I have this craptastic digital camera that I bought almost 5 years ago when it first came out. It’s not actually a crappy camera, it just doesn’t work for what I want it to work for. I hate HATE the delay that comes when you press the button to snap a picture. If I’ve pressed the button, I want the picture taken then, not 2 or 3 seconds later when the camera feels like it. Mia doesn’t sit still long enough for me to wait for the delay, and to get a good picture of her. All of the pics I’ve taken of her are a blur, since she’s constantly in motion. I’ve also wanted to get into a little amateur photography, and this camera just isn’t working how I’d like it to. So, for a while I’ve been casually looking at new options to replace it. Duke recently got back into photography and bought a Nikon D80 that he let me use when we were in Arizona. I decided right there and then that I MUST have one. It’s fantastic. Comfortable to use, takes great pictures, and has all sorts of fun options to play with. So I started looking into pricing, and lenses and packages, and holy hell photography is expensive. The D80 and all it’s wonderfulness was going to cost me upwards of $1400. I have a bad BAD habit of impulse purchasing (see Wii, iPhone, etc.) and I wasn’t entirely sure that I really wanted to spend $1400 on something I may or may not like. I kept looking, and asking around, and reading. And then I found out my longtime friend Mario was a photography enthusiast, and he hooked me up with some fantabulous websites with more information than I knew what to do with.

Once my brain stopped leaking from my ears, I was able to ask him some fairly dumb questions about lenses, bodies, etc. It’s still really hard to decide what I want. I’m settling down on the Nikon D40 with a couple options for the lenses. Do any of you have a D40 and can give me pros and/or cons from your experience? Or do you have a different camera that you love that you’d recommend? I mainly want it to be able to take pictures of my wiggly little pug, as well as some landscape shots. I’m big on cloud formations, ocean/beach settings, fun stuff like that.

Also, if anyone knows of a camera supply place that has good deals, that’d be good to know too. I’ve found excellent deals on Amazon, and therefore asked for gift certificates for Hanukkah and Christmas (yeah, I do both). But if somewhere else has a better deal, I’m SURE I can find something else to use my Amazon certificates on!