Calling all digital photogs... ???'s

Thanks to my new job, I'm in the market for a new digital SLR body. I'm strongly leaning towards the Nikon D200 (I know Grant, I know...) due to the fact that I've always been a Nikon guy and I have lots of Nikon glass.

I'd need to get a new wide/normal zoom, so the kit that has the D200 and the 18-70 lens is looking pretty good right now... about $1700 all told. I've used the D70, D100, Fuji S2pro, and limited use of Canon 20D for comparison.

The question is this: I've heard that the battery life is dismal if I use the LCD screen for chimping, but does anyone have any first-hand experience with this?
Also, are all compact flash cards created equal? I'm noticing a huge variability in price; some 1 gig cards are as expensive or more than lenses.

Any help before I blow a lot of money is appreciated. Thanks!

(I promise to post a TR of thousands of backlit dolphins when I return from sea in December!)

Hop, here's a link to CF card specs for the D200. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...?cid=6007-8197

FWIW, I got 2 100x 2gb PQI cards from outpost for $50 each. They work fine in my recently acquired Canon 1D Mark ll. I've looked on various forums for feedback on the various off brand cards and have found nothing negative.

The battery life on my D70s is phenominal. Don't know about the D200, but I spent 10 days in Africa and popped off 800ish shots and I never recharged the battery once.

Just picked up this tiny piece of heaven...

http://www.thkphoto.com/products/tok...124afprodx.jpg

Also, Ken Rockwell can't stop jerking off about the 18-200 VR

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htm

FWIW, I really like my 18-70 kit nikon lens.

Ok, if you guys are interested, I got a tamron 11-18mm, Nikon 75-300, Nikon 50mm F1.8 and a used D70 sitting in the shop. I wont be at the shop until monday, but if you guys are intested, send me a pm then.

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Originally Posted by hop

... about $1700 all told. I've used the D70, D100, Fuji S2pro, and limited use of Canon 20D for comparison.

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If that is your budget and you have nikon lenses allready, you have allready answered you question and made the deal.
Maybe a D20 would have been another option in that price class,but..
Nikon in general might be heading out from the market,they are having quite a bit of problems at the moment.
At the pro field around here,Canon has taken about a 99% market share in the last year here.Nikon usesers have been far and between,and the users havent been happy campers,complaining mostly about the cell quality and longevity.


As for the lenses, i just cant say this loud or often enough: Get primes.
No zooms. Primes. Period.

Okay,okay, there a few good decent zooms,but in that price class there arent.But most importantly you can loose 3-4stops in aperature between a prime -vs-zoom. That makes you up your ISO and degrading picture quality even more.
And zooms subjects you to lazy camera work... :)


Oh, remember to take pictures of manatees. And octopussies.

bump for the worker bees

I just bought a D200, with the 18-70 kit lens, about a month ago. So I don't have a lot of experience with it yet. But, so far I've been getting about 300ish shots per battery. I use SanDisk Extreme 2 gig cards, shooting uncompressed NEF and reviewing about one in every three shots.

Apparently, the Nikon batteries get better after they have been charged several times. I haven't seen any independent verification of this, and I haven't had the camera long enough to have any first hand knowledge, but it was discussed here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...ssage=18102735


I can't say enough good things about this camera. I had a Canon 10D before I bought the D200 and the D200 is just fantastic. The engineering is very well thought out and the layout of the buttons make it possible to completely reconfigure the camera on the fly without going through the menu. The kit lens is surprisingly good as well. I wasn't expecting much from it but it has turned out to be a lot better than I expected. I'm not in such a hurry to upgrade now, but I do miss the 2.8 aperture I had on my Canon glass.

I don't have 1st hand experience with the Nikon battery, but I've tried quite a few compact flash cards and haven't found a big enough difference in quality as far as speed of writing to the card. I seems it's more about the camera than the card with regards to that. Now I have seen a difference in durability of those cards and failure over time, mid priced ones do fine. I haven't found a need to splurge beyond that.

30D
30D
30D
30D

2nd the D70s battery life...been rock solid. You mentioned wide glass....if its in your budget the 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor is sick. Especially if your looking to do any stitching or pans. I had a 360 pano head machined to match the 10.5 and it turns out some pretty sick 360's. You can see a few at Third North.....click on an image to load it.

If you only use the TFT screen after you've shot your load to edit your pix you'll cut down on your power suckage. Of course those things eat up more battery life than not using them. If you're spending the moolah on a "real" camera you really should be shooting looking through the optical viefinder anyway. The only reason to use the screen is to edit.

HOWEVER, since the new CF cards are huge you really don't need to edit until you look at the pix on your laptop or desktop. As a matter of fact, the senior Photo Editor for Reuters has asked his photogs NOT to "field edit" pix until they have been looked at on a larger screen in better conditions. Since digital film is "free" anyway there's no reason to. The small size and rez, coupled with the non-optimal viewing conditions out in the field, have possibly lost us some images that in the days of film would have been kept and are now part of the pantheon of photography. The famous photo of JFK leaning on the desk in the oval office is a perfect example - that shot was "saved" in the darkroom, since it was so contrasty due to the window. Most likely it would have looked like absolute ass on the little screen on the back of the camera, and a digital photog would have dumped it to free up space.

If you're worried about your battery just carry a spare. The minimal investment is worth it. Also, never buy just one CF card. They DO fail.

My dad picked up a D200 for his Birthday. Happy with it so far, but only had it for a few days. Previously had a D100 and has owned Nikons since way back when.

Apparently he's having trouble picking up the kit lens (could only find the body). It's not a real problem, as he has plenty of glass, but the tests of the 18-200 seem pretty damned positive.

Edit : Oh, yeah, and battery life. I have a D50 and it's phenomenal. I haven't been using my camera much since I last took it skiing (Feb.) It got charged at the beginning of Feb, shot quite a lot of shots for a week, has been used on and off since then and is still showing 100%. Don't use the LCD much because of the SLR, though...

edg

well, $2000 later and I'm in for the D200 and the 18-70. Should be here by friday at the soonest. I wanted that 18-200 but alas, my 80-200 2.8 and 300 f4 will have to do.

Pics to follow! :)

you'll like the D200 man. you would have hated a 18-200 cause the photos would have sucked! so what's the new job?

Nice.


Here is something you might find useful.




http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCF...202/17033.html

mbs - how much for the 50mm prime?

I don't have a D200 yet (still on the D100), but a friend does. Look into the vertical grip, if you feel there are battery issues. The vertical grip takes two cells, or 6 AA's. See:

http://www.adorama.com/INKMBD200.htm...09460852042760

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Originally Posted by midget

you would have hated a 18-200 cause the photos would have sucked!

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Not according to ol' Ken Rockwell.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.htm

(Aside: He has lots of info in the "how-to" section of his site for the D200)

have a canon rebel xt digital, used my old lenses from my non-digital canon eos. you can get good lenses on ebay cheap

can't say enough good things

i show people shots that i just did point and shoot and they go wowza

used to be i got torqued when people would say, "great shot, you must have a nice camera" but now it's true, it ain't me, it's for sure the camera

i shoot for some mags and just got a book contract

considered a nikon, but everyone around here in Moab (lots of photogs) said go for the canon, and no regrets.

Ditto on the vertical grip. Trust me. Get it just for those other 2 buttons, once you used one you will NEVER go back. That and the extra battery life couldn't hurt....

Thanks for the links. I have been looking at Ken's site a lot during the purchase procedure.

The new job is super whale geek for a department of NOAA... I'm going to be on a boat criss-crossing (Jump jump!) the eastern tropical pacific from late July through early December.

One of my co-workers has the 18-200 and she loves it (and is super critical of such things so if she says it's good it must be good enough), but who care... I'm not in the market for anything more than mac and cheese at the moment.

Vertical grip huh? I don't know if that will fit in my Pelican case. I rarely/never shoot whales vert anyways. But I should pick up an extra battery or two just in case, and a bunch more CF cards.

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Originally Posted by hop

Vertical grip huh? I don't know if that will fit in my Pelican case. I rarely/never shoot whales vert anyways. But I should pick up an extra battery or two just in case, and a bunch more CF cards.

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Even if you don't shoot a lot of vertical, it simply makes for a more rounded, balanced, and grippable machine; which is especially nice if you are going to be using any longer reach glass. It does attach and detach easily, although most would leave it on constantly.

It's also a constant reminder that shooting vertical is a valid option.

If you're on a boat, shooting whales, aren't you going to need something longer than the kit lens? Perhaps something like the 70-200/2.8 VR, with a later addition of a teleconverter, would be good. The VR bit might be helpful too.

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Originally Posted by Staggerwing

If you're on a boat, shooting whales, aren't you going to need something longer than the kit lens? Perhaps something like the 70-200/2.8 VR, with a later addition of a teleconverter, would be good. The VR bit might be helpful too.

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That's what the 80-200 f2.8 and 300 f4 are for! :)

IMO, VR doesn't really help for shooting whales or fast action, since you need the shutter speed more than the steady-at-low-light action. A whale will still be a blur when you're shooting with VR at 1/15th of a second, whereas a building/landscape/portrait will not be. I'd rather have the fast glass so I can shoot at 1/500 or more.

However, I do need a better wider zoom than my current $99 Tamron 28-70 so the kit lens fits the bill.