Hooray! ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Yeeeeaaar’ …. Once again I wish all readers Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2009! This year I had a wonderful Christmas, not the BBQ turkey we had, not the 5 bottles of red wines we had (a mixture of French, Chilean and Australian, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot… Yucks! ), not even those Dannemann Moods cigars, BUT the Christmas present that I bought for myself, a Nikon D60 DSLR! Though I bought it a week ago and took a few shots, I purposely packed it back and unpacked it on the Boxing Day! What a feeling!!

As I mentioned earlier, I’m already a happy owner of Panasonic Lumix FZ28. I brought it along as my travel camera on my Shanghai vacation and have captured some beautiful photos of my trip. It is no doubt a perfect camera for travel (Read my Top 5 ‘Wow’ Factors about FZ28 here). So, what is the motivation for me to buy another camera for travel, albeit it is bigger, heavier than Panasonic with the same amount of pixels but more expensive? Here are the top 5:-

1. My children are growing up and they are extremely active and energetic - Babies look different every day. Though my son, Dylan is 15 months old now, I love to capture those special moments of him when he runs, plays and laughs. More to say, I couldn’t expect him to pose for me standstill. I need to react fast and so do I need a faster camera. My Panasonic Lumix, being the nature and characteristics of a compact camera with a small light sensor, doesn’t serve very well in this department;
   
2. I love potraits and my 2 children – Potraits are always my favorite section of photography. When I realised DSLR could capture sharper and better defined face of my children, it has become my biggest motivation to get a DSLR;
   
3. My best friend ‘motivated’ me a lot -  He owns 2 Nikons, D60 and D90, and plenty of lenses. I could always borrow his 18-270mm zoom lense if I need to. I’ve been poisoned by this devil a lot. ;
   
4. To be a motivation to travel even more! – Naturally, when you buy a new camera, you would think of whatever reasons to visit more places than before and the same ‘chicken and egg’ philosophy applies. Either travelling a lot so motivated to get a camera or, got a new camera so motivated to travel, are the same to me, and
   
5. The price of DSLR has dropped tremendously – They have a price tag similarly to an advanced compact, like Canon G10. Nikon D40 is selling even cheaper than some compacts! Recent price drop of Nikon D60 to RM1800.00 has motivated me to getting it fast, before it’s being replaced and repriced.

With the above strong motivation pushing behind me, though it was only less than 3 months after I bought the Panasonic FZ28, I decided to buy a second camera for my travel. With the priority of taking fast action children movement and nice potrait, I chose DSLR. With my past experience of owning both Nikon and Canon film SLR, I chose Nikon. For its lightest weight among other DSLR in the market (better to my shoulder during vacation travel), I chose D60. With the recent economic down turn, I chose to pay by credit card… – Travel Feeder.