Christmas Comes Early For The Capital Photographers.

Santa Claus was kind enough to drop off an early Christmas present to The Capital photographers today. We received our new Nikon D3 digital cameras. For over a year, our photo editor has been trying to get the management to buy us some replacements for our aging Nikon D2h camera bodies. We got these more than 4 years ago and they were starting to show signs of being worn out. Not to mention, the D2h's have poor high ISO performance.

He was looking at D200's as a lower cost option to try to get the upper management to agree to it, but the money just was not there. Then this summer, it was time for our annual begging to begin again.

It just so happens that the new D300 and D3 were announced at this time. Our PE was told to draw up a proposal and they would see what they could do. He gave them the prices of both the D300 and the D3. He also explained that our gear tends to get heavily used in all kinds of elements, and that the D3 would last longer and hold up better. Our Executive Editor talked to some other Executive Editors at other papers and they told him the same thing. We were approved for the D3's. Yeah.

So now I have my pristine new D3 sitting on my desk, waiting for me to read the manual, or at least find something interesting to shoot with it. I am a little nervous to use it; it looks so good, especially compared to my battle-worn D2h. I have shot more than 150,00o frames on my trusty D2h and it feels a little bit like cheating with this new, younger camera. Don't worry, I will get over it. I will get back to you with a user report after I have had a chance to put it through its paces.

P.S. I want to thank Jeff Snyder at Adorama and NPS for getting us out cameras so quickly. If we did not get them in hand by Dec. 17, we would have lost the money in our budget for this year, and it most likely would not have been offered next year. I also want to thank our Photo Editor Bob Gilbert for pushing for this and Chief Photographer J Henson for doing the leg work of getting the order in. Lastly, thanks to our Executive Editor Tom Marquardt for giving the final approval. We look forward to capturing some great images with these new toys. Man, I feel like I just won the Oscar. I think I hear the music playing me off stage.