It's a Shootout: Mission Accomplished

So way back when in January, we put the call out to get opinions on digital SLR cameras. Oh yes, we had money just burning a hole in our pocket. Well, we got distracted a bit and that money went towards something else for the short-term, but we've bounced back and are the proud parents of a brand new Nikon D80. We did a ton more reading and research online, asked every person known or strange to us that we ran across holding one of our candidate cameras what they thought, and we followed the best piece of advice when contemplating a non-trivial camera purchase: get thee to a camera store and put your paws on them.

The second we held the Nikon D80 in our hand just after sampling the Canon Digital Rebel, it was a done deal. The Canon was a smaller form factor, and while this might delight those with petite hands, we found that we had to strain to get our trigger finger on the shutter button, whereas with the Nikon that's exactly where it wanted to rest naturally. While not a D200, this is no lightweight camera and comfort in hand can make all the difference as to whether you really want to lug that thing around and use it. The Nikon felt like a natural extension of our arm as we traipsed around the store with it.

We were momentarily distracted by the new-for-2007 Nikon D40x, a slightly less expensive alternative with what seemed like only a few differences from the D80. It would have saved us about $400, possibly $500, but form factor was a problem with that model--it sat in our hand just like the Digital Rebel and was out of the running immediately as a result, before we could even agonize over the differences in lens compatibility and a few other key features.

And now, we can add lens envy to our roster of gear obsessions. We got the D80 as a kit with the Nikkor 18-135 lens, but we're already drooling over the 18-200 VR. First things first, though: get way more familiar with this camera and everything it can do. The last time we cared about f-stops, we were in a high school photography class.

Photo from our bike team racing last weekend by Courtney Nash.