I always feel weird figuring out what I want for my birthday because I become plagued with indecision and too many options. This year my mom was good enough to give me a combined birthday/Chanukah financial gift going toward my hair removal, but I couldn’t figure out what to ask my dad for. Well, after our recent discussion, we were back at my apartment and talking about more mundane things, including the video camera I bought over the summer (which was funded in part by the artist’s stipend from the mentorship program I’m working on). At the time I was torn over a video camera and a still camera, and decided on the Sony CX12 because it can take solid – if not amazing – still pictures and serve well as a standard and high-def video camera. I’ve been happy with it on both accounts, and some of the pictures and video I’ve posted on this blog were taken with the CX12.

Well, I realized a nice still camera (or splitting the cost of a still camera, as I think it’s unfair to ask for things beyond whatever the general established history of gift costs) would be a perfect thing to ask for, and yesterday my dad and I went to a camera store and I came home with a shiney new camera.

After much deliberation, reading online reviews all this week, and talking with friends (thanks BG!), and playing with things in the store I decided on the Nikon D60:

D60 front

It came down between that and the Canon Rebel XSI. Both were reviewed highly as entry-level DSLR cameras, which is what I’m looking for. Both have similar specs and price, though the Canon has slightly higher number of pixels, a bigger back LCD, and a higher price. It’s also slightly lighter and smaller, which was my big hesitating point on the D60. The D60, however, has a much nicer menu system with a great built-in help feature that gives a brief rundown of options and suggestions built into the camera itself (though it also came with a very solid and complete manual.)

I’ve been playing with it yesterday and today and seem pretty happy. Ubuntu has even managed to deal with the RAW image files, which I didn’t think about before hand. I have 10 days to return it and 30 days to exchange it, so I have a bit of time, but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna stick with it. (Though, dammit, I already wish it were a hair smaller and lighter, like the XSI….the question is, ultimately, which will convince me to use a camera more: ease of physically carrying it around, or ease of using the damn thing once I do carry it around? I’m thinking the latter.)

Some purdy pictures:

Roomie Number 1

Roomie Number 2

Both of these are resized to fit online, so the originals are bigger. Certainly neither of them are mind-blowing quality (although I like the first one a lot) but I think they’re both impressive for what was basically the default settings. I’ll be playing with the camera more, and am excited to see what I can do with it. (Particularly at the upcoming circus photoshoot at the Gym!)

-R