A little over a year ago I upgraded my point-and-shoot Sony DSC-S70 3.3 megapixel camera to a Nikon D70s DSLR. At the time, I was overwhelmed with my purchase and finally said now here is a camera that I will have for a while. Little did I know without doing much research into the camera model itself, I later found myself not regretting the purchase, but wishing I had looked a little deeper into my options. The camera took wonderful photos and compared to what I was used to shooting with, the upgrade was comparable to trading in a moped for a Caddy.

What I did not like about the D70s was that Nikon, in their infinite wisdom, opted NOT to make a vertical battery grip for this model, leaving consumers to go with another company. I tried to Hoodman vertical grip and hated it. Not only did it feel cheap in my hands, but I found that the button did not have the half-press auto focus that I was used to. Additionally, in order for the grip button to actually work, you had to connect it using a bulky and awkward cord to the infrared area and then change the shooting mode in the camera settings. All that just to turn the camera and take a portrait style photo.

I have my Nikon D70s up for sale.

I recently purchased a Nikon D80 and a few other goodies. So far, I absolutely love the new camera and am chomping at the bit to go on a photo retreat to give it a good test run. Here is my new setup:

+ Nikon D80 DSLR
+ Nikon MB-D80 vertical grip
+ Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Nikkor Lens
+ Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC Lens
+ Nikon SB-800 Speedlight with OM-SB5 Omni-Bounce
+ Two Lexar Pro 133x 2GB SD cards

I am still also using a Canon A1 35mm. About two weeks ago I went to a civil war reenactment in Henry County, Georgia. I took a roll of black & white film with Cokin orange filter and about 320 digital photos with my D70s. I am still trying to sort through all of those.

Thus far, the D80 feels great. It is a little smaller but balanced out well with the grip and flash. The massive LCD screen on the back is a very nice upgrade and the photos are top quality.

So far, so good.