Today I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon D700. It's new on the market, a kind of digital equivalent of the pro-amateur film camera I have been using, the Nikon F90 series. Because it's a full-frame camera, I can use all the old lenses with confidence, from the 20mm to the 180, and that's great. Learning to navigate the push-button menus is where the learning will be steep, and then figuring out how to manage all those electronic images.
So now I have a memory card installed, a battery charged, and some options chosen from the huge menu of choices about many options that I don't yet properly understand. Now to shoot, and shoot, and shoot, to develop some reflexes with all this new technology before I head out on travels. Wish me luck!
AN UPDATE (OCTOBER 21 2008): My fabulous cousin Jennifer has taken pity on visitors to this website. She's downsized the jpeg images, working through them all a page at a time. Of course I don't really know how to downsize images on my own... not yet, at least! Jennifer has taught me some basic Photoshop techniques, etc, and I am slowly getting less intimidated. Everyone can do with a mentor, at any time, but especially when making momentous changes!
AND NOW IT'S BECOME MORE NORMAL (SUMMER 2009):
I have used the camera on several trips now. I love the greater range available for low-light shooting. And generally the whole arrangement is more forgiving. I'm reminded all the time of how unforgiving slide film is, in all its loveliness!
And yes, I am shooting in RAW, as well as jpeg, so I can have handy thumbnails to look at, as well as the fat full-information images that RAW files are. And all this raises the issue of storage and back-up, and organization of files. argh!! I need a system that I can maintain fairly easily... Like everything else, this continues to be a work in progress.
I welcome suggestions and thoughts on the best way of proceeding. Please just go to the comments page and then click on the link, to write to me.