Feeling Them Up!

Ah.... I've waited for soooo long. Finally, for 2 hours, I wrapped my hand around the hard bodies of my dreams - Nikon D50, Nikon D40, Nikon D80, Canon Rebel XTi, Pentax K100D. What were you thinking?

If the shop had carried the Olympus EVOLT E-500, then the line up will be truly complete for comparison purpose.

The D80 was the largest of them all and also the highest in price. Here's the size ranking according to my grip:

D80 -> D50 -> Pentax K100D -> Rebel XTi -> D40 (smallest).

D80
- heavy and solid

D50
- clunky and ergonomically like a block

D40
- my gosh that's a cute camera, small grip, my pinky definitely has to go under the camera

Pentax K100D
- surprisingly very solid feel to the camera in between D50 and D40. Perfect grip.


The 2 hours went fast, mostly just taking snap shots and the customer rep was really helpful to explain the features and differences between the dSLRs. His preference? Nikon, being a long time Nikon user. Although he did recommend the Pentax system. I wonder if it's because they were running a special on it? Regardless when asked about how useful is the top LCD and the control dials on the Nikon, the rep said that he thinks it's pretty useful as he illustrated just holding down a button and scrolling with the dial control one is able to change the ISO, shutter speed settings for example rather quickly.

D40 lacked external jog controller and missing the ability to auto focus other than AF-S lenses was a biggie for me. I reallly realllly liked the prime lenses after snapping some shots with them at the store. It was just amazing how fast the shutter was able to go with those fast prime lenses. The 50 mm f/1.4 .. nice.... very nice. (*droool*)

Also heard a rumor that D50 is being discontinued.

After having the chance to hold the D50 longer in my hands and shoot with it, the size actually wasn't too bad. I can now see why a lot of people think the the Canon's grip is too small. If you have a larger hand, then yes, the Canon is probably harder to wrap the hand around with.

So I think it comes down to the following for me:

1 - Do I prefer to have the top LCD and jog dial for faster access to control settings?
2 - Do I want to have a bigger LCD screen?
3 - Do I even need to have jog dial and quick controls to settings?
4 - I guess what pictures am I planning to take? mostly composed or action?
5 - Ergonomically which one will my hand like better?
6 - Which one will I take out with me to places?

Decisions decisions...