about cameras and other stuff

While we're still expecting the baby to be born, I've been shopping online - consuming the sort of paternity leave - the days that I was able to arrange free. (they are running painfully short though, while the baby is running overdue) - nevertheless, I've used the days effectively and done quite a bit shopping on cameras, which I dream of buying as we get our flat sold. (we are not quite selling the house to get the camera, but I'm planning to pull some money off and go for a decade's dream.)

Nothing super-extraordinary, but a Nikon D70s, with 18-200 vr zoom, and a sb-600 flash, that D70s can remarkably command wirelessly. This should give me a number of advantages to further the hobby that I've had since I was 15.

It all began, as my father asked me to choose between a moped and camera for the 15th birthday. I picked camera (only afterwards, I realized that selling a moped would have brought me three of those... but that's not a way to pick gifts from your dad) So, I got nikon fg-20, with 35-70 zoom, that some have ruminated for pages here. It's a manual -nearly-everything. I only used the lightmeter, and set aperture and speed manually.

I jumped over to digital world this spring with supercheap Nikon L4, which appears to be just fine for everyday snap-shots, but cannot be compared to digital slr's, of course. So, for now, I just shop online, and watch out for my mouse not to click on anything I can't afford.

While shopping, I run to a remarkable guy, Ken Rockwell, that one could well call a true enthusiast. He has tested nearly all nikon cameras, lenses and accessories, and posted his opinions on his site. I bet he has an enormous headache by now for digging too deep to the stuff and especially to posting it. I get headache for just reading it. But it's a worthwhile site if you are buying slr cameras. (might convert you to nikon, though)

Another thing that really took me by surprise is that you find the cheapest cameras online IN FINLAND - even when the eastern europeans and germany is taken in the count. That's really something because I though we'd score near the most expensive in everything. A good site to make the comparisons is mbnet's hintaseuranta, but for some reason it doesn't include verkkokauppa.com which seems to offer everything the cheapest.