I finally buckled down and bought a new digital SLR this weekend for OSD Studios. We’ve been talking about getting one at the firm for a while now. We need it mainly for the times where there just isn’t enough in a project budget to hire a professional photographer. It’s also great to have when somebody in the office wants to just go out and add out our library, or simply go out for sake of it.

It’s personally been about 10 years since I last did any serious photography; that was back in art school using a traditional SLR and spending many long nights in the photo lab. I wouldn’t say it’s exactly like riding a bike but after taking the camera out a few times it’s starting to come back to me. As I really get back into it I plan to start incorporating more of photos into both my professional and personal work. I’m encouraging the rest of the team to do the same.

I considered a couple different cameras at the same level as this Nikon and finally settled with the D80 for a few reasons. I’ve listed a couple of the main reason below for anyone else in the market for similar camera.

Weight & Balance. This camera feels great in your hands. It is a slightly smaller body so anyone with medium or larger hands can grip it securely. It also felt very stable even when holding the camera loosely in my hands.

Lens Availability. After reading up a bit, I was happy to know that there is a nice quantity of “professional grade” lenses available for this camera – particularly in the wider angle options. We’re not going to running around picking up a bunch of lenses now, but it’s good to have the availability when we get to that point.