coming out of the cameraphone paradigm, this is my first "heavy" photo gear
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coming out of the cameraphone paradigm, this is my first "heavy" photo gear
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23 comments so far...
Congrats!! (:
D80?
That lens is decent performing lens for the price. You are going to love your choice of Nikon glass, too. If you get a chance to shoot portraits with a 50mm or longer prime (you will have to step waaaaaaay back, though!) you will really see some nice results with the D80.
But even this zoom pulled out to 50-75mm is great for portraits -- decent bokeh and sharpness, especially stopped down a little. It is a great take-anywhere lens for travelling, too. I've been to Europe and Africa recently, and now I only bring a 50mm prime and the 18-200MM VR. And I hardly use the 50!
The nice part is that I'm building a nice collection of compatible lenses (mostly used) that I can use when I upgrade the Nikon body. This is the real attraction for me for a DSLR: you can upgrade the body as your desires, talents and pocketbook allow!
Now, I've just seen the specs for the Coolpix P6000, which is looking like a very nice unit for a second camera, or budget-minded shooter looking to give Nikon a try.
good point on the lenses - everyone tells me that's the part you should be fearful about getting geeky about since it's a passion at a high cost ;)
But, As far as I am concerned, Nikkor is the pinnacle of optics in the price range I can consider.
While the support matrix of Nikon bodies and lenses is not exactly user-friendly, a fair amount of old lenses will still work with the D80 -- certainly enough for me.
I don't expect to own that many lenses, actually (I have about 5, and only have 1-2 more on my real wishlist, and none of those are must-haves) so I'm not worried about 25 years from now. Camera tech just gets better all the time, and a lot of vintage stuff is a little hyper-inflated in price anyway. For me, a new Nikon with the fantastic new lenses they make do so much that I'm finding a single zoom replaces a bagful of heavy glass.
Of course, companies like Leica and Pentax have made it a priority to maintain backwards compatibility, so for those who need to know their kit will work in 25 years, this is important. Though, even Leica has found it a challenge to innovate while still maintaining compatibility. Pentax has had to make some compromises of their own.
Honestly, everything is a compromise, so I figure I'll let all this stuff come out in the wash.
This is all part of the diminishing returns one gets on expensive equipment. Like audio equipment and sports cars, the more you pay the more you get only perceived improvements rather than real improvements. But the D700 is definitely a piece of real pro equipment.
Since I'm at a place where the most important equipment I can improve is my shooting and post-processing ability (which is essentially free) any of the semi-pro stuff from the usual suspects is more camera than I really need.
But I can see the point of the no-processing zeitgeist.
/n
ps. the D700 is almost 4x the price of the D80 on Amazon...
the d90 is coming out very shortly - and as always this type of gear is substantially cheaper in the us.