D700_front

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.
UPDATE! Just in the nick of time too. I heard for a while that prices for Nikon bodies and lens were on the rise across the world, starting in Australia, then Europe, and now the US. Starting Feb 1st, 2009, prices are rumoured to rise some 10-15%. Via, Nikon Rumous and Thom Hogan.

After an excruciatingly long wait, I’ve finally come full circle on the process I started a few months back: realising the I’m not shooting, looking hard at the gear I was currently not using, deciding on what gear I needed instead, and then selling it all off. Then the time came to decide what to replace my previous camera (the Canon 1D Mark III) with and I was in two minds.

Do I go with the maximizer’s dream and new best all-rounder (the Canon 5D Mark II) or do I go with the focussed, single purpose photographers tool of choice (the Nikon D700)?

As I wrote about most recently, the Canon is a great camera that’s getting a whole lot of attention but really, I don’t need the 21MP of resolution. I don’t need HD video (yet) and when I can’t even get autofocus that’s a nuisance, or any decent audio without an external mic… One day, I might well find myself where every DSLR has amazing video capability, but for now, I’m good. Frankly 12MP is all I need for making prints as big as 17x22 which is the largest I can print to at home anyways.

And after learning a few things about lugging lots of gear around the last couple of years, I went with a very small, light lens and my old favourite the Nikkor 35mm f2. I really should never have sold it! Doh! But this time round it’s going to a real 35mm rather than the kludgy 52.5mm that it was on my D70 (with the x1.5 cropping factor).

I did a lot of soul searching to think harder about what photography meant to me and I remembered that cameras are a function of photography, not the other way around. So when it came down to it, there was really only one choice. I’m extremely excited to get this camera and I’ll be giving occasional updates as I go.