Between you I think most of the criteria for this decision are covered in sufficient detail for me - just short of actually handling both cameras and shooting a few high iso shots in a camera store. I'd like to take a look, in the most unscientific way, at what the A900 produces.
Right now I'm leaning heavily toward getting a D700. partly on the "nobody got fired for buying IBM" principle - which dates me, I guess - and partly because everyone who owns the D700 seems to love it. My thinking is like this: I have a backup D200 body and some additional MF lenses plus my AF 85 1.8. The shaved 10.5 FE will enable me to shoot the VRs with a reduced number of shots (nominally 4-5) on an FF body, to a quality perfectly adequate for web use. This represents a saving of £400. BTW when stitching for VRs there's no need to "defish" the images; they're remapped onto a virtual sphere by the application, in my case PTGui. Most of the regular landscape that I've shot has been successfully stitched from multiple portrait format shots, so maybe the resolution isn't such a big criterion.
If I buy the set of three 2.8 Nikon lenses mentioned above - which are as good a selection of zooms as I've ever seen reviewed, and represent the about 60% of the cost of re-equipping - I have the possibility at some time in the future, other things being OK, of adding a high resolution Nikon prosumer body, the D700x, or whatever they decide to name it: I feel certain it's bound to arrive, probably long before I'm ready to buy one, assuming I can still afford it. Society may have collapsed completely by then. When the chairman of the Nasdaq is caught operating a Ponzi scheme which has vaporised $50Bn - with major banks amongst its investors - anything is possible. These are the same people who badger entrepreneurs about how they propose to manage their businesses...
I'm going to take a couple of cards off to a dealer and handle both the cameras. I know this won't be a proper test, but it's something I need to do: I just wish that my local dealer filled me with a little more confidence. And I'm going to walk away, take a look at the test shots and think carefully before I spend nearly £5K.
Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to offer their insights.
Roy
