My New Camera ...

Its already 4 years since i have bought my first camera (Canon PowerShot D400 ). Although its still working fine , it has been technically out smarted by its recent cousins, considering the fact that it takes 3 secs to take one snap compared to 3 snaps per second by recent ones. So i decided to upgrade my camera. Obvious options were to go for a feature rich point & shoot (of range Rs10-15K ) or to get a starting range DSLR.I decided to go with the second option and was collecting information on them for sometime. Recently i decide to execute this plan.I zeroed on the following models based on price and performance.

Nikon D3000 kit with AF-S DX 18-55mm VR f/3.5-5.6G lens

Canon EOS 1000D kit with EFS 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6G lens

Some of the pros and cons when compared ( solely by reading through net and with a little chat with friends) are as follows

Nikon D3000

• + Kit comes with a Vibration Reduction(VR) lens , a quality which will intelligently find out shakes when taking photos and negate their effects
• + 3 inch screen
• - Very few customer care centers (only 4-5 available)
• - Lack of Live View ( ability to see image in the viewfinder and take photos as we do in point and shoot)
• - No video capture mode
• * Nikon Price 25,295

Canon EOS 1000D

• + High network of customer care
• + Availability of live view for novice users
• + Video capture available.
• - Default kit lens doesnt have image stabilization IS ( similar to VR feature in Nikon)
• - Bit old model released in 2008
• - 2.4 inch screen
• * Canon Price 30,950

There are tens of gargons in DSLR terminology which are more important for a DSLR's performance and ease of use. But since its values were same for the two cameras ,i cared little about them.

Reading through the net , i could see that performance wise there is no clear cut leader among this 2 models. Another point to be noted here is that SLR lens being very costlier , people tend to buy models which are already owned by their friends so as to pool in high end lens at a latter stage.One of my friend Prasanna A, who is passionate photographer, already owns a Nikon.
So i decided to stick to Nikon and started venturing into the next step of finding out where to buy .

Checked with price list on few leading stores and its as follows
Tata Croma

• Nikon 3000D Kit Rs 29,995
• Canon D1000 Kit Rs 24,995

Camera Citi

• Nikon 3000D Kit Rs 28,000

www.jjmehta.com (famous retailer in Dadar,Mumbai.He also takes e-orders)

• Nikon 3000D Kit Rs27,500

Amazon USA

• Nikon 3000D Kit 452 US$ (or) Rs22000

Buying in USA seems to be the best option , atleast in theory.But we also have to consider possible customs tax liability ( 1/2K ) & deficiency of warranty in India.It seems the kit comes with local warranty in the country of purchase and lens comes with International warranty. So decided to buy out in Camera citi and after slight negotiation they offered it at 27.5K INR in return for full cash payment.Not sure if more negotiation should have been done.

Now its time to check how its working .Today went to Lalbagh to check out how the camera actually behaves, after waking up GaneshPrasadh in wee hours of a Sunday. This necessitated certain level of torture though:) .One of the photo taken there is given below.



More photos can be found in my Picasa Album

Correction:
It seems custom duty is 35% of the value of product ( not as 10% consider above ) and 25K worth of import is exempted from custom duty.Thanks for GaneshPrasadh & Arun for correcting.