dSLR Dad

I wrote about Popular Photography Magazine’s comparison of the top five affordable dSLR Cameras last fall after the Photokina 2008 trade show. Their article evaluated each camera on the merits of image Quality, Ease of Use, Control, and System Flexibility.  What’s interesting now, after the PMA 2009 Trade Show has concluded, all but one of these cameras (the Olympus Evolt E-520) are still the top affordable dSLRs from each manufacturer. Actually, since the Olympus Evolt E-620 will cost $100 more than the most expensive dSLR in this roundup once it is released, maybe they should just re-publish the entire article for the May 2009 issue?  The contestants are (in alphabetical order):

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"Mother and Child" by Julie Falk

Popular Photography Magazine has an article by Julie Falk on how to photograph snowflakes:

Shooting snowflakes is easy — just follow these tips:

Get in as close as the camera will let you — usually about 2 inches. Hold the camera steady, and shoot from as many angles as possible.

Aim for snowflakes that are on surfaces with clean lines and that are positioned at an angle so early morning or late afternoon sunlight can bring out details. And, Falk adds, “It also helps to find flakes in the ‘twilight zone’ areas of the snow — not in full sun nor quite full shadow — so the background of the sunlit flake is the cobalt blue shadow that snow has on sunny days.”

Large, soft flakes photograph better than small, bright ones. Falk has found them at diameters up to 5mm. “You need to have a lot of moisture in the air,” she says, “and it needs to be bitter cold.”

Nearly windless days are ideal for snowflake hunting, to up the likelihood of finding crystals intact. Colder temperatures help “to keep their little arms from melting off before you can get to them.”

You can read the entire article over at PopPhoto.com.  You can also view more of Julie Falk’s photography at flickr.

Popular Photography Magazine has published their review of the 21.1-Megapixel Canon EOS 5D Mark II. They seem to think it is a pretty decent little camera:

If you’re moving up from an APS-format DSLR, you will be happy with the 5D Mark II. Make that ecstatic. Life is fuller in the full-frame lane.

And the vast amount of detail that goes along with 21.1MP, as well as the sophisticated image processing served up by its new DIGIC 4 engine, cannot be understated — it’s a wow! The low-light image quality is almost life-changing.

But the 5D Mark II’s old-fashioned AF system can’t keep up with the cutting-edge imaging power. Nor is the 3.9-fps burst rate state-of-the-art. So if you’re a pro, understand these limitations.

Yet if you’re looking to trade in your old 5D for this version, while you gain nothing in AF, you pick up everything from low-light to video capability. And those are very impressive — perhaps irresistible — upgrades.

You can read the entire review over at PopPhoto.com.  You can also find out more news and reviews about the Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the dSLR Dad Resource Guide.

Popular Photography Magazine has published their review of the Nikon D700 12.1MP dSLR Camera .  Oddly enough, they really liked it:

Does the D700 obviate the more expensive D3? Not for high-end pros: Hardcore types who find themselves shooting in the Arctic one month and the desert the next will prefer the D3’s extraordinarily tight level of weathersealing. For paparazzi, who shoot lots of vertical images and so prefer a built-in vertical grip to a bolt-on battery grip, the D3’s better. And pro sports shooters blasting off frame after frame need the faster native burst and extra CF card slot of the D3.

Meanwhile, the rest of us will be more than happy with the D700 fulfilling our full-frame fantasies.

Of course, if all your Lenses carry the DX moniker of Nikon’s APS-sized format, you should stick with the D300. After all, it basically mirrors the image quality and performance of the D700, and your DX Lenses will yield only 5.1MP images on the Nikon D700. In other words, those digital-only lenses will fit this full-frame camera, but at a cost of massive cropping — a sacrifice that hardly seems worth making on a regular basis.

But if you have some full-frame lenses or want to move toward Nikon’s FX glass, the D700 is money well spent.

You can read the entire review of the Nikon D700 over at PopPhoto.com.

Popular Photography Magazine has published their review of the Nikon D90 dSLR Camera:

Borrowing its 12.3MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor from the higherend D300, the D90 is the fourth successive 12MP Nikon DSLR. Clearly, the company has eased off the megapixel race, instead focusing on other areas of image quality, such as low noise at high ISOs and convenient features. And the results are impressive. In our lab tests, the D90 scored Excellent in overall image quality right up through ISO 3200….

You can read the entire review at PopPhoto.com.

For all of the latest news and reviews, check out the dSLR Dad’s Nikon D90 Resource Guide

Popular Photography Magazine has an article written by nature photographer Richard Ettlinger on getting great airborne avian images.  The article, from the September 2008 issue, has eight tips:

1. Become an observer, then a photographer.
2. Start with larger, slower-moving birds.
3. Use the right gear.
4. Get in position.
5. Set your exposure
6. Use autofocus wisely.
7. Consider the sun and wind.
8. Practice, practice, practice!

You can read the entire article, How to Catch Birds in their Element, at PopPhoto.com

You can also view a portfolio of his own favorite images here.

Popular Photography Magazine has a comparison review for you dSLR Dads of five, sub-$900 dSLR Cameras.

Five affordable DSLRs vie for honors in the “step-up” class. If you’re a serious shooter looking to move on up to a better DSLR — with more resolution, faster firing, advanced features like in-camera image fixes and live view — but have been scared off by the $1,000 price barrier, fear no more. An entire class of DSLRs has appeared at this intermediate level, none of them more than $900, street — with a kit lens. And every one of these five comes with image stabilization right out of the box, through either a shifting image sensor or moving elements in the included lens.

Their judgment criteria included image quality, ease of use, camera controls, and system flexibility.  For those of you who want to skip ahead, here are the results:

1. 1. Canon Digital Rebel XSi 23 points
   2. Nikon D60 17 points
   3. Pentax K200D (tie) 15 points
   4. Sony Alpha A350 (tie) 15 points
   5. Olympus Evolt E520 dSLR w/ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Lens 10 points

You can read the entire article over at PopPhoto.com.

VS.

Popular photography has released the review that every dSLR Dad has wanted to see since last September. American Photo contributor Jonathan Barkey has compared the new Nikon D300 dSLR (available at Amazon and B & H Photo) against the Canon EOS 40D (Amazon, B & H Photo). And even though they named the Nikon D300 dSLR Camera of the Year 2007, head-to-head competition usually produces different results. Just ask the Patriots.

While mid-priced DSLRs from competing manufacturers may excel in different ways, these semi-pro models from Canon and Nikon give you a winning combination of speed, image quality, extensive lens/accessory systems, and an upgrade path to their top-drawer professional brethren.

Of course, pitting the two against each other isn’t entirely fair, since the technology-showcase D300 ($1800), a junior version of Nikon’s tour-de-force flagship D3, costs 50 percent more than the EOS 40D ($1200), which has evolved from humbler “prosumer” models. Still, we found them to be more evenly matched than we expected, based on our evaluations in the key areas detailed below.

You can read the full review here.

Hi everyone. I just wanted to let that the Nikon D300 Review Page has been updated.  You can check it out here.

Also, with all of the new camera announcements that have come out this week, check back often to the dSLR Gear page to see what’s new for 2008.

The Nikon D300 dSLR has been out in the wild for some time (shipping now at Amazon). For all you dSLR Dad’s out there who are looking for one more bit of information to justify that purchase, here you go: (more…)