After two years and thousands of photos with my trusty Nikon 775 I've ordered a new digital camera, a Canon A70. Not only is it cheaper than the Nikon was in its day but it has more of the features that I want (manual focus being key), can use additional lenses and filters, and doesn't use a proprietary (ie. thirty dollar) battery. Which means boning up on the latest battery technology. Here are some useful battery and memory breakdowns:

• Battery Shootout
• Rechargeables
• Compact Flash comparisons

I've been thinking of upgrading since last fall but it has been a bit of a mental wrestling match. The biggest problem with my current camera is that it is too automatic, often making it difficult or impossible to focus (especially on my beloved macro shots) or work in low light conditions. At first I went the typical route, looking for a bigger, better camera, like Sony's DSC-F717, Minolta's DiMAGE, and the Nikon 5700. Feature creep is a slippery slope folks, and I was sliding into the thousand dollar range quickly.

To be honest, though, I'm not all that much of a photographer. I don't really understand or get into the minutia of the art and buying a heavy duty camera wasn't going to change that. What I really like to do, and what the 775 has been great at, is taking spur of the moment photos. To do that means a small camera that easily goes wherever I go. So I modified my search criteria to be small size first, like the 775, and secondly to have the additional features I want. The best match is the Canon A70.

Unfortunately everyone and their brother must have been doing the same thing because the A70's are on back order everywhere. Soon, grasshopper, soon. Anyone want to buy a great little Nikon 775?

• info
  • 1 comment
  • permanent link
  • email this