The new camera uses SD or SDHC memory cards; the old camera used Compact Flash. No biggie – the prices are similar when you get quality cards. The problem? My card reader that is nailed to my bookshelf doesn’t have a working SDHC slot. (Hey, don’t give me that look. It was the 3.25″ media bay from my Shuttle). The other reader I have is pretty flimsy, and sticks out of the computer down at toddler level. So, it’s time to get a new card reader.

Or is it? It may be a better route to get an EyeFi Pro X2. It’s an 8GB SDHC card that does an interesting form of geo-tagging based on the SkyHook wireless system, as well as being able to act as an 802.11n wifi client. So you can transfer images from the camera back to your computer from any public wifi network in the world. Well, the “back to your computer” is only true for very large values of “your computer”, but I have no doubt that I can force it to work.

The downside? A new media bay to nail to my desk is $18. An EyeFi Pro X2 is $150. So, we’ll see how long I can last before I break down and need a better mechanism for photo transport. There’s also the issue that I want a number of other camera-related gizmos before too long.

The next bit of kit that I’ll be trying to get my hands on is the battery grip for the D7000. $240-ish device allows me to buy an additional battery to load into the camera. It also gives me a portrait-orientation grip, and a bit more bulk. Which I really miss about my D200 and it’s battery grip. Also, the longer shooting life is nice – it means vacations are a little easier to pack for.

Finally, I want to spend more time with off-camera flash. Ironic as it may seem that I now have a camera that can take excellent pictures at ISO 5000 but I want to add a lot of light and shoot at ISO 100, it’s one of the things I want to do. I want to be able to take better portraits. Ones that actually have some feeling in them, not just the “hey, it’s time for a Christmas card” kind of photo. I want product photos to “pop”. To further this goal, I’ve registered to ride The Flash Bus when it’s in town in March. So it would be nice to get a pair of the Lumo Pro 160s to play with before March…

But I also have a family to play with, a job to do, and life to get on with. So all of these will wait. I guess it’s a new card reader, right?