Hello everyone. First post.
I ran something similar on nikonians and dpreview, but I'd really like more advice from people with hands on experience.
I have about 30 years background with Nikon SLRs, and a few years with digital (Dimage 7i). Main photographic interests: travel/historical and some wildlife - little or no portraiture or posed shots, and I prefer MF most of the time. I'm fairly comfortable with PP.
Time for a DSLR. The D50/D70 viewfinders are too small and I'd pretty much decided on the D200 (I have 28mm, 50mm and 100 - 300mm Nikkors, all manual, and they will work on the body for the time being), but the camera costs R17,500 in South Africa. That's about $2,700 US. All photographc gear is very expensive here, but Nikon is even more overpriced than most.
I handled the D200, and a Canon 30D, at a dealers the other day and far preferred the build and ergonomics of the Nikon - I'm a bit emotionally attched to the brand too - but is is a lot more expensive (roughly R5000/$800) than the Canon. I can probably live with this, because I won't have to buy glass right away, but two questions:
I know a lot of US owners reckon the camera (price/build/performance etc) is a good deal at $1700, but how would you rate it at $2700? How does the viewfinder work out in practice? The one I handled was powered up and fitted with a 17 - 55 2.8, but I was just a little disappointed. Maybe I was expecting too much after film SLRs, but I'd read a lot about the size/brightness and I wasn't quite sure about it.
Just for the record, none of our dealers offer "buy to try" and return options, and an internet purchase isn't very viable for various reasons, including the warranty problem.
Thanks a lot.