the brothers crow

February may be the shortest month, but it felt longer than any in recent memory. My two big events last week were the Digital Signage Expo and the culmination of our office move. I spent three days in Las Vegas for the trade show, and then we returned to Cambridge to finish setting up our new space. It’s hard to shift gears that quickly, but I think I’ve gotten used to it by now. Irene’s been a big help, especially when I’m trying to pack at the eleventh hour and can’t find my toothbrush. This time I made sure to send her flowers while I was away.

The view from our new engineering room is excellent even though it’s below our previous floor. I took my new camera, a Nikon D40, to the office to snap a few shots out the window. You can see the Prudential building, the great dome of MIT, and many other Boston and Cambridge landmarks from my desk. It’s a great change from the windowless corner I was using upstairs.

I love having a nice camera at my disposal. We lost our previous camera a few months ago, so a replacement has been long overdue. This is our first digital SLR, and already I wonder how I ever got along without one. Compared to our previous camera, an old Fujifilm FinePix, using the Nikon is like switching from dial-up to broadband.

One thing that really surprised me is its size. The body is very compact, and it fits perfectly in one hand or two. You can check out some test photos below (resized and cropped for web consumption). Irene and I still have a bit to learn about using this type of camera, but we seem to be off to a good start.

There are a number of good tutorials and reference articles for this camera on the web. In case you’re a recent buyer of a Nikon D40 or just in the market for one, here’s the best guide I’ve found so far: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/d40-users-guide.pdf

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View from my office.

My BlackBerry.

Another test photo at the office.

Roses I got for Irene.