While reading reviews of the cameras I was considering buying, a few things occurred to me. It is just too easy to be critical. Some sites do reviews as link baits. Some experts don’t know what they’re talking about. Digital cameras take three steps forward and one step back every time they make a move. Features that you grow accustomed to disappear. I like looking through a view finder. It blocks out the rest of the world for a bit while you frame the shot. Its hard to find a camera with one anymore. My little Sony had a histogram in the preview window when you were manual mode. With the Nikon you have to take a shot and then preview it before you can see the histogram. Who engineered that? And you have to take the battery out of the camera and put it into a charger to recharge it whereas the Sony and my old Kodak allowed you to recharge it in the camera. But I won’t focus entirely on the bad. I have more than twice the megapixels and I can shoot without the Flash in low light.
Now back to the bad. Why can’t I download the photos from the camera without using some clunky Nikon software? I took a my first batch of photos and plugged the USB cable into the camera and nothing showed up on the desktop. So I installed the Nikon software from the cd (notice I have not read the directions yet) and plugged the camera back in. The “Nikon Transfer” software launches and crashes and at the same time a window pops up to tell me a new version of the software is available. I go to Nikon’s site to download the update the software and it says I am not registered so I can’t download it.
So I went out to Target and bought a card reader, shoved the SD card in it and it mounted fine. Why couldn’t Nikon let you get at the files directly from the camera? I have ten days to decide whether I’m going to keep this thing. I’ll try some shots tomorrow. I may even read the manual.
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