The camera arrived this morning! Woo! I had my HKB meeting and my show, so I've only had time to put it together and take a couple of quick snapshots. It really does feel a lot different from my old Nikon Coolpix. For one thing, the digital display doesn't show a preview, you have to look through the viewfinder like a film camera. (Actually there might be a way to change that but I haven't had a chance to read the manual yet. Or there might be a reason to keep using the viewfinder that I don't know about.) And it is so fast! It's so cool to aim at something, press the button and watch the image snap into focus. After a few snapshots it looks like the kit lens can get within about 6-8 inches of the subject and still focus. Which is great, that means I won't need a macro lens right away.
The one thing I know already I'm going to miss is the way the Nikon's body swiveled. You could hold the camera high above your head pointing down, or on the ground pointing up, and still see the display so you knew exactly what the photo was going to look like. Oh well, it's back to lying on the ground or climbing up on a ladder to get those odd angles.
I so don't want to do my show. I want to go outside and play with my camera!
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ps: thanks to Gina's warning about the battery, I charged it during my meeting. Wouldn't that have been a bummer to wait until after all my meetings and appointments to open up the camera, and *then* have to wait for the battery to charge!
WRT to the display... the big reason to look through the viewfinder is that you see exactly what you're getting. (Forgive me if this is a great big "duh", but) the big advantage of an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera is that you are looking through the actual lens (as opposed to looking through a viewfinder that's offset by a lens); therefore, any settings you apply you'll actually see (with the exception of some depth of field stuf... I'll show you that on Thurs.).
As far as I know, that's just the nature of the beast and you can't get a "viewfinder" view on the LCD screen (but the other benefits more than compensate for that, IMHO).