D3000

When the D5000 came out Nikon needed something new to fill in the low end of their line up. The D3000 is pretty much the exact same camera as the D40x and D60 that previously held this spot. Aside from a .5" larger LCD screen, there's not going to be much difference between them. If you've never touched a DSLR before and your budget is tight, then this is a good place to start. It will be a good solid camera, but until Nikon refreshes it with a new model I don't think the D3000 offers the best bang for your buck.

Amazon has the D3000 with 18-55mm VR kit lens for about $465.

D5000

The D5000 is a big step up from the D3000 in terms of technology and functionality. The most visible difference is the tilt and swing LCD screen, but I don't think it's that big of a deal. Internally, the D5000 has a much newer CMOS sensor than the D3000. This is the same sensor in the D90 and it provides much better performance at higher ISO settings. It also inherited built in chromatic aberration correction from the D90 which removes fringing that can appear in brightly lit shots. You also get the ability to take video.

At this point, features are starting to trickle down from improvements being made on more expensive models. If you are more serious about photography, but still relatively new to the DSLR world then this is a good option. The added features are well worth the extra money.

Amazon has the D5000 with 18-55mm VR kit lens for about $685.

D90

The D90 sits at the top of Nikon's consumer DSLR line up. From here there's a fairly big jump to the prosumer D300. There's two things that really set the D90 above the D5000: controls and lens compatibility.

Without getting into every little difference in controls I'll just highlight two. The first is the D90's front scroll wheel. The D5000 and D3000 both have one on the back for your thumb, but the second wheel on the D90 gives you quick access to changing other settings. In manual mode for example, one wheel controls the aperture and one controls the shutter. On the D5000 and D3000 you'd have to fiddle with menus to set one of them. In Program mode, which I shoot 95% of the time, the back wheel can tweak the shutter/aperture ratio, but I configured the front wheel to set exposure compensation which normally requires a simultaneous button press.

The next control difference is the inclusion of a customizable shortcut button on the front of the camera next to the lens mount. This can be hit with your index or middle finger to bring up a menu of shortcuts to the menu items you use most. I have a couple things like ISO and White Balance menus on there that I access frequently enough to not want to dig through the entire menu system. Both of these additional controls are big for me and I don't think I'd want to move to a camera without them.

The other thing to consider when comparing the D90 and it's D5000/D3000 counterparts is lens compatibility. The D90 includes a built in AF motor which means it is compatible with older AF lenses; the other two do not. On the D5000 and D3000, the only lenses that will autofocus are the ones with AF-S built in which isn't a big deal if you plan to stick with the 18-55mm or other newer lenses. If you wanted to shoot something like the older but excellent 50mm f/1.8 then the D90 is your best option.

If my discussion of the D90 went over your head then that's a good indication the D5000 is more than enough camera for you. The D90 provides good bang for your buck if you are going to get serious about photography. The kit includes an 18-105mm VR lens which will give you more reach than the 18-55mm. You also have the option of getting the D90 body by itself and then adding on whichever lens fits your needs the best.

Amazon has the D90 with 18-105mm VR kit lens for about $1035. The D90 Body is about $780 by itself.

Conclusion

A DSLR isn't cheap, but the extra money compared to a Point & Shoot really opens up a new world of photography. If you have any questions about DSLRs feel free to leave a comment and pick my brain.

• Easier to fill wide mouth and option to use ice cubes
• Cap threads are made of plastic rather than metal, little nicer to drink from
• No coating on lip of spout, my brother has had this rub off over time on his newer bottles
• Better grip from the built in grooves on body of bottle
• Compatible with all Sigg caps

I really like these bottles and take one to work with me everyday. I quit our "water cooler club" which was costing close to $6 a month just for water so it has more than paid for itself. Amazon has them at a very reasonable price with several colors to choose from.

Sigg Wide Mouth Bottle - 1L (34oz) at Amazon.com

The Koss PortaPro's feature a "Comfort Zone" that places an additional pad above your ear where it can be set to transfer most of the "clamping" feeling from your ears up to the side of your head. This makes the PortaPro the most comfortable open, over the head headphones I've ever used. Ear discomfort is gone and I'm able to wear them for extended periods.

Along with being comfortable, they sound great. In fact I think I like how they sound better than the PX100's. The PortaPro's pump out some very nice low end while staying balanced and clear. The PX100's are a little more laid back and sound darker. The PortaPro's just have that extra bit of punch.

As of this writing the PortaPro's are $32 at Amazon while the PX100's are $50. Between the comfort, price and sound quality of the PortaPro's they are easily my favorite headphones now. They definitely get my sound geek stamp of approval.

Koss PortaPro Headphones at Amazon

For St. Patrick's Day we had dinner and hung out with friends and babies. Lighting was fairly low with a chandelier fixture in the dining room and one floor lamp bouncing off the ceiling in the living room. Even wide open at f/1.8, AUTO ISO was getting bumped up to keep the shutter above 1/40 second in some shots. Combine that with babies who don't politely sit still for pictures and you have yourself a difficult shooting situation. Take a look through the gallery:

From St. Patty's 2009

With one of the kit lenses or even the 18-200mm VR, most of these shots wouldn't have been possible. I had some ISO to play with on some, but most of them are hitting 1600 or 3200. If I stepped up to a minimum f/3.5 lens, my shutter would have dropped even more and my "keeper" rate would have dropped from 10% to maybe 3-5% without adding flash.

I'm extremely pleased with the lens. I swore off pixel peeping so I'm not going to go into boring details or shooting test charts. All I cared about initially was if the lens let me get indoor shots without using flash all of the time. If you're happy with the DX format (and happy not spending thousands more on a new FX body and lens) then I suspect you'll find the image and build quality of the lens more than satisfactory. What surprised me is that I'm starting to like the 35mm f/1.8 more than the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR AF-S DX .

One thing to consider with lenses is the size and weight. Compared to the 18-55mm the 35mm isn't a whole lot smaller or lighter, but next to the 18-200mm it is night and day. I got the 18-200mm as a walk around, jack of all trades lens and now the size and weight have become deterrents to taking it out with me. The 18-200mm weighs 1.23 lbs. The 35mm weighs 0.45 lbs. The D90 weighs 1.6 lbs by itself. That's a lot of weight to carry around all day on vacation or on a night out and I'd rather have 0.78 lbs less most of the time. The other difference is the 35mm situates it's weight closer to the body of the lens. The 18-200mm is front heavy and more awkward to carry around, it usually ends up pointed straight down with the zoom fully extended when I hang the camera on my shoulder.

I could never use the 50mm f/1.8 as a walk around lens because it was simply too long. I use the wider end of the 18-200mm more than I use the long end so I don't think I'll miss the extra reach. The 35mm f/1.8 isn't perfect, but it is such a well rounded lens that it might replace my 18-200mm and never leave my camera. At $200 I think it packs the best bang for your buck in the entire Nikon DX lens line up.

I got my Nikon 35mm f/1.8 at Amazon.

The 50mm becomes a 75mm with the DX crop factor and the 35mm becomes a 52.5mm. The difference between the two focal lengths is quite apparent when viewed side by side:

Getting up close and personal with a subject is a little easier now since the 35mm focus 5-6 inches closer than the 50mm. That difference more than makes up for the difference in focal length.  Here we can see the 35mm (top) was able to reproduce a slightly larger view of my lamp:

So far I'm very happy with the lens. It's lightweight, pumps out some great pictures wide open and focus quickly. I love my 18-200mm, but I see this spending a lot of time on my D90. Focus noise is also much lower. The 50mm f/1.8 is fairly noisy and when it hunts for focus it can give a nice thud when it hits infinity. 52mm UV filter is on my list to buy to protect the front glass. Look for some more pics and comparisons coming up.

If you own a D40/D40x/D60 then this little $200 lens should be on your list. Previously the 50mm f/1.8 was the only affordable way to get a fast prime from Nikon, but without the AF-S you don't get autofocus on these cheaper cameras. Also, on the DX cameras, the 50mm becomes 75mm which is a bit long. The 35mm becomes a 52.5mm which is much closer to the traditional "normal" 50mm on a film camera.

This lens focuses closer than the 50mm (less than 1ft vs about 1.5ft) and should be noticeably wider. Looking forward to its release in March.

• 42" 720p Panasonic Plasma (TH-42PX77U)
• Onkyo TX-SR605 A/V Receiver
• Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player
• AV123 X-SLS tower speakers and X-CS center speaker in Palisander Natural Satin
• HTPC/PVR running Vista
• Adesso Wireless RF Keyboard with Touchpad (WKB-4000US)
• FireFly RF remote

I didn't go the cheapest route possible, but I wanted to get the most bang for my buck. I looked for the sweet spots in terms of price and planned the system with these goals in mind:

1. Finding a TV that met my expectations
2. Full range speakers to avoid need for subwoofer
3. Minimal amount of cabling
4. Minimal living room footprint
5. DVR and media capability

Solving Goal #1 - Choosing the right TV

There's basically three types of HDTVs: LCD, Plasma, and rear projection. LCD viewing angles can be hit and miss, some panels perform better than others, but I find picture quality lacking. Rear projection sets also suffer from viewing angle problems. That left Plasma which also happens to produce a superb picture and was a bit of a premium when I bought it (about half the price now, but that's typical of technology). Research and comparisons sold me on the 42" Panasonic which has a really effective anti-glare coating and just overall spectacular picture quality.

Solving Goal #2 - Getting great sound without a subwoofer

A condo isn't exactly an audiophile's paradise. Low frequencies like to travel in all directions and aren't really impeded by things like walls. Hearing bass thumping through the wall is not fun and I didn't want to be that neighbor. I was able to rule out a lot of speakers since they wouldn't cover enough frequencies without a subwoofer. I discovered the world of internet direct speaker manufacturers and finally decided on AV123's X series speakers which feature real wood veneers and solidly built enclosures. I made the purchase without listening to them, but after many glowing reviews and personal testimonies I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. They're big, but they produce great sound, very natural and transparent with a wide soundstage.

Solving Goal #3 - Reduce cable clutter with HDMI

If you hate having lots of cables, HDMI is a dream come true. High definition video and audio over one cable helps to reduce the clutter behind your entertainment center. The Onkyo 605 has HDMI upconversion so only one cable to the TV is needed if you have non-HDMI connections. I did run an optical cable down to the receiver to get audio while watching live TV. Using a 50' HDMI I was able to get my HTPC out of sight and prevent more clutter. How many cables did I need for the entire system including power, HDMI and speakers? 11.

Solving Goal #4 - Keeping the footprint small

We don't have a huge living room and it would be easy to over do it. With a couch and chair the only place to put a TV stand was in the corner. I found a minimalistic corner TV stand that would accept both my receiver and center speaker and fit in the corner well. The one thing I hadn't really anticipated was placing the speakers on the side required pulling the stand out of the corner more than I would have liked. Even with it pulled out, the system only occupies one corner of the room and doesn't really dominate the room.

Solving Goal #5 - Serving up fun with a Home Theater PC

I took a different approach than most people do with my HTPC; I didn't want it in my living room. First off we don't really have space for it and trying to silence a computer can become expensive. HDMI capable video cards are pretty common now so I did some research about long HDMI runs. Turns out 50' isn't hard to do with a lower gauge cable. This let me keep the HTPC up in the loft where I didn't particularly care if it was silent. The Adesso keyboard and FireFly remote are both RF based and have more than enough range.

Footnote on HD-DVD and Blu-ray

I cashed in credit card rewards for Circuit City gift cards and got my HD-DVD player for free so I don't really mind that Blu-ray won. I don't buy movies so my migration will be fairly painless if I ever buy a Blu-ray player. I would have had to buy an upconverting DVD player anyways and the Toshiba does a great job with standard definition discs. If prices on Blu-ray computer drives keep dropping then that might the direction I go.

Quick shot of my home theater system in difficult light. The D90's white balance is much better and the Active D Lighting brings up shadow detail on the front of the speakers without blowing out the window.

Quick outside shot. Color on the D90 is just better overall. No idea what the D70 is doing with the sky.

Zooming in at 100% shows some more significant differences. The bigger sensor translates to more detail, but the D90 also includes built-in chromatic abberation correction. In the D70 image, chromatic abberation rears its ugly hard along the roof and on the very right side of the trim. The D90 corrects this with magic.

Another tough indoor shot. Active D Lighting brings out detail in the chair and the bricks on the left.

Wow 100% view of my checkbook! Testing a little low light/high ISO performance here and the difference is just night and day. When the D70 cranks up the ISO its color performance plummets. The D90's performance here is incredible compared to what I've had to live with on the D70. Before I'd be wary of shooting at ISO 1600, now I wouldn't think twice.

Last little comparison highlights low light performance again with the compact Canon SD700 thrown in for a sense of how different point and shoots and dSLRs are. The SD700 does a good job with white balance, but the noise at just ISO 800 is appalling. The D70 fails miserably on white balance here (indirect sunlight bouncing into the kitchen) and the level of chroma noise further degrades the image. The D90's sensor handles chroma noise much better which results in a more useable picture.

Just putting the D90 in "Program" with AUTO ISO and AUTO WB (tweaked warmer with A3) results in much more useable shots. In fact, since switching to the D90 I haven't had to process an image in Photoshop. Now I can import straight into Picasa, crop, make any other quick tweaks and export straight to the web or out for printing.

Amazon has a very competitive price on the D90, but if you order one somewhere else be sure to stay away from the shady Brooklyn photo dealers.

D70 meet your replacement. The D90 is slight shorter and includes a customizable function button below the autofocus assist lamp. The mic for recording video is over on the right. Nothing else to see here really. Think of the D90 as a mullet: business in the front, party in the back.

The D90's 3 inch LCD simply dwarfs the D70's diminutive 1.8 inch screen and boasts a much higher resolution. The D70's bracketing button moved to the side under the flash button and shooting mode moved to the top panel. The delete button takes the spot in the top left and is replaced with a nifty INFO button that brings up the current settings on the LCD and gives quick access to some settings. The autofocus sensor selector lock is more compact and the 4 way directional pad gets an OK button (performs menu selections, resets autofocus sensor to the middle and starts recording video in Live view). The top panel now sports the exposure mode, exposure compensation, shooting mode and autofocus mode buttons.

The other big visible change is the viewfinder. Using my SD700's macro mode I actually got a shot of each viewfinder to compare the size of each. The D90's viewfinder is noticeably bigger. Like the LCD, bigger is better here.

Not readibly visible are a lot of interface changes inside the menus. It is now possible to save and name customized picture settings, store 5 preset white balances and setup a custom menu with all your frequently accessed items. All of that makes changing settings much easier. On the D70, I got things where I wanted 2 years ago and left all the settings alone because they were a pain to adjust and then remember what to switch them back to.

Some prelimanary shots and tests of the D90's "Active-D lighting", high ISO performance and built-in chromatic aberration correction up next. If you're already sold, grab it from a reputable dealer like Amazon.

My D70 has served me well for about 3.5 years, but we're talking about 4.5 year old technology. There has been a lot of progress since the D70 was introduced, but the D80 wasn't a big enough change to warrant an upgrade. That money was much better spent on the marvelous 18-200mm VR lens. The D90 is different though, it sports lots of features that have trickled down from the higher end Nikon cameras. The D90 uses the same sensor as the much more expensive D300 for example.

I knew I wanted to upgrade eventually, but I got a deal I just couldn't pass up. The body normally sells for $1000, about the same as the D70 4 years ago, and discounts are generally hard to come by. You can wait a couple years for prices to drop, but then there's something better out. I pulled the trigger on the camera once I figured out how to get it for $700.

30% discount? How's that work? I have Microsoft to thank. They've launched a cashback program on their Live search engine. For some reason they are giving 20% cashback for anything bought after you click through an Ebay ad on their search results page. Auction just has to be Buy-it-now and paid through Paypal. Found a reputable photography shop in Pennsylvania selling the D90 body and in 2 months Microsoft will deposit $200 into my Paypal account. On top of that I had a 10% off coupon from Ebay that could be used on anything. Total discount = $300.

So what is my impression of the D90 so far? Wow. Talk about a huge upgrade. It should hopefully help me post more pictures because the results straight of the camera are much more solid. My D70 shots needed a good amount of processing which takes time which means most shots never got posted. Direct comparison between the D90 and D70 is coming.