If you bought a new digital SLR today, what would it be?

armisiano said:
I will answer this question as if money were no object and I could afford to do this. It would be of course the Nikon D3. Paired with a 70-200mm f2.8
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I rethought this. I said if money were no object, so keeping with that theme after thinking a little more, I'll say the Hasselblad H3DII. It only costs about $40k, so why not?


Realistically though, if I had a little more money to spare I'd like to upgrade to the Nikon D300.
 
As always it depends on your price point. You should buy the best camera that you can afford. If you have lens already then that is the way to go. Do you shoot portraits or real estate? Lots of cameras to choose from. Do you need a little video? Look at the D90 or the canon 5d mark 11 and if you don't then get the best you can afford. Look into the Nikon D300, its a robust camera and produces wonderful photos. You can get one as low as $1250 as a demo unit from places like Cameta camera off ebay. I picked up one at this price and love it. My buddy paid $1799 just 6 months ago for his. For the price its a good deal and just a little more than the cameras you mentioned. I just sold a D200 in mint condition for $750 and it took great pictures.

Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm planning on using the camera for a variety of purposes, but right off the bat mostly to create content for my website (regardless I still want something that shoots very high quality photos).

People are talking a lot about lenses, so let me pose this question:

What camera body would you buy and what lens would you buy to pair it with? Think in terms of just getting one lens too, so it has to be something versatile. I think this would be a very useful question to be answered for people currently in the market for cameras.
 
Oh, I should also mention that manual control is extremely important to me, almost more so than photo quality (in terms of resolution and what not).

I'd like to avoid spending more than 1200.
 
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I'd get a used Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 DX lens and the best body you can find for the money to pair with it. That would most likely be the D40, but for a little more you could find a used D80 at a very good price now that the D90 is out. That should keep your close to your budget.
 
armisiano said:
I rethought this. I said if money were no object, so keeping with that theme after thinking a little more, I'll say the Hasselblad H3DII. It only costs about $40k, so why not?


Realistically though, if I had a little more money to spare I'd like to upgrade to the Nikon D300.
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I'm with ya on the Hasselblad....

I've had a Hasselblad 500 CM for 35 years. The German glass with that Swedish camera is the best bar none I've shot....

And my reality is setting in also and I'll settle with a Canon 5D Mark II which would go great with my other 5D
 
I have the Hasselblad H1/Leaf Aptus 75s, Canon 1dsMll, and a Canon 1dsMklll

Thats how I roll.....

frisco
 
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DVX-Ben said:
Oh, I should also mention that manual control is extremely important to me, almost more so than photo quality (in terms of resolution and what not).

I'd like to avoid spending more than 1200.
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I will argue that you should NOT get the Nikon D40. I say this because it is limited to only working with modern digital lenses. If you get (for example) the D80, you can use not ONLY modern digital lenses, but also older manual lenses. The best looking (in means of color, contrast, and overall aesthetics) photos I've taken for example haven't been with any of my newer digital lenses, but with my old Nikon 85mm f2. It's old, it's used, it's in pristine condition, and the picture I get from it is gorgeous. Get a D40 and you don't have that option, you're limited to what glass you can buy.

Now if you're going to get just 1 lens, for practical photo taking purposes it SHOULD be a zoom. The problem is if you do any low light shooting and you don't want to compromise image quality by bumping up your ISO (if this jargen makes no sense now it will down the road, I promise you) you'll need a bright lens. For still photography purposes that would be a zoom brighter than say f4. When you get into that territory it gets a bit pricey, and used zooms aren't much cheaper.

If the low light thing isn't a problem, and you need to save some cash, for starting out I'd recommend just getting (if you go with the D80) the 55-200mm f4-5.6 VR. It's not very bright, but it takes sharp pictures, and the VR function (vibration reduction) helps IMMENSELY when having to shoot with a slower shutter speed.
 
Why do you say the D40 will not work with old lenes. It will actually mount older non-AI lenes that even the D80/70/50/90/200...blah blah blah will not mount. The only thing you lose is the auto-focus since there is no internal focus motor. Only AF-S and AF-I(?) lenses will auto focus since they have the focus motor in the lens. But even AF/AF-D lenses that require the screw drive focus will still meter and mount. They just don't auto focus.

So your 85 f/2 would would be fine since it doesn't meter and was designed for manual focus anyway. I had a 75-150 Series E f/3.5 manual focus that worked perfectly on my D40. I actually took this photo with it.

 
DivotDan, sorry for being mistaken, I could've sworn that the D40 couldn't take the non DX lenses. Maybe the guy at Ritz was just trying to upsell me, ah well, it worked. Good for him.
 
I'm upgrading from my D60 (which I enjoyed tremendously) and moving up to the D300. I love the fact that I'll be able to meter through my old Nikon glass.
 
bill totolo said:
I'm upgrading from my D60 (which I enjoyed tremendously) and moving up to the D300. I love the fact that I'll be able to meter through my old Nikon glass.
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How old of glass are you taking about?

I was warned by Nikon back in the D1x days to stay away from old manual Nikkor lens.

Problem with the older and some of the newer glass is the coatings. What happens is called "Light Scatter". The light bouncing off the sensor than bouncing off the rear element and light bouncing between elements.

The result is softer, lower contrast images.

The newer lens and Digital specific lens have coatings to minimize "Light Scatter"

T

frisco
 
I guess it depends on the glass. Some old glass is fantastic, some of it stinks.

I'm kind of interested in this statement.
bill totolo said:
I love the fact that I'll be able to meter through my old Nikon glass.
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Are you talking about the 10 manual meter settings you can program? Other than that, both cameras should meter with the same lenses.
 
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