A New Camera

With the spate of new dSLR cameras from Canon, Nikon, Sony, some with pretty impressive previews, the itch to run out and buy a new camera has to be getting stronger. I know I suffer the itch.

Here's some things to think about though.

1) whatever you buy is going to be superseded by a better model within a year, and probably less, possibly for less money.

2) A swinging LCD screen is an obvious addition to a dSLR - so obvious it's hard to believe it hasn't been added yet. I'm still confused about the pixel count on the new Nikon - one site even showed pictures of how much finer it is - so so much for the talk of pixels versus dots. That said, can you imagine how handy a camera with a 4 inch screen (I think there's room) which tilts would be - even newspaper photographers would find it a godsend and for still life, macro, flower, even landscape work, it would be awesome. I strongly suspect this is only a model away (that's to say, better than even odds that we'll see it within the year).

3) Michael Reichmann points out that Nikon has autofocus in live view while Canon has to flip the mirror. Anyone bet that won't be on the next Canon? (too late for the 1Ds3?).

4) Initial enthusiasm for the new is often tempered over time with more realistic estimates of quality. I've been burned by acting on enthusiastic reviews, only to find within a month or two, all the problems surface. Whether it's the arcane interface and problems with the Canon 5000 printer or it's ink so glossy it doesn't work well with any of the glossy art papers yet produced or the autofocus problems of the 1D3, the infrared problems of the Leica M8, history is so full of (if I'd waited, I would have been warned) that even if you are interested in the current new generation of cameras, you might well want to curb that enthusiasm.

There, now if only I can control myself.