What's the best digital Nikon camera to get?

[justmarvin]

I have a bunch of nice Ai and Ai-s nikkors and want to get a digital nikon camera that would be compatible for it. I was just reading a little, and I guess the D3x is the highest nikon digital right now? But it's like 7 grand... and I heard from someone that I can get a D2x camera body for around 1100 used. How are the D2xs?

And what about the lower models like D90, D300, D5000, etc. Can anyone direct me to a link that does a comparison of each model?

Thanks!

JM

 

[PhantomVideo]

I've got a D90 not for video just for still, and my friend has a D2x he got his for 1800 NZD which would be about 900 USD, I have a lot of nice glass, 50 1.2, 85 1.4 both AIS and AF zooms, The D90 is an amazing camera it really holds up against the D2x but, it can't couple for metering like the D2x can, you get no metering what so ever on the D90 for MF glass except your historgram, your eye and your highlight/cliping view all of which do a great job. The D2x metering is just as good as regular AFS metering and is a real treat for MF glass.


I got a battery grip off ebay, very cool for balancing the camera, and portait if you go D90 stay away from cheap SD media got kingston or sansdisk makes the camera heavy but nice to work with,

The D90 shutter sync is a lie, there is shutter lag at 1/200 so 1/125 is safe bit of a pain but only really noticeable in studio,

D90 No Mirror lockup, a woosy exposure delay but it does help supertelephoto

D90 No intervialmeter, so you need a separate device for time lapse, ripped me 40 USD off ebay not too bad

D90 not fully sealed, I hate taking this thing to the beach and usually bag it up, the D2x is fully sealed and way easyer to clean

All over I love my D90 shoots great still and fun for a bit of video with an S35 Sensor, i see it as what to look forword to from our up and coming DSLR's

Good Luck

 

[Eximious]

Not to dissuade you from Nikon, but since all your Nikkor glass is manual, you could always get a different camera and a lens mount adapter. I'm sure you've seen some of the great low-light capabilities of the Canon 5D Mk II, plus you'd get video to boot. Just something to consider.

As for a comparison table of the different Nikon models, this might help:

http://www.bythom.com/currentdslr.htm

Or check out this official Nikon PDF (link towards the top):

http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00T8Xb

Hope that helps.