We pulled out a little secret weapon for our nursery reveal yesterday: a new digital camera. After this post it won’t be so secret—here it is, fresh out of the box and ready to shoot.
We’ve always relied on the underrated power of a compact point-and-shoot. Nearly every picture on this site was taken with our Canon Powershot, and while we never pretended to be professional photographers, the flash-free, color-adjusted images did the job. They were simple, portable, and dependable for weekly content.
With a baby on the way, though, we felt it was time to upgrade. We wanted better low-light performance, faster focusing for a moving child, and a slightly wider view to capture more of a room—especially useful for nursery photos. Plus, after coming in under budget on the nursery makeover, we had the savings to buy something nicer without stretching our finances.
After researching and talking with camera-savvy friends, we picked up a Nikon D3000 DSLR for roughly $450. Prices fluctuate, so it’s worth watching listings for a good deal. Switching to a DSLR means more manual control (hello, aperture and shutter speed), but the two upgrades that excited us most were:
- Improved low-light shooting, which should cut down on the blurry photos that happened when a moving child met our old camera’s limitations.
- A wider-angle lens option to include more of the room in each shot—a clear difference in the comparison photos below, taken from the exact same spot on the same tripod.
We hope the new camera will make for better baby-book photos and stronger blog images. There’s a learning curve ahead, so any photography tips are welcome. For now, our trusty pocket-sized Powershot will still handle many everyday blog pictures because it’s convenient and always at hand. Still, it’s exciting to embrace the capabilities of a modern DSLR as we prepare for the bambino and look to improve our photo quality.
Psst—some of the product mentions in the original post were affiliate links.
Update: More than two years later, we’re still happy with this camera. We also picked up a 50mm lens for better low-light and moving-subject shots, plus improved detail photos. We posted an update about how the camera is working out for us and what we learned along the way.