This page was written in early 2011 sometime. I have owned the D700 since that year. Still history matters.
I am an old Nikon and Pentax user and a fan of both.
Nikon D200 with Nikkor 50mm f1.4
At present I use a Nikon D200 (click the name for review), an excellent professional digital camera.
I bought the D200 about five years ago when it was just about to become old stock, though I paid the full price for it. I have loved it and at the same time I’m ashamed to say that it has taken me a long time to learn all its capabilities. But in my defence I am old school (as mentioned elsewhere on this blog) so I just found my favourite settings and left the huge gamut of all the other settings to their own devices.
The D200 is a wonderful camera and still has years of great work to do for me. But as is the usual case with high technology, the moment you commit huge amounts of cash to buying something like that, and before you’ve had the chance to explore all it’s possibilities, the next super model is up on the shelves.
In recent tests I found that, wisely Nikon have made the camera so that if you are an old hand you can set it up to shoot almost exactly the way you used to when you shot on film. I use only prime lenses that were built by Nikon in the 70’s and even one in the sixties, none of those god-awful zoom or autofocus lenses. They were screw mounts so I simply took them to Nikon house in London and had their mounts changed. I’m glad to say that they are still as fabulously brilliant as they were the day they were made, and have years of service left in them. Reading up on Nikon lenses recently I discovered that indeed the old ones are still equal if not mostly superior in quality to the newer lenses and that at least they do not differ optically at all from the more recent types. So I was incredibly happy not to have to worry about buying any new lenses. Also being a fussy old bastard I have settled for years on a selection of three lenses for all my work. These are for the record, the 105mm 2.5, 50mm 1.4 and the 28mm 2.8. All Nikkor lenses that are still considered among the top of their class. The technician at Nikon House London told me that my 105 in particular is the best lens Nikon ever made. And I can concur with that through years of using it. You’ll find a great resource for almost all Nikon and Nikkor cameras and lenses at this site.
Till then here’s a test shot I did recently on my D200 with one of the lenses listed above.
I think you will have to agree with my conclusions on seeing these samples.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 50mm f1.4
Still, as is the way I was hankering after an upgrade and settled on the Nikon D700 (click the name for review), already over three years on the market.
Then searching online for any rumours about the next generation of Nikons I stumbled on this article. Yes the D800 is “supposed” to be on the market by the end of this summer, sometime in August/September! But there are a number of conflicting rumours about this so fingers crossed!
The D800 is really supposed to be an über version of the D700! So I shall bide my time and see. Roll on D800!!! Can’t wait.
