Les Jones

New Nikon cameras and lenses

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Photos | Permalink | 2 Comments |

D3000, D300s, and updates to the 18-200mm and 70-200mm/F2.8. Amazon already has them up.

DP Review has a brief D3000 hands on with full specs. Hit the next and prev buttons for other new Nikon gear. Somewhere on DP Review there’s a side-by-side chart comparing the D60, D3000 and D5000, but I can’t find it again.

What I wanted was a camera the size of a D40/D60 with the 12MP high ISO sensor of the D90/D5000. The size is right, and the D3000 has the improved autofocus system of the D5000, along with a larger LCD (but with the same 230,000 pixels).

The big disappointment is that the D3000 has the D60’s 10.7MP sensor. I don’t care about the 1.3 extra megapixels, but what I lusted after was the amazing high ISO performance of the 12MP sensor and this camera doesn’t have it. That pretty much does it for me, but just to pile on, the D3000 lacks the built-in chromatic aberration correction and distortion correction of the D5000 and D90. Also missing from the D5000: LiveView, movie mode, and exposure bracketing.

None of this makes the D3000 a bad camera, but it does make it a half-hearted upgrade from the D40 and a pointless upgrade from the D60. If you’re starting from scratch this looks like a decent camera at a fair price, but be aware the feature set here is getting a bit out of date. (Almost every new DSLR these days has LiveView, for instance.) It definitely ain’t the swingin’ deal the D40 was three years ago. Me, I’ll keep plugging away with the D40 until there’s something clearly better at a price I’m willing to pay.

P.S. It’s still a few days until August 4th, but compare today’s introduction to the (supposedly) leaked Nikon roadmap.

Tags: d40, d5000, d60, d90, nikon

I can’t see the appeal of the new Nikon D5000 DSLR camera

Saturday, April 18th, 2009 | Photos | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Even though I’m not ready to buy a camera right now I was looking forward to the new Nikon D5000. It was pitched as a replacement for the D40 (which is what I use ) and D60.

The appeal of the D40 and D60 is that they’re small, lightweight, and inexpensive - perfect for someone like me who wanted something more than a point and shoot but less than a pro DSLR. Yet in size and weight the D5000 is much closer to the D90.

The D5000 is also much closer to the D90 in price than I’d like. Where the D5000 is similar to the D40/D60 is mostly in the negatives:

• No focus motor for older AF lenses
• Cheaper pentamirror instead of a brighter pentaprism
• Lower resolution rear LCD
• No top LCD
• No second command wheel
• No battery grip/portrait grip option

I like my D40. I like the size, the weight, and the fact that it didn’t cost an arm and a leg. What I really want is a D40 with one of the third generation sensors and a few more features. This isn’t that camera. This is a cheaper D90 with some nifty features like the swivel LCD, but without many of the D90 features that would actually help me take better pictures. I’ll pass.

Tags: d40, d5000, d60, d90, nikon