My Photo Gallery
Camera History

My interest in photography started quite late--before 1998 I'd only owned two cameras, a crappy little Kodak Tele-Disk camera bought in 1986 and a non-SLR brand (don't remember the name brand) I bought in 1992 and owned for six years. The quality of the photos shot with these was, to say the least, mediocre.
When a co-worker walked into our office in late summer 1998 with an electronic device I'd never seen before, I was immediately intrigued. It was a digital camera; they were fairly new on the market and his was a Nikon Coolpix 900. The maximum resolution on this was 1280x960, or just one megapixel! Weighing in at under one pound, it was easy to carry about and take shots of whatever you found of interest. By the end of September, I had ordered one through buy.com. The price? $933.80!

I fell in love with this camera at once, as it opened up a new world to me. No longer did I have to worry about wasting camera film as this digital camera saved images to a Compact Flash card--I could transfer the picture files to my computer, re-format the card and I'd be ready to head back out to take more shots.
Over the next three years, I took a ton of pictures but I learned something important pertaining to earlier versions of these cameras--they didn't work very well in dim lighting. If I had a sunny day with a lot of light, my Coolpix did a fine job, given it's very limited megapixel count. But things would get better. Much better.
By early 2001, advances were being made very quickly in the digital camera industry. Resolutions were increasing and options were being constantly added. Only a year after I purchased my Coolpix 900, Nikon released the D1, a digital SLR camera which included a lens mount which would allow the use of existing lenses. It had a 2.7 megapixel sensor. At the same time, the Coolpix 995 was released, featuring a 3.34 megapixel sensor and replacing the Coolpix 900. After reading several reviews, I decided it was time to upgrade as well!

The first big test of this new camera was when we visited the Wisconsin Dells in July. I'd only had the 995 for a couple weeks and was still getting used to the settings, but it performed admirably. One of the primary differences in this camera was the use of a proprietary battery, the EN-EL1 rather than AA batteries which were used in the 900. It also allowed using fully manual mode which led to some creativity in determining how a shot would be exposed. This would be my camera for the next 4+ years.
By summer of 2005, I was becoming aware of a few things. First, resale value of any camera would be minimal due to the incredible advances in digital camera technology. A camera you might buy for $500 today may be worth only $200 in a year's time. Second, I wanted more and better--better dynamic range, more megapixels, more features. Because of this, I tended to not hang on to any camera for more than a few years. This led me to my next purchase, the Nikon Coolpix 8800.

Unlike the 900 and 995, the 8800 didn't have a swiveling body and looked a lot more like the dSLR camera I would soon be gravitating toward. It was also much heavier than my previous cameras, ten ounces heavier. This wasn't a problem for me--at a pound and a half, this was a camera I could easily walk around with all day long.
But less than two months after the 8800 was in my hands, I started a local photography course. During this seven week course, I found out about dSLR cameras and how much better they were, especially in low lighting and other challenging lighting situations. Once again, the hook was set and within four months I had added the Nikon D50 dSLR camera to my inventory. This actually had a lower resolution than the 8800 (6 megapixels vs. 8) but it was nearly instantly clear that the images taken with the D50 were far superior. Not only that, but I could use different Nikon F-mount lenses on this bad boy! With a Caribbean cruise only a couple months away, I soon had an 18-200mm lens in addition to the fairly lame 18-55mm kit lens which came with the D50

While the D50 took wonderful pictures, one downside was the size. Compared to even the Coolpix 8800, it was big! There were times when I didn't want to lug this thing everywhere I went, and I really wanted a compact camera, something which I could stick in my pocket for those "Oh, I need a picture of this!" moments. Enter the Nikon S500.

It was cheap ($279) and there was a reason for the low price--it wasn't very good, especially in challenging lighting conditions. Within two years, I would violate an old adage of mine "Friends don't let friends buy Canon" and step up to the Canon Powershot S90. While there was a learning curve learning this camera's menus after using nothing but Nikon for over ten years, this was the perfect alternative when I wanted something which was small but still delivered high quality images.

After three years of owning the D50, I was ready to once again move on up. Nikon had certainly been busy releasing new and better cameras since the D50! Most notably the D70 and D80. They had also debuted their first full-frame sensor in the D3, but this was priced well out of what I was comfortable paying. But when the D90 was released, it immediately caught my eye. After studying the specs and the reviews for nearly a year, I made the plunge and I wasn't disappointed in the least! With a 12-megapixel sensor, twice the size of the D50, I could now do post-processing cropping on certain photos with confidence

Notwithstanding the advantages of the D90 over every camera I had previously owned, the was this nagging thought in the back of my mind "You need to consider full-frame". But man, the D700, my likely entry into that camera type, was selling for $3,000! I could not justify this kind of expense and wouldn't for nearly ten years. In the meantime, the D90 was sufficient.
Once again, that "3 to 4 year replacement cycle" was reached, and I was once again looking for something new and better. The D7000 with its 16-megapixel DX (crop format) sensor had been released in September 2010 but was priced at $2,000. Tempting, but I passed. Until February 2013 when the D7100 was announced, a 24-megapixel monster with some great upgrades over the D7000 (besides the megapixel increase). Listed at only $1,300, I again made the jump.

The improvement in digital cameras in just fifteen years was astounding and the improvements/enhancements weren't done. Not by a long shot.While I was plodding along with my D7100 for the next five years, happy with pretty much every photographic situation I encountered, Nikon was busy. Not only were there constantly releasing new dSLR camera versions, a new type of camera had come to the forefront--mirrorless cameras!
Nikon's first attempts in the mirrorless realm, the Nikon 1, were dismal, and it wasn't until the Z6 and Z7 were released in August 2018 that people started to take their mirrorless cameras somewhat seriously. By then, they had fallen far behind Sony and Canon in this catagory and have been trying to play catch-up ever since. It remains to be seen if their newest offering, the Z9, will close the gap and make them a serious player once again.
Meanwhile, after five years of owning the D7100, I finally made the move to a full frame camera with my purchase of the D750. A great camera, it still paled in comparison to the D850 behemoth and had been on the market for nearly four years. This is why I was able to get such a good deal; with the bundled 24-120 f4 lens, it cost under $2,000.
And that is what I've been using since.

What is next? Who knows? It's been 3 1/2 years since purchasing the D750. While the future of digital photography is primarily a mirrorless future, Nikon hasn't given up on their F-mound dSLR cameras yet, evidenced by their release of the D780 a year ago. Right now, this is probably my first choice of a replacement. I could still decide on the Z6 II, which has superior video to the improved video of the D780 and also makes use of Nikon's Z-mount lenses, which are wonderful. Or, better yet, I could close my eyes and take the plunge into the quite expensive ($5,500!) waters of the new Z9. The Z9, however, really feels like overkill and I'd rather use the extra money after buying either the D780 or Z6 II for quality lenses. So, we'll see what happens next.
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last updated november 1, 2021