So this week I decided it was time to just bite the bullet and buy myself a new camera body! I love the lenses I use (Sigma 30mm f/1.4 and 17-70mm f/2.8-something) but I felt like it was time for a body upgrade. The body I was using, a d40, has been discontinued for awhile now and I’ve been ogling a new one for the last few months! I got a Nikon d5000.
This is definitely a fair upgrade – double the megapixels, Live View, takes HD video, great sensor, but still in a more compact body than the spendy-but-awesome d90. There were a few things that made me choose the d5000 over the d90. Price was a big one, the d5000 being more than a couple hundred dollars cheaper. I’m used to the display of the d40 and the d5000 is quite similar, and the size and shape are similar as well. The d5000 is a touch bigger than my old camera, but not as big as the d90. Since I have teeny tiny hands that’s important to me! (Although of course if someone wanted to sell me a d90 for the same price or something I certainly wouldn’t refuse). The d5000 also has an interval timer, meaning you can take more than one timed shot at a time.
One of the biggest things that sold me on the d5000 was the “vari-angle” LCD screen. This means the screen flips out and rotates. Perfect for self-portraits, or in my case most of the time, knitting pattern shots! So cool, right? Well…
The LCD screen hinges from the bottom. Which is great if you want to say, use the live view and the LCD to hold the camera up high and still see what the camera sees. But it’s going to be useless for my self portraits. Can you see why? Yup, it won’t play with a tripod. You can’t put the camera down on something and still see the screen. This was a pretty poor choice on the part of Nikon – the screen should have hinged from the side, making it available at pretty much all times.
So overall I’m happy with the photos, and the displays, and I’m happy I bought this camera. But I really, really wish that the LCD could have been used as I imagined – mounted on a tripod, able to see myself and make sure I was in the photo and what the framing looked like. Oh well. It does take pretty photos! The first thing I noticed was that the colours were much easier to capture and truer to life, straight off the camera. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it yet, but a couple of knitting photos:
(A hat for a swap we’re doing at Rhinebeck! So excited! THREE WEEKS!)
This colour, Madelinetosh’s Composition Book Grey, was pretty tricky for my old camera. With the new one, presto!
I’m trying to get this sweater done in time for Rhinebeck – the sleeves are done, but I keep having to restart the body. Even just now I looked down at it and realized I should’ve done more hem shaping. Once I think of something like that, I can’t just let it pass, so I guess I’m ripping yet again!
