Camera Gear

I have always enjoyed taking pictures and looking at other people's pictures. I had a couple of film cameras as a kid and even graduated to a real 35mm SLR Minolta as a young adult. The photo bug really bit me though when the first digital cameras started to become decent. Combining photography, computers, and herping expeditions sure was(is) a great combination!

In 1999 I got my first digital camera, the Nikon Coolpix 900, as a new "used" camera from my friend Tanith Tyrr. Finally I was able to instantly see if my photo was under/overexposed and delete and retry! If i did not like the compostion........no problem just delete and retake the picture. This camera had 1.3 megapixel resolution and I plain wore it out over the next year.

About a year later I upgraded to the 2.0 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 950. This was a nice upgrade and I again wore this camera out.

So the bad thing at this point in time was the rapid increases in technology. This meant a significantly better camera was introduced at least every 12 months. Yes, I upgraded frequently and my next camera was the 3.3 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 990.

In 2002 Nikon once again upped the megapixel and quality quotient with the relase of the 5.0 megapixel Nikon 5700. This camera was very nice and served me well.

The camera that I got in the summer of 2004 and still currently use is the Nikon D70. This 6.1 megapixel camera was a much needed improvement over the prosumer "point and shoots" that I had been using. Now when I pressed the shutter button the camera instantly took a picture. Image quality was noticeably improved as well.

I addition to the D70 I also use an SB-800 Speedlight and have a AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED lense for Macro shooting and a AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED for my general purpose lense.

Although a DSLR is slightly bulky to use in the field I would still rather lug around the extra equipment and be able to get better quality pictures.

Nikon has just recently released the new 12 megapixel D300 ($1799.00 msrp) and the Full Frame FX format 12 megapixel D3 ($4999.00). The wonders of technology..........So yes, I need the new D300 for my next herp trip to Costa Rica this year!