After exactly 2 years, I finally can fulfill my Gadget Wishlist. The latest gadget addition come from a long-awaited digital SLR camera. I bought myself a highly-acclaimed Nikon D80 yesterday! It is actually an improvement from my initial wishlist , a D70. But luckily I saved enough money to allow me an upgrade. Nevertheless, it then ranks as most expensive gadgets I owned, explaining why it come last.

Past few weekends, I spent favour bit of time browsing the internet. I’ve been looking for a best value combination of DSLR camera and lens. I read many reviews and product specs. Eventhough I always crave for Nikon (I grew up with this brand), I’ve been toying with Sony Alpha which internal vibration reduction gives it upper edge from its competitors. I’ve been considering Canon EOS 400D as well, with the thought of its collection of great lenses somehow come in cheaper price than Nikon.

Until I stucked with an article in internet of a Nikkor lens which I never realised its existence before: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-200/F3.5-5.6 VR. It is a lens with versatile zoom range and with added vibration reduction technology. It also produced great image quality (of course you can’t compare it with prime–fixed focal length lenses). The reviews over internet say it all. Nikon ethusiasts love it. Photography sites give no less than 4 out of 5 rating. Amazon stated this lens as high-demand item which they currently don’t have on stock.

“Sounds like the lens I’ve always wanted”.

Unfortunately it comes with two catches: It is fairly expensive and it is rare to find.

For the first, at least I can reach the deeper side of my pocket, but the latest is more tricky. On Monday, I called three most renowned photographic stores in Jakarta, and found out they had no such item on stock, and were not sure when they will have it delivered. It is indeed a rare item.

Well, call me lucky or it’s been my destiny, my office colleague and fellow Nikon owner, Andre informed me that a small camera store in ITC Fatmawati has one in stock! Without further due, we called them and booked the lens. We went there yesterday, and I finally ended up with buying Nikon D80 from this store as well, all in cheaper price than that famous store in Kemang!

I haven’t got a chance to try out this camera and lens. But I did try the VR technology with this one shot of Andre in the camera store. It was taken in ISO 200, 1/8 speed, handheld. Looks sharp and good colour saturation (you can see those pimples and textures in Andre’s face hehehe).
Well what I’m trying to say here is with this great camera and lens, I can envision lots of great pictures ahead! Amen.

So I can finally close the chapter of My Gadget Wishlist.

At least for now.

Because I can easily create another list… Playstation 3, XBox 360, Treo 680, Yamaha Drum kit, Archos AV500, Nintendo DS Lite… *grin*