I mentioned a package showing up at my door on Friday and here it is:
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.