HarveyG Photography

Nikon D90

After over 25 years of SLR’ing, I was thrust into DSLR with a surprise Fathers Day gift from? Nope, not my son; my Dad!

I also thought that was weird but wasn’t about to challenge his OOB thinking! Especially when I unwrapped the gift to find that trademark gold Nikon packaging and the bold letters “D90″. I did offer to swop him for his D80. He refused…

When you consider that many sons have a tough relationship with their fathers, especially as time marches on, I was most taken aback and grateful for his generosity. (He bought me my first SLR, a Minolta XG-M in ’83 with a 70-200 f/4.5-5.6 Rokkor and a 50mm f/1.7 Rokkor)

Nikon D80

He had bought himself a D80 in early 2008 and I had used it on occasion, trying to get to grips with it’s myriad of features and started to enjoy what it could do. I’m not an analog man in a digital world. I’ve been computing since 1979 when the Australian school I was at, bought into computing with an original Apple I. I signed up immediately to their new “computer extra mural” and never looked back.

My father and I had been discussing ‘what DSLR?’ for about a year prior to his D80 purchase (he bought a Minolta SR-7 SLR and Rokkor 80-160 f/3.5 in ’64 (see some of his digitised slide photography here)). He has a Nikon F801s and the legendary F3 and some glass which he had bought to start replacing his stolen Minolta gear, and we discussed Nikon and Canon DSLR as options. I was a Canon fan from a Printer/Scanner perspective and the Canon 3.2 MP P&S I owned gave really good results, for a P&S but it wasn’t an (D)SLR as I had been using till then. I had eventually stopped using my SLR for “general” photography as the D&P became too expensive here and my P&S worked great for about 3 years until a friend dropped it at a braai (BBQ). Despite the price wars going on with DSLR, I still had Minolta bodies and glass that had served me for 25+ years and I wanted to see if I could use that glass. Although it was all MF glass on the MD mount, they would work on Sony Alphas. I didn’t like the then Sony range as the bodies felt light and cheap when compared with my two solid Minoltas. I liked some of the features of the new Sonys such as in-body anti-shake and their bodies and 2 kit (yuck) lenses had appealing prices. Later research showed just how much more new Sony lenses would be when compared with other brands. It looked like a “hook”.

Minolta DiMAGE 5 - Yuck!

Minolta, on entering the digital fray, went all futuristic and cheap. I like Star Wars and Star Trek, but not in a camera. I think a lot of staunch Minolta fans felt the same way as I and this caused the demise of Minolta; poor sales. Some may say Minolta was making more money from their tie-up with Konica and printer efforts. I’m not so sure. If you have a good business why sell it, effectively killing a long trusted global brand. Still, I loved the SRT 101 (My first wedding was done with an SRT 101 in ’79 as 2nd shooter).

The  XG-M (’83) and the XD-7 (which I bought later in ’84) still work flawlessly. My father had an X1 and XM and tons more lenses and gear accumulated over 27+ years. In ’91, what I call an “Affirmative Shopper”, broke into his house and stole EVERYTHING.  Thankfully for the burglar, my father was out at the time, or the burglar would have looked like a sieve with a few .45 holes in him. Almost 30 years of hard earned gear, including some of Minolta’s finest glass, ended up used as paper weights or door stops. Probably for the vast sum of a packet of smokes and a few loaves of bread and a bottle of booze…Don’t feel pity for the poor hungry chap…he was caught a few years later, for murder, and his prints were matched to the robbery at my Dads house…he swore he had “no idea” how his prints got there. The gear however was never recovered.

Back to the point.

After much deliberation and internet research, my father decided to stay with Nikon. I’m glad he did. After I picked up a Canon 450D and compared it to the D80/D90, I realised that the 450D build quality was similar to the Sony entry levels that I didn’t like, despite the Canons excellent picture quality and pro lens range that I had seen. He could use all his old glass from the Nikon SLRs, so long as he stayed away from the likes of the D40/D60, both great cameras, but they only work with the AF-S/AF-I type Lens Internal Motor/Focus/CPU lenses and not AF-D lenses that must have in-body focussing. So enter the D80 which works with nearly all glass made by Nikon since the mid 50′s (and more recently Sigma’s affordable, legendary glass). A wise choice.

So, enter my D90 body about 18 months later, bought in South Africa at the horrendous local retailer prices just for a local warranty. He gave me his two F801 lenses, a beautiful crisp Nikkor 35-70mm f/3.3-4.5 and a magnificent 1994 Sigma 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 APO Macro.

Thanks Dad for all your generosity and sparking my interest in photography way back in ’76!

EDIT to add – 30/12/2009: Over the next 6 months I ran up over 9000 images. I was back in (D)SLR photography heaven. Even taking part in some online photography competitions to improve my PP PS and test my DSLR skills (DPChallenge and Daily Awards), school sports events, family (birthdays, wedding, Christmas) and nature shoots. The D90 is also being used for website photography for other clients.

Digital has changed the way people photograph and has made the art more accessible. My years of film work stood good stead and now with on the fly adjustable ISO and RAW shooting, many more opportunities have opened up. Thanks Dad.

EDIT to add – 10/12/2011: More lenses and more bodies. Workshops and tours. More events and travelling through Africa. It’s a hard life