My New Toy - Nikon D60

Recently, I developed an interest in nature photography particular in birds. I had been using my Panasonic Lumix FZ20. Using it was alright, but you need to get relatively close to the subject in order to have a nice shot. And birds being birds, they tend to fly off the moment you stand too close to them. Even though it comes with 12X optical zoom and 48X digital zoom it's still not sufficient to take nice shots if the subject is high up on the tree or too far away. That's why recently I had been searching for a third party teleconverter lens to attach to it. But the market in Singapore is so saturated with lenses by either Canon or Nikon. And I am afraid that if I buy a third party lens, it might not fit too well to my Lumix. So I decided to get a DSLR instead. But its still quite a headache because I wasn't sure which brand to buy. Most of my friends I asked said Canon. Even most of the award-winning photos in the BBC Wildlife Photo competition used Canon. So how?

Today was the second day of the IT Fair. So I decided to head down there to check-it out, hoping to get a good deal. Gosh... it was so crowded. I went to the Canon booth first. After looking about and checking what they had to offer for DSLR I decided to move on because it was too crowded there and like no salesperson to entertain you. I next headed to the Nikon booth. I took a copy of their advertisement to see what's available. They had this Coolpix P5100 at $549. This model is featured in an advertisement in BBC Wildlife magazine showing it attached to a telescopic lens. This was one of the reason why I decided to buy Nikon. I wasn't sure whether Canon cameras are able to do that. This model supports lens converter. So, I asked the saleman what sort of lens converter can it support and he said he didn't know. He told me that if I am not familiar with a DSLR, it's best that take this. But I was more interested with the type of lens converter it can support. I didn't want buy it and then later find that it cannot support the teleconverter lens that I wanted. So, I decided to tryout a DSLR.

The model I tried first was D80 because this one got a really good deal. The kit costs $1888 and it comes with one wide- angle lens and one teleconverter lens. After trying it out, I asked the salelady which model was good for a beginner. Then she introduced me D40 and D60. I chose D60 because it is new. But then I didn't know whether to buy P5100 or D60. She told me that since I had a semi-SLR before, I should take a full SLR. In this case I was still having difficulty whether to buy D60 or D80. In the end, after much deep thought I chose D60.

The D60 kit cost $1188 and comes with a AF-S VR 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G ED wide-angle lens. If I wanted a teleconverter lens I had to pay $199 for an AF-S 55-200mm VR lens which is equivalent to 10X zoom. This was the first time that I bought a camera in the IT Fair. My... it came with a number of free gifts too - a 2GB SD card, screen protector, card reader, cloth, Nikon bag, Lenspen Klear and a tripod. The salelady even threw in a battery for me.

I hope I didn't regret buying this.