With the strong Canadian dollar, it’s very tempting to buy camera equipment from the USA. However, there’s a big disadvantage when it comes to Nikon by doing so. Nikon does not honor warranties from equipment bought outside Canada. You would have to get it serviced in the USA. A summary of the different warranty programs is on this site.

Gizmodo just published a buying guide for DSLR’s. They recommended four different cameras in four different price points. They were brand-agnostic, picking the best camera regardless of whether you were in the Nikon Camp or Canon Camp (sorry Olympus and Sony).

I agree with all their picks, the Nikon D3000, Canon T1i, Nikon D90 and Canon 7D do beat out their peers in their respective price points.

Both Nikon and Canon introduced new top-of-the-line SLR’s this week:

Nikon D3s – the “s” model of the D3 indicates not a new model, but more of an update to the original D3. The D3s keeps the 12MP resolution but the new sensor is capable of much cleaner high ISO ranges. A 720p/24f movie mode is added, similar to the D90 and D300s. Many other new features are listed on dpreview.

Canon 1D Mark IV – yesterday the Mark IV was announced. It features a new 16MP sensor capable of much of the same new ISO range as the D3s. Also new is a 45-point autofocus system. The Mark IV continues the 1D line’s commitment to 1.3x crop factor.

Both cameras offer the best low-light, high-ISO, fast shooting bodies that money can buy. A full comparison of both is available on dpreview’s side-by-side compare tool. However with $5000 price tags and 1200g body weights, I’m not rushing out to buy either of them.

The LA Times broke news today that the most popular camera on Flickr is the iPhone. And yes, the Flickr stats do support this, but I’m not really inclined to believe it. If you read the article from the Times, the most important line is at the very end:

“…the iPhone now includes two models whereas other manufacturers separate out their models, which could explain the inflated numbers.”

The iPhone stats are actually stats of all three models of the iPhone – the original, the 3G and the 3Gs. However camera manufacturers differentiate their cameras by model; Nikon’s D70, D70s, D80 and D90 are all different even though they are in the same “family” like the iPhones.

If the data was mined for some better info, I think we would find that while the iPhone is popular, no single model would beat out a single model of some of the SLR or point-and-shoot cameras.

Nikon unveiled two of it’s anticipated cameras today, the D300 and D3000.

The D3000 is aimed at first-time SLR users, it is similar to the D5000 but loses the foldout LCD, and gains a revamped menu system that will be a boon to beginners, but a bain to more serious photographers.

More interesting is the D300s, which adds 720p video capability to the D300 and an SD card slot. This camera is not going to be a large upgrade for existing D300 shooters, unless you’re dying to shoot video.

Nikon also refreshed two of their popular lenses, the 70-200mm F2.8 and the 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 VRII.

I’ve had this lens since it became available in stores in March. It really is an indispensable lens for the DX-frame crowd. So if you have any Nikon in the D40, D50, D70-D90 family, definitely get this lens. It will be a great beginner lens to step up to once you become used to using the kit lens that comes with most Nikon SLR’s.

Quite simpy, this lens offers great low light shooting – the f1.8 aperature, combined with the great low-light performance of SLR’s really bring out low light pictures without a lot of sensor noise. You won’t have to explore the limits of high ISO settings with this lens. As well, when the lens is used between f4 and f8, it’s incredibly sharp. When mounted on a tripod and focused on a stationary object, prepare to get some of the clearest pictures you can get.

Best of all, it’s inexpensive. I lost my original lens (don’t ask) and picked up a replacement today for only $259.

New digital cameras are complicated, and my D90 is no different. With so many new, additional features from my D50, it’s pretty hard to go through the large user manual to learn all the features. Nikon has produced a great online tutorial for the d90 – and it’s free. There’s additional tutorials for their other cameras going as far back as the D50 and D70.

Demystifying Digital has a sample video from the new Nikon D500 digital SLR.

Also with the launch of the D5000, Nikon also released a new lens: 10-24mm F3.5-4.5G ED. With the previous release of the 35mm f1.8 DX lens and now this wide angle, it seems that Nikon is focusing on lenses for the DX format with a lot of new product. Clearly Nikon is supporting their line of DX cameras with all these new lens options. Like the 35mm that came out last month, expect a lot of supply shortages of this lens when it becomes available.

Well, Nikon Europe has unveiled the new Nikon D5000 entry-level SLR. Adding Liveview and HD Video found in other Nikons, a new feature that others do not have is the vari-angle LCD monitor. This would be very useful as I found with my D90 that LiveView and HD Video all depend on looking at the screen at a very awkward angle – made worse by the fact that you normally don’t hold an SLR the same way you do a camcorder.

The North American announcements will follow today (it’s 12:03am).