I currently have a D200 which I've been using for just over a year. I have a few DX lenses, including a 10.5 FE which I use for VR panoramas. I also have an 85mm F1.8 and a selection of AIS lenses (50mm 1.8, 20mm 3.5, 80-200 F4, 28mm 1.9 and a few others of no great distinction but in good condition). plus numerous bits and pieces of associated hardware - an MC30 remote, NN3 pano head, SB 600 flash, and the inevitable bagful of bits and pieces. I also have some Nikon film bodies - an FG, an FM2n and an F100. I give these an occasional outing but digital has ruined it for me, despite the fact that I like the physicality of the mechanical bodies.
When I bought this camera I imagined it would meet all my requirements, if not for ever, at least for a few years. After a year I can see that whilst my own limitations are the ultimate limitation, the limitations of the hardware impose an additional, er, limitation... For example the af on my D200 isn't brilliant and my eyesight is worse. I don't really like using flash but shooting lots of dimly lit interiors (I like old buildings) means tripods which aren't ever convenient, and the D200's performance above ISO 200 is awful. I also like shooting exterior landscapes, and hope to visit many landscapes well worth photographing before I shuffle off the mortal etc. I own an Epson R2400 printer which is capable of A3+ and roll-fed panoramas. The price of consumables is horrifying! I've had quite a lot of practice stitching panoramas of various kinds, which ups the effective resolution achievable with my current equipment. But often the wind is blowing, which really causes problems with stitching - in fact it's a show-stopper. So I'm considering re-equipping.
As with most amateur photographers, money is a limitation. I'm a full-time carer with no significant income and not enough capital to feel secure - to put it mildly. So part of my thinking is "buy it whilst you can still afford it". In a year or two's time I will be even more expenditure averse. I realise that better hardware won't necessarily make me a better photographer, however if hardware specs were completely irrelevant there wouldn't be much to read on these forums would there? The current collapse in the value of the £ is worrying me almost as much as the fact that as one of those people who actually bothered to SAVE for an uncertain future, I am now getting almost no return on these savings - so why not spend some on non-essentials? Whilst I'm bitching about this I well recall the time in the 80s when I was running my small manufacturing business on bank overdraft facilities for about 7 years. Interest was 2.5% OVER the base rate which was constantly in double figures. When the bank got antsy in'88 they took me down for no good reason at all and practically destyroyed my future: no one proposed bailing
me out as I recall. Banks are an informal cartel and operate on the very margins of fraud I believe...Actually, on reflection they frequently operate
within those margins, as we've all seen recently.
Sorry about that.
Given that I already have quite a bit of Nikon gear, I'd been considering the D700 (I love the additional weather-proofing on the D3 on principle, but the weight, plus the additional £1K, are enough to make me discount it). Recent reviews of the Sony A900 have thrown a rock into the pool, as if it weren't already murky enough. I've read enough about all these cameras to have a theoretical understanding of their respective attributes. I haven't done the precise sums, but assuming I'm buying decent lenses for the D700 (14-24 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 70.200 VR 2.
a similar setup replaced by an A900 comes out at a roughly similar price. One critical consideration (apart from the fact that there's an attractive continuity about buying Nikon - not least the retention of the D200 as a backup body) is the high ISO performance of the Sony camera. I've read and seen various reports and tests, but I need to take some comparative shots with both cameras (available low-ish light) so that I know what I'm looking at. I bought my last system from Park Cameras in Burgess Hill (for UK readership!) who are my nearest real camera store, and I have to say I didn't feel too comfortable with them. Just another customer; in fact one young woman working there almost had me apologising for interrupting her day.
Anyway, that's a lot of waffle. It should probably be in the "casual conversations" forum. Moderators please move if you feel that too. But I'd be interested to hear opinions about this. It's actually quite a big decision for me and I've been vacillating for months!
Roy