I wanted to “up the ante” this year with a new “media outfit”, which means new still digital camera and new digital video camera. I’ve been exploring Nikon D-SLR’s, after talking to a few friends about what to get. The consensus was the Nikon D60 and the D90 as the “next level” above point and shoot cameras. When I went into the Ritz Camera store the woman behind the counter said that the D3000 was replacing the D60 and the D5000 was replacing the D90. After doing some research I found that the D5000 has the same features, and a few more things, as the D90. Hmm, well I had originally decided on the D3000, mostly for price reasons, but as I thought about it I decided to spend a few more dollars for the D5000.

Another reason for a D-SLR was that I wanted to shoot in the RAW file format. It’s pricey when it comes to memory but the pictures are incredible. I also looked at the versatility of adding lenses, whether they’re for increased range or effects. My Sony H7, point and shoot, is about the closest thing I’ve used to a D-SLR but it only has a few lenses available and those don’t include increased range. My Olympus 6000 Stylus is a great “all weather” camera but it too has it’s limitations.

I’ve also been looking at a new digital video camera. This has proven to be a task and a half. There are so many types of these things that it’s been very hard to decide on which one I want. The Sony Handicam (DCR-SR68/L) has an 80Gig Hard Drive (HDD), a great zoom (60x optical/2000x digital), face recognition, image stabilization…you know…everything. It’s fairly new and I can’t find any reviews for it, even on the Sony site. Another thing that concerns me is that there is no High Def mode. I can probably do without it, but it would be nice to have. The Hard Drive is nice so I don’t have to carry memory cards around, which this Handicam has the ability to use, so…I’m just going to keep looking about until I can sort all of this out. Maybe I’ll go to Ritz again and talk to one of their people. It worked before.