In the end, I narrowed down my options to two cameras: the D90 and the D5000, both Nikons. The D90 has several things I like: a DoF preview button, an in-camera AF-motor (means I can buy cheaper non-motor lenses), two dials for easy access to settings, an info LCD on top. But the D5000 is a bit cheaper, smaller, and has the swivel screen for easy low angle shooting.

So…. I decided that I didn’t need the extra dial, nor an info LCD on top (my Minolta didn’t have one and I never missed it). I checked prices for the motor lens I would want to buy soonest, and that one was okay, so no AF-motor needed in the camera, and that swivel screen looked like just the ticket for shooting flowers, which I do a lot.

Last Thursday I thought I’d just pop into the store to ‘have a look’, see how the camera would feel in my hand, how flimsy the swivel screen might be, and just generally check whether all the online reviews were right. 15 minutes later I was outside again, shopping bag with boxed camera in hand.

Then the *real* work started: trying to make sense of the myriad of different settings and menu options! This is not my first SLR – I’ve been shooting SLR from my 15th or so, up to 6 years ago. I know about ISO, aperture and shutter speed, DoF and motion blur. I know about the effect of zoom lenses and perspective. However, none of that is of much help when getting your hands on a dSLR for the first time :-) I think they should make just one more button on these things: the “pretend to be a simple SLR” button, which instantly removes all menu options, and leaves only speed, aperture, and ISO to set, all from buttons on the top of the camera. (auto-focus can stay)

I’m sure I’ll figure it all out though, just not all at once :-)

Oh, and one thing even this very nice dSLR can’t do: remove the wind when I’m trying to take a photo of something. The fly in the photo below could have been just that little bit more in focus if only the wind would have played nice…