the Canon Rebel line of cameras that are priced equivalent to the Nikon D60 do have AEB and a couple of other nice features. Without the original boxes and after having used the camera for almost two weeks I thought I was...was...well you know.

In desperation I took the Nikon in to the Best Buy here in the Denver area and explained my situation. I was totally shocked, and elated when they said "no problem". As long as I had the receipt and all the pieces they would accept an exchange! Elation is not the word. I hadn't felt this good since I received a "D" in college physics....it was a required course and I was WAY over my head!

So now I'm the proud owner of a Canon Rebel XSi. To make things even sweeter I discovered that the lenses for my Canon EOS film camera that I bought about 10 years ago, will work just fine with my digital Canon.

This weekend I took a number of photos and turned them into HDR images using the software Photomatix. I'm hooked and I guess I have yet another hobby/interest that I will have to allot precious time to. The pictures in this post are the "artsy" side of HDR and right now that's what I'm learning. There's a lot more that can be done with HDR but I'll save that for another post.

I'm scheduled for jury duty this week and will know tonight if I have to serve....

Thanks for visiting.