It has been about a week with my new Nikon D90 and I am in love. This new model from Nikon has exceeded my expectations. I have used Nikon’s for years, but the D90 is something to be excited about. 

This is my third DSLR from the Nikon family. I started with a D100 then moved to the D50 and now the D90. The D90 is far superior that the D100 or D90. The D100 was a strong and sturdy camera that had a great response time. I was not as impressed with the D50. The D50 had slow response time and even though it was 6mp grain was obvious on shots no matter what setting I had it on.

The D90 is one of the first DSLR to offer video. The video shoots great for smaller applications – I have not yet viewed the video on anything larger than my laptop.

Here is a sample video I shot: (It is distorted thanks to youtube compression)

I am still trying to get trough the mini-novel that came with the camera. The instruction book is 300 pages (all english) and also came with a shorter ‘quick start’ guide. 

More will come once I figure out what all the bells, whistles and do-dads do. In the meantime feel free to check out this page. It is stories of different kinds of photographers and their experiences with the D90. http://www.ashtonsd90.com/action.aspx

Technorati Tags: Nikon, D90, D100, D50, DSLR

Recently I got a copy of Aperture 2 by Apple. I had not used the software since it first came out. The first copy I had of Aperture was weak and buggy, the new version seems to have improved drastically.

I love the ability to really handle RAW photo files. iPhoto is sluggish when handling 5mb files while Aperture flies right through them.

So far my favorite features are the recovery slider, vibrancy slider, and easy access to individual color balance. These features alone make the program worth purchasing.

To improve Aperture I would make photo groups, like iPhoto. The grouping in Aperture seems to lack a little – though it is easy to create new projects, drag photos, and delete. I love the iPhoto interface for photo galleries. 

I am going to download a trial of Adobe Lightroom and compare that to this new version of Aperture. I would love to see how it compares before making my decision of which software to buy. I am also curious to see which one has better 3rd party plugins. Another thing I will test is how easy it is to get each photo into Photoshop to do advanced editing.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Aperture, Adobe, Lightroom, Software Trials

In order to get rid of all my old film prints I am going to start scanning them in (a little each week). So I will be updating my Flickr account with some old concert and travel photos.

After I get all the photos done —the video…scary thought.

Here is the first round.