The Millennium Hotel - The Extra Charge

Traveling to Cincinnati was a good opportunity to sample some new restaurants, hotels and the like. I used expedia to book three rooms at the Millennium Hotel which appeared to be a somewhat painless experience. On the down side, parking was an additional $20 per car, per night when we arrived. Another issue is that if you use a debit card when you check in, you are billed a $75 per night rip off charge for "incidentals" that can take up to 60 days to be refunded. This is a disturbing trend in the hotel industry because some of us would rather pay cash and not give out a 60 day loan. Not only is this a problem but if you don't have an available balance large enough to cover the $75 per room per night charge, they bill you a $.50 non sufficient funds service charge. All of these little charges are a nightmare for the penny pincher and budget minded alike.

Sandisk Ultra II SD Card

With the advent of very high resolution, high speed digital cameras came a need for high speed, high capacity storage. The 2 gigabyte Sandisk Ultra II SD card I just bought for my Nikon Digital SLR was a worthy investment. It stores a great deal of photographs and is quick in its response. After using this card I will never go back to a standard read rate card. For those who thirst for the best performance, the Ultra II type cards are the only option.

The Nikon D50 Digital SLR

After getting a Nikon D50 in my hands, I was blown away at its ease of use. The package I purchased included the 18mm to 55mm Nikor lens. The construction of the body at first feel is much more substantial than the Canon digital rebel and rebel XT. In short order I decided that I needed more zoom than came with the standard lens so I bought the 55-200mm Nikor DX lens. This is a great lens for the money. It integrates well with the D50 and has outstanding zoom and focus capabilities. The first memory card I bought for it was a 256 Meg SD card due to the fact the package did not include one. Quickly I realized a first generation 256 Meg SD card was inadequate for what I wanted to shoot. The 256 card was quickly replaced with a SanDisk 512 Meg Ultra II SD card. Shooting faster was not an issue and file transfers to my computer were also much faster. No good camera should be without a bag, so after some research the Nikon Digital SLR bag packaged with an extra lithium ion battery, 52 mm UV lens filter, and guide to SLR photography seemed like a good value for around one hundred retail. The camera bags sturdy construction and adjustability make it a necessary compliment to a Nikon Digital SLR owner’s collection.