Here are the best ones:

About 6 years ago when I was going to art school I started to become interested in photography. At the time DSLRs were relatively new, and being a student, I was poor. I bought a D40X with money from a tax return, and was blown away by the difference between it and my old Kodak point-and shoot. I didn’t buy a kit lens—but I also didn’t buy an expensive one. I knew my limitations. No amount of lens was going to make me not suck as photographer.

Over these past 5 years, I’ve become more comfortable with a camera, and while I’m by no means good, I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to feel limited by my 5 year old entry-level DSLR. The small sensor and pathetic ISO make it very unsuitable for hand-held shooting in low light, as I became painfully aware of when trying to take shots at my friend Kyle’s wedding this past weekend.

Exhibit A: noise

At 100%:

There were already a couple of amateur photographers shooting the wedding, and I didn’t want to get in their way, so I found a pew with a reasonably unobstructed view and zoomed in with my 18-135mm lens. The church was somewhat dim, but I couldn’t bear to turn the ISO any higher than 800, because in the D40X an ISO of 1600 (highest available) produces extreme noise. Even here at 800 it’s getting pretty substantial. I also had to shoot in shutter priority setting so that I could keep it fast enough to not blur whenever my subjects moved slightly. This meant I had to artificially boost the photos a fair bit in the RAW editor, but I was able to salvage them. I figured I could fix dark, but I could never fix blurry (just one of the many things I’ve learned the hard way over the years).

Exhibit B: Blurring

I love the blurring in the bubbles, but I wish Katie’s face hadn’t suffered from blurring due to movement. Her expression is so unabashedly joyful, I wish I had been able to capture it sharper. It was just after sunset and the dusky light was limiting. I shot continuously as they came out of the church but only a couple of images were even usable.

Still, I do think it’s a great image, and not remotely because of anything I did. Those two are truly that happy.

In addition to its poor low-light performance, I’m also bothered by the fact that the camera body doesn’t have an AF motor (which sucks considering the new wide angle lens I bought also doesn’t have an AF motor—I have to focus everything manually, which leads to me missing shots). It would also be nice to upgrade to a camera that does HD video, although not terribly important considering I already have 3 devices that do HD video.

So, I’ve been looking at cameras online, and I’m considering a Nikon D700. It’s a semi-professional DSLR, and the most inexpensive full-frame DSLR that Nikon offers. I read about it last night for a couple of hours and have determined that it’s the best bang for my buck if I want to get a more serious camera. I still won’t be a great photographer, but I won’t be so frustrated by my camera’s limitations. Sure, anyone can take a great shot with an iPhone, but your expectations for quality are always managed. I expect more out of my DSLR, and in the 5 years since I bought my D40X, DSLRs have come a long ways, and so have I.

Update: The D800 was announced today. Holy shitballs. I’m getting one of those.

Click the thumbnails to view high res images.

While I like the gesturing on the Magic Mouse, it creates a frustrating scenario where you accidentally brush your hand just over the mouse and end up shooting across the screen. I also find it has difficulty tracking on vastly different surfaces: my matte black keyboard tray and my light grey formica desktop at work both seem to cause it trouble. I also find the Magic Mouse to be seriously lacking in ergonomics, which has always been a complaint of Apple mice—beautiful form lacking in function. I also have to change the batteries in that thing every two weeks. I have a Logitech mouse at home that I’ve owned for 18 months, and I just changed the batteries for the first time a couple weeks ago.

I hate to say it, but Microsoft does make a good mouse. Right down to where they’ve tucked the USB dongle, a little spring loaded trap door on the bottom of the mouse.

Update: Nope, I hate this stupid mouse.