DSLR
It has been a while since I last wrote for any Top 5 posts except “Top 5 travel attractions” on destination which are actually guest post by some experienced travel blogger around the world. When I was flipping through my photos taken in Europe last night, I could feel my excitement of visiting Europe still remained strong inside my mind. That was why I’ve booked another flight to Eastern Europe next year!
But why is it so? Isn’t visiting Europe an expensive travel and always remained a dream to be realised by many avid travelers around the globe? Why I’m so eager to fly to Europe again next year?
These are 5 reasons why I should and all avid travelers should visit Europe now, I mean NOW!
- Euro currency had reached its new low level! Value of Euro has depreciated over 20% since January early this year, and it’s still dropping. What used to be expensive in Europe has now become reasonable! The cost of traveling to and visiting Europe is now 20% cheaper! Let’s do some calculation: If I were to visit Europe last Summer, my total traveling cost for 15 days was RM10,000.00 (USD3,200). If I’m traveling to Europe now for the same period, it would be RM8,000.00 (USD2,500) only!!
- Heritage sites in Europe are in danger of extinction! Major attractions in Europe are mostly inscribed as UNESCO Heritage sites. Over time, many of them are really run-down! European countries are spending huge amount of money restoring and maintaining those sites. You could see many of the restoration works being carried out everywhere in Europe heritage sites. What would happen to them in next few years?
- Global warming is causing more natural disasters! Pollutions caused by human are creating worse global warming and green house effect to our earth than ever before. This are causing more and more natural disasters happening each year. Global weather has also become unpredictable sometimes, it can snow in Spring or hit record high temperature in Summer. When I traveled to Europe last May, ash cloud was covering most parts of Western Europe. We had to play by ear when planning our itinerary. What would happen in future?
- Competitions among budget airlines has reached its new high! Budget airlines are ruling the air space nowadays where everyone is opting for cheap flight whenever they are flying. This uptrend has stimulated the booming of this sector of the aviation industry. Stiff competition among budget airlines helped in bringing the air fares down to even zero cost!
- Digital photography has reached its maturity! After 10 tens of its introduction to consumers level, digital cameras have now the ability of taking great photos that are comparable to films. Its advantage over the film is Digital cameras can take as many photos as you like, with just the matter of how many Gb of SDHC or Compact flash cards you are bringing along your travel. In my case, I brought 4 memory cards along my Europe travel and had taken over 4000 photos! In this matured market, we can now buy a DSLR system for as low as USD600 and still able to take awesome travel photos!
With the combination of above 5 top reasons, do you still sit back to think twice, or get up now and book your air ticket NOW? Read my recent Europe travel experience for more motivation! Or receive more of my upcoming Europe stories by subscribing my RSS feed or via email.
– Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog
I don’t own a D300s. My friend John who is flash-packing together with me to Europe next month does. My brother who offered to loan me his camera does. But I turned down his offer. John regretted of upgrading his D90 to D300s just before our trip. Nikon D300s is not for backpacking. D300s is not for budget travelers. Why?
No doubt Nikon D300s is an excellent semi-pro DSLR. It is also Nikon’s current flagship camera for APS-C format or DX format sensor size with crop factor of 1.5. With an inclusion of new HD video shooting capability, improved 7fps continuous shooting burst mode, dual slots for both Compact flash and SDHC cards, D300s is a subtle but significant upgrade from its predecessor model D300. Other features brought forward unchanged are its 12MP resolutions, full customizable menus and controls, best ability so far in image quality and noise control for its sensor size, flash light commander and auto focus ability. Most attractively, with intense competition from newer technological Canon 7D, Nikon D300s selling price has dropped more than USD300 from its introduction price of USD1800 (this is what made my friend upgraded his D90 to this heavy body).
However, for budget traveling especially backpacking, with these 5 reasons, D300s sucks!
- TOO HEAVY! Weighing a KG for body only. Attaching a Tokina 16-50 f2.8 pro lens to it will load a whopping 1.7KG to your baggage! My Nikon D60 with kit lens weighs less than 1 KG! For backpacker who walks more than stay on travel, carrying 2KG on your neck for hours isn’t as easy as you think.
- TOO BIG! It is almost double the volume of a D60 which make it impossible to fit into any camera waist bag comfortably.
- TOO COMPLICATED TO GET USED TO! With such a short time from its introduction, John couldn’t get used to it easily in terms of its performances and all setting before our Europe trip next month. Though he has been using D90 before, D300s is a lot more difficult to master its operation.
- TOO DEMANDING FOR ACCESSORIES! Top notch DSLR require good accessories. Pro lens is much heavier. Solid tripod to support D300s and lens is much heavier. Both cost a lot more off course. How much is your budget?
- TOO RISKY! Wearing a D300s on your neck is too risky in tourist spots. It’s the same thing like wearing your money porch around your waist.
- BONUS** TOO EXPENSIVE FOR BUDGET TRAVELERS! All in all, from camera, backpack, lens to tripod, this combo weighs almost 5 KG! Apart from the owning cost, baggage cost is also increased! What’s the weight allowance of hand carry luggage for your budget airline? 5KG? 7KG?
After all these 6 reasons, there is still ONE reason why you could still carry a Nikon D300s on your travel…. THE PASSION IN PHOTOGRAPHY!
– Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog.
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