My Journey Into Photography: The Jump To Digital

I was having a lot of fun shooting film again after many years, my decision to go back to basics and learn the shutter triangle was a good one. I had been fortunate enough to have a plentiful supply of Agfa Vista 200 colour film courtesy of a local discount store, but I knew it wouldn't last forever. I wasn't the only one buying it, but I didn't want to be greedy, so I bought 10 at a time. I also knew a decision was going to be made sooner than I thought. Owen was gently pushing me towards a DSLR and the hunt for a decent one for not a lot of cash was on.

When I began my Photography Journey, i bought my Pentax camera's from ebay, so I went there to see what was available and the price range for various DSLR's. I soon realised that I didn't have a clue what to look out for as most ebay sales are short on detail. Here's where you tube came in handy again as I expanded my search. I had a lot to consider, did I want an APS-C or Crop Sensor camera or did I want Full Frame? Did I want Video and if so, HD or not? I soon learned that up to date camera's were out of my meager price range, I would have to choose something older. After a lot of thought and a few pointers from owen I found Ken Rockwell's website.

Ken is noted amongst the photogrphy world as having a website that gives honest appraisals of the various Nikon camera's he has owned over the years. It's rather extensive too. He has owned just about every Nikon DSLR, yet preferred, at the time I was looking, a Nikon D60. After checking the D60 out, I decided it wasn't for me. What had caught my eye was a Nikon D90.

First put on sale in 2008, the Nikon D90 was the first DSLR to capture 720p HD Video, but that wasn'r what attracted me to it. I was drawn by it's 12.3 megapixel crop sensor and the huge selection of lenses that would take advantage of those pixels to provide decent images. It was also within my budget.

After a couple of weeks of searching and a few disappointments on ebay, I happened upon the Wex Photo Video website. Based in Norwich, but with stores around the country, Wex is one of the few photography retailers to thrive in the digital world. I also discovered they have a healthy used items section where they sell trade in's they have taken in. I found a Nikon D90 there with a low shutter count, a clean and undamaged sensor, a 12 month warranty and it was within budget. I would have to use an adapted lens until I had enough money for a lens to fit it, but that gave me a chance to learn to use it with my growing collection of Tamron Adaptall 2 Lenses. I pulled the trigger, bought it and a few days later it arrived.

Wex gave a good description of the camera, but some of the marks they noted were bloody tiny. I reckon I got a good deal and left them a bit of good feedback as a thank you. The Nikon D90 is a mid range camera, lightweight yet able to produce great images either in RAW, Jpeg or both. At maximum resolution it can produce an image you can happily enlarge to A3 and above without losing too much detail or sharpness. I fitted my Tamron 28mm wide angle lens and began learning how to use my Nikon D90 in manual.

The one true advantage the DSLR has over it's cousin the SLR is you can keep taking shots until you get it right as opposed to having to think and getting your shot right first time in an SLR. Having spent the first few months of 2017 shooting film, it certainly helped me to decypher the various fucntions and features that I could use on my D90 and nail a shot first time in short order. I have several folders on my PC entitled Test Shots For Learning that are full of my experiments and excercises as I learned my way around my D90. Owen was kind enough to give some suggestions for things to try out as I was getting up to speed. I looked at form, texture, contrast and macro with extension tubes I picked up for pennies off ebay. Above all else, it was fun to learn a new system and expand my knowledge.

My previous experience with Digital was all irrelevant when i bought my D90. Point and shoot is just that, point and shoot. A DSLR was a revelation in creativity for me, but I made a big mistake at this point in my journey. I jumped way ahead of myself too quickly without understanding where it all fitted and I was tripping myself up. I had the tools to achieve the goal of becoming a published photo journalist in the future, but I had a lot of learning ahead of me to get it structured and to reset my brain to get used to using two forms of photography that were years apart, but linked at the most basic level. I also realised it was time to get some professional tuition. Owen pointed me gently in the direction of Mr Mike Browne and I will talk about that next time. Here's a few images I took with my D90 as I got to grips with it.