A Trip to Nikon Centre @ Berjaya Times Square

Went to visit the Nikon Centre after work on Friday. Tested the new Nikon D7000. It is a solid serious amateur DSLR as expected. And the good reviews it got from all over were actually justified.  The camera grip fitted into my hand nicely, it felt like it was designed based on my hand! And in my hand it felt nice and heavy, not too heavy. Just nice heavy. The built quality is so much better than my D3000.  How much better? The cheapest-feeling plastic part on the D7000 body is the best-feeling plastic part on my D3000.

Unfortunately the price is a bit high for us Malaysian consumers. I don't think that it'll be selling like hot cakes like in the developed countries such as in the UK and US. I predicted that it will be easier to bargain for the camera in a few months time when the retailers realised that we Malaysians do not really have a high level of disposable income as the developed nations.

I also tried two lenses on my D3000 body that I brought along. The first one was the newly launched 55-300mm. It was actually my first time trying a telephoto lens. And man it was hard to use! At the longest zoom range 300mm, even the slightest hand shake is magnified. The zoom barrel was a bit tight. And indoors with poor lighting, the lens is pretty much useless. I guess it is more suited for outdoor shooting for example photographing your kids at their sports day.

I shot this at 1/15 sec at f/5.6 (widest aperture), ISO1600 at 300mm (longest zoom). You can see at it is not sharp as you would normally need a shutter speed of at least 1/300 sec at this focal length to counter any handshake. But I had no choice, as the ISO was at the maximum usable for my D3000 and the aperture was already at the lens' widest.

Next was the ultrawide 10-24mm. It was also my first time using an ultrawide lens. I was taken by surprised how wide this lens is at 10mm the first time I put my eye to the viewfinder.  I always thought that the 18mm on my kit lens was wide enough for me. The lens is much easier to use than the 55-300mm.

A view of the Nikon Centre. Shot at 1/60 sec at f/3/5, ISO 1600 at 10mm. The lens is brilliant for shooting buildings, interiors but not people or portraits as it will distort the dimensions to fit everything into the viewfinder (i.e it makes people look fat).

I think I've made up my mind on what I should be getting next for my photography. I've pretty much set on the ultrawide 10-22mm. The D7000 is nice to have, but if I get that without upgrading my lens, I will still only be making shots that I already can  with my D3000. Furthermore, the lens costs less. As for the 55-300 zoom, I have legs, I can always move if I want to get closer. =)