Palacio de Cristal

My Fourth Camera

Could still get a good price for my D30 so I thought why not go for the double resolution and the quicker shutter release? No other good reason actually and luckily I've had no reason to regret the decision because the camera really is great!

Canon EOS D60 (picture taken from Steve's Digicams)

My Third Camera

This is the third digital camera that I now own. Photos taken after November 2001 will most likely be taken with this camera although my girlfriend is now using the Nikon 990 so you might still see some pictures one the site from that camera as well. So why did I change this time? Well actually I always wanted a SLR camera because of the feeling of looking through the lens and actually seeing what the final result will be. But before I took the step of changing my point-and-click camera for an SLR there came along the digital cameras and I was hooked on the ease of use and the incredible turnaround time of making a picture and having the result on the computer a couple of minutes later. But the more and more I worked with the two Nikons below the more I also realised the inherent limitations of a fixed-lens camera. So I started looking at those "add-on" lenses that you can put on the front of the existing lens and they actually work quite well, but in the back of my mind the fact that I had always wanted an SLR kept nagging me. Of course I had looked at the professional digital SLRs like the Nikon D1 but the resolution of that camera's CCD was actually a lot less than my Nikon 990. But the price was the real reason I never looked twice at that camera, it was way out of my budget. Until I encountered the Canon EOS D30. Now here was a camera that at least did everything at least as good as my own camera and was actaully an SLR! But the price was still way too high for me, especially because I would need all those lenses and other stuff as well. And at the same time my Nikon 990 was still performing spectacularly. So I laid that wish to rest hoping that at one time in the future digital SLRs would become a lot more affordable. So why did I buy it now when the price is still almost as high as ever? Well I just became lucky, that's all, there was this deal I could make and I just grabbed the opportunity before it would go away.

Canon EOS D30 (picture taken from Steve's Digicams)

My Second Camera

This is the second digital camera I bought. All photos taken after May 2000 are taken with this camera. I only had the 950 for little over 6 months when I decided to go for the 990. Why? Well the higher resolution was nice of course but one of the main reasons I bought it was the USB connection the 990 has. I had bought a CompactFlash card reader (SanDisk) and that performs really well, but I didn't want to take it with me wherever I go. The camera is already enough of a burden if you have it with you almost every day of the year. The second reason was the brighter (albeit smaller) display which is much better to use in sunlight. The camera isn't perfect though. In my opinion it is still missing infrared distance measuring for focusing in low light conditions.

Nikon Coolpix 990 (picture taken from Steve's Digicams)

My First Camera

My First Digital Camera. One word: incredible! Making photos with a digital camera turned out to be so much fun. Sure, it won't give you the same quality pictures we've grown used to, even compared to normal consumer cameras, but boy it is easy to use! Maybe people wo are really into photography won't realte to this, but always when I was making pictures with a normal camera I would try not to waste any film. So if I was somewhere special I would make a couple of pictures and save the rest for the next occasion. But you could never know if your picture would come out the way you had intended. Again, professionals with years of experience might not have this problem, but I'm just an amateur. So being able to make a dozen pictures of a subject until you get a couple of them just right and then deleting the others on the spot is just plain cool. It completely changes the way you make photos. The second thing I would always do (especially as a student with little money to spend) was wait until I would have used all the film before having it developed. So if I would go on a small trip with a fresh film and come back with 5 pictures taken I would wait until I had used the rest of the film before developing it. Which could be the next holidays 10 months later. Of course this makes for nice surprises when you get your photos and there are some that you had forgotten about, but it is not what I wanted. Having a digital camera changes that as well. You go somewhere, make some pictures, come home, plug your camera into your computer et voila, there they are. No waiting. No hassle. Now the only thing I'm waiting for is a cheap way to get my pictures onto paper (for people without computer like my parents).

Nikon Coolpix 950 (picture taken from Steve's Digicams)

Software downloads

Putting Nikon's software and drivers here is probably illegal, but come on Nikon if I take my camera somewhere I don't want to have to carry the CD with me every time as well! I've paid enough for the damn thing anyway so the software shouldn't be so difficult to get. Talking about paying enough: the software sucks. How on earth a large company like Nikon can charge you that much money for a camera and write software as bad as Nikon View is beyond me.

Nikon Coolpix Drivers

Nikon View 3.0