Nikon's D200

I've got Canon's Digital Rebel. It's a great little camera at a great price. Beautiful images at low cost, made by the market leader in SLR cameras. I'm married with two kids, and I just got really interested in photography a year ago. So my lens "collection" is really a pair of $100 lenses and my pride-and-joy, the $450 Sigma 30/1.4. (The Sigma is a non-zooming lens that offers a natural field-of-view and is great for low-light situational stuff.)

Mike (a friend at work) shoots with Nikon gear. He's single (never been married), older than I am, and has been collecting Nikon lenses since he majored in photography in college. So his lens collection is really a "collection". He just bought Nikon's newest pro digital - the $4500 D2x - to replace the other DSLRs he's worn out.

Mike and I regularly give each other grief about which brand is better. As a routine part of this verbal sparring, Mike has repeatedly stated that Canon is a marketing-driven company, while decisions at Nikon are made by engineers. I always dismissed this as a colored perspective that wasn't really harmful or offensive.

Until Nikon released the D200.

The Overpriced, Underfeatured Canon 5D

Really, it started with Canon's recent release of the 5D. It's way overpriced, in my opinion. At $3300, it's just a $1300 20D with a sensor the size of a 35mm negative. That makes it the first full-frame DSLR available for under $4000. But at that price, I was really expecting the feature set to closely resemble the sports shooters' workhorse - the $4500 1DMkIIN. Weather sealing, 45-point pro-speed AF, and other pro features should be in a $3300 camera. Nope. Just a bigger screen...and a print button.

That print button irritated me more the more I thought about it. Who among the target audience for this EXPENSIVE camera would want a button just for printing? It's a waste of money, a waste of real-estate, and - worst of all - a waste of a perfectly accessible button during shooting. Reviewers everywhere commented on it. And I realized that maybe Mike was right - maybe some Executive Vice President of Marketing decided that "all Canon digital cameras will have a Print button." Starting with the $3300 5D.

The Underpriced, Overfeatured Nikon D200

Meanwhile, Mike had told me what to expect of the D200 - basically a pro camera in a smaller package, priced around $2500 (as was its predecessor, the D100). Sounded like a nice camera (even if it was four years late), but it was WAY too rich for my blood. Besides - I had Canon lenses. Even my humble $650 of glass counts (for me, anyway) as an investment.

So when the D200 was officially announced, the specs were surprisingly up-to-date for a camera four years in the making. (That's a long time in digital land.)

But I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw the price: $1700, just $200 more than I was already planning to spend on an upgrade in the spring.

My initial elation stemmed from the effect this new camera would SURELY have on the new 20D's feature list. I realized Canon probably hadn't been caught by surprise, but we ordinary folk were just waking up to the pressure Canon had been living under for a few years. A pro camera, with pro AF and weather sealing and cast-iron build and controls for every photographic setting I knew of (plus some I didn't) priced for ordnary people like me. "Who knows what Canon will come up with?" I thought.

But the more I looked at the D200, and the more I looked at my investment in lenses, the more I realized that the D200 was an option for ME. (My increasing skills at selling electronics on eBay was also a factor.) I was already planning on selling the kit lens with my camera. I could sell the Sigma for a little loss and probably make up the difference between Canon and Nikon cameras.

And the features were calling to me: Pro-grade AF that could track my child around the frame. Selectable frame rates, up to 5FPS. A buffer large enough to hold 22 RAW files. Weather-sealing and build that would give me peace of mind should life happen while the camera was out. All are features I would use. All are features Canon has so far reserved for their pro cameras (even the $3300 5D has none of these features). Add to that Nikon's less-confusing control layout with a pro-level degree of control. And by all indications, the D200 yields ISO3200 images with almost as little noise as the excellent Canon 20D.

So my mind is made up...for now. My budget is preventing me from buying anything until after Canon has shown their cards. The 20D's successor is expected to be announced in late February at the PMA conference, with cameras shipping in March. I guess it's a good thing I can't upgrade until then.

But I can drool over the D200 in the meantime :-)

Recommended Reading

I STRONGLY recommend the following books:

The Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy.
Shaeffer was a Presbyterian minister who realized that the "preach and they will come" model wasn't working any more in postmodern Western society. So in the midst of the hippie revolution he moved to Switzerland, where he opened his home to anyone with deep questions still searching for answers. Through his talks with people from all walks of life, and through his studies of Scripture, philosophy, and history, he worked hard to answer those deep questions from a Biblical perspective. This book contains his findings.

His whole-picture, "whole-history" view of society is intriguing, even if it's somewhat hard-to-follow. But the most notable aspect of his writing is the deep, emotional compassion for real people that drives every word on every page. Other works on worldview are dry, analytical, academic. This book is soaked with tears and prayers for those lost in the godlessness of today's culture.

Do Fish Know They're Wet? by Tom Neven.
If Schaeffer introduced modern worldview apologetics to the Church, Neven makes it accessible. Avoiding the rambling of Schaeffer and the "Christianese" of Colson, Neven manages to communicate a difficult subject easily and in a small paperback book. For only $10, you simply must buy this gentle guide to worldview apologetics.

New House

This is the long-overdue post showing pics of our new house. In fact, this post is SO overdue that we don't really think of the house as being "new" anymore. Oh well. Apologies to my many devoted readers.

This is our new house. Lots of trees mean smaller electric bills in the summer, balanced by running the AC more after clearing the yard of sticks and hickory nuts. We have four bedrooms: a master suite downstairs, and a "second master" plus two small bedrooms upstairs. There are 2+1/2 baths, formal dining room plus eating area in kitchen, and a rec room upstairs. Crown molding and smooth white ceilings throughout, with hardwood floors in every room except master suite and stairs. Corner lot in nice, established neighborhood in laid-back Smyrna, TN. Large side and front yards; already-small back yard halved by deck outside kitchen. Two-car garage under first floor.

Here's a view of the kitchen. The wall you're looking at is really an "island" of wall separating the entry hall and living room from the kitchen.

This is our "rec room." It's big enough to be a nice bedroom, but doesn't have a closet. Right now it houses all the boxes we haven't unpacked yet. It's nice to have an extra room big enough to simultaneously serve as attic, play area, guest room, and bedroom for the dog. There's another small bedroom upstairs that we're not using yet.

This is an artsy pic showing the view from the upstairs landing. The stairs go up from the far end of the living room up onto the landing, which is in the middle of the second floor. Doors lead from the landing into all three upstairs bedrooms, and you can walk down the hall to the upstairs bathroom and the rec room. Mara likes to look through the railing at whomever is in the entry hall.

This room has been turned into our nursery. You may think we're crazy, but both of us actually like the green color. The hardwood floors and smooth ceilings come together with the windows and fireplace to give the room an elegant, old-world charm. Of course, having a fireplace in a nursery isn't a good idea, so the crib will sit in front of it for a few years.

This is Mara waiting on us to finish looking through the house. She's sitting in the formal dining room, which became our playroom. It's a great place to keep the toys accessible...but away from the living room. We're planning to install built-in bookshelves and seats on all three walls. The living room is down the entry hall to the left, and the doorway you see goes into the kitchen.

Finally, this is Mara demonstrating the eating area in our kitchen (from which the other kitchen picture was taken). It's also the only picture of the group showing the house as it looks now. (I know, I know - but now that we live here, there's no point of taking pictures of the house by itself.)

It's Release Day, and I'm Bored

Well, for the third time this summer, today is Release Day. Really, it's been Release Week, but today is the big day. Today is the day we can't log into our system because we're rolling the projects we've been toiling over into production.

Release Week (from a developer's standpoint) is a week when projects stand still. Regardless of the official status of things, no developer is assigned to any project during release week so we can help with the preparations. Emails go out listing differences between the various environments. Those responsible reply to claim their code. The QA department goes into overdrive testing projects that are releasing. Development concentrates on bug reports related to the release.

Release Day actually starts at close-of-business on Thursday. That's when our system is shut down. It's also when the DBA and various project leads start rolling database changes to production. This process lasts late into the night. Friday morning they roll the changed database code. Usually around lunch on Friday the QA department can log in and begin testing. And this is the start of the real fun.

QA testing generally lasts from lunch on Friday to close to midnight, and can continue on Saturday. During QA testing developers are basically on standby. We're deliberately kept bored so we can respond immediately if a problem is ever found. We're allowed to bring in game consoles and TVs to help us waste time.

Food is never a problem. Investment Scorecard cares for its employees. We're given multiple menus to choose from for lunch, with different menus for dinner. The food is great - we're not talking about McDonald's, folks. Hot meals. Hot sandwiches and other entrees for lunch. Steaks, salmon, chicken for dinner. All paid for.

The game consoles usually attract a small crowd (whatever can fit in a cubicle). For each console there's generally 3-6 people watching, one person trying to beat the previous score, and occasionally someone working. The breadth of games brought in is impressive, though there are company favorites. Lines form for Halo 2 and Amped for XBox, and sometimes for Gran Turismo 4 for PS2. Card games are also common, with one or two going on at any given time. I have no idea what games they play, though.

I don't happen to have any projects rolling to production this week, and I've not been around long enough to be assigned any standard release-week duties, so I am bored. At least I'm honest about it - my supervisor knows I'm searching for something to do. But it's lunch time, and I know I'll be here another twelve hours watching my brain cells form a puddle beneath my feet.

I was bored, so I thought I'd write about my predicament. I hope you enjoyed it.

Thoroughly Contaminated

This morning, as I was eating breakfast, I saw my wife's copy of Sew Beautiful by Martha Pullen. As I'm interested in photography, I decided I'd look for the name of the photographer who took the wonderfully done cover photo. (No, I'm not gay or anything. It's my wife's magazine, remember.)

Flipping through the pages, carefully looking for the small print info I sought, I stumbled on the "Dear Friends" page - essentially the letter from the editor written by Mrs. Pullen and included in every edition. However, in this magazine, the letter from the editor takes the form of a short Bible study, complete with printed Bible verses (James 3:7-12 in edition 102). I had not yet had a quiet time this morning, so I read through the article as my study for the day. It was a great lesson on taming the tongue, with personal anecdotes about her father (who apparently did well in this area) and her grandfather, a circuit-riding Methodist minister.

After reading through the devotional, I thought about Mrs. Pullen. How she's obviously very interested in sewing and smocking and in teaching others, and how cool it must be to have her own business (a magazine, no less!) that follows her interests so closely. And I thought how good her business skills must be to have achieved that level of success.

But then I realized just how my last thought smacked of a materialistic (godless) worldview. It really surprised me that I had just held that opinion. Of course Mrs. Pullen is enjoying the blessings of God and the benefits of a life devoted to Him. Even in the secular world business skills are no real indicator of success; we as Christians know why. Mrs. Pullen has apparently been God's servant for many years, and continues to use her media reach to give Him glory. Since her will is aligned with that of God, He continues to bless her in order to further their mutual goals.

So why did I give her credit?

I realized (once again) just how thoroughly contaminated we are with the godless worldview. I continue to be surprised at just how warped my conception of life really is. I believe in God; that He created the world in six literal days' time, that man disobeyed God and fell from created perfection, and that God in His love inflicted our punishment on His Son so He could restore us fully one day. But those central pillars of belief seem to have made little headway into my day-to-day thinking.

I honestly wonder what it would be like if I managed to demonstrate the knowledge of God in every little area of my life. Would my wife think I was crazy? Or would she be amazed that dishes, laundry, and trash were no longer an issue? What would my boss at work think if I had every project on-time and bug-free? (I have known for years that it is God, not me, who writes the software. And He writes it through me most quickly when I'm close enough to Him that He can use my hands.)

This morning I realized (again) that I have much to do, much to learn, and much to unlearn.

Recent Canon New Product Announcements

The all-new EOS 5D

Great camera
Good to see full-frame prices drop
I'll never spend that $$ just for full-frame

The upgraded 1D Mark II N

A surprise: Same sensor, same framerate, same controls.
I'd have expected at least the 9-way joystick from the 20D, if they're going to the trouble of changing the model number and firmware.
At least they're not making you pay more for that bigger LCD.

24-105/4L IS
Kinda surprised, kinda not.
I know many people wanted this lens.
But others (including me) would prefer an 18-50/2.8L. An L-class normal zoom for 1.6x cameras would be great. After all - Nikon makes one.

430EX

The one announcement that will benefit me. This means the flash I buy will have:

• More power
• Manual control
• 2nd-curtain sync
• Less bulk
• Less weight
• Faster recycle time
• Same price (presumably) I was already planning to pay

It, too, is a surprise. I've not heard any complaints about the 420EX. I have, however, seen Canon lose many 420EX sales to Sigma's EF 500DG Super. That lens already has these features for the same price, plus it can act as a wireless-TTL master unit

I'm still hoping for a 20D replacement in spring.

First Picture Post

This is the obligatory first picture post. Slightly less annoying because it's got a picture. At least it's a good picture of two cute girls (my daughters).

First blog entry

This is the usual and annoying first post. Thanks for reading.