The New Nikon

The New Nikon D200 arrived Monday morning. It should have been here Friday but missed the last Purolator shipment out of Vancouver onto the ferry. The courier walked it up the driveway at 8:30 am on Monday. So far I am very happy with it. It looks like new and takes fantastic photos. It should. It is after all a Nikon Professional level camera, albeit the lower priced one. It is certainly worth the $612 USA I paid on eBay. I want a new high tech lens for it, the kind that has a gyro and a motor in it that compensates for shake. This is becoming more necessary as I age. These lenses used to come in around the $2000 range when they first came out but you can get them now for under $400. I will wait until we get back from Mexico and buy one. I should be able to sell the "old" D70s for around $350 - $400 on Craigslist. That will pay for my new lens. The boys must have their toys and I have finally learned to not jump in and buy stuff as soon as it comes out, but to wait a couple of years for the prices to drop.

I updated the firmware yesterday as it still had the original version 1.0 in it. It now sports the 2.01 version with a couple of things added to the menu that I will never use. You update these things the same as you update the BIOS in a computer. Download the new one, move it to a formatted memory card which you then put in the camera, push a few buttons and Bob’s your uncle!

Well, I am off to help Norma in the garden. She ordered a pallet of concrete blocks which she has some grand idea of using in her flower garden to keep her dirt from migrating onto the neighbour’s property. I don’t think it will work but all I have to do in the project is to carry the blocks from the pallet in the middle of the lawn to where she needs them. I am sure she will tire of this arrangement before long…

The Dow is up and the TSX is up so I am a happy guy. Eventually I may have as much money as I had a few years ago. Life is good and getting better!