pro digital camera

[monica_fritz]

I've been working with my Hassleblad for 20 years and now I finally am forced

to buy a digital. I do have an old Nikon coolpix 990 which I am very happy with

but here in Turkey I can't show up on a job with it. I did do a very nice

portrait catalogue with it but its not enough now. I have Nikon lenses for my

FM2, don't know if that is useful or not.I want to ask what would be a good

professional camera to invest in. I need one that I can sync studio lights up

to. I mainly photograph people and places, interiors and some architecture. Any

clues would be much appreciated. I guess a price range would be tops, $2,500.

Another question is where should I purchase it? I have friends in Japan, Dubai,

and New York. thanks.

[janvanlaethem]

Monica,

 

I've heard good things about the D200, which will let you meter with AI, AIS and AF lenses. Unfortunately, I haven't used the camera myself. If you go to the Nikon forum and search for D200, you will find plenty of information there.

 

I usually buy my lenses, flashes, filters etc. in the USA, where I find more items readily available and prices are relatively low compared to Spain, where I live. You can try B&H www.bhphotovideo.com or Adorama www.adorama.com, both are very thrustworthy and you can just order via the internet. A word of warning though: prices are without VAT and you should take into account that you will be required to pay VAT when the package enters your country. I'm not sure about Turkey, in Spain it is currently 16%. But given the strong position of the Euro against the dollar, even when I add up the cost of shipping via courrier service and VAT, I still end up paying roughly 1 Euro per dollar spent.

 

In the USA you can order items with a USA warranty (imported by the official Nikon importer in that country) or grey market. A grey market item is usually cheaper, although it depends on the item itself. The price difference may be in the region of 20 dollars or as much as several hunderds of dollars. Grey import has the disadvantage that it will not be covered by the official Nikon dealers in your country, so if something goes wrong you will end up paying for any repairs. That is the reason why I buy my cameras in Spain. I once had to send in a Noblex for repair within the 1 year guarantee period and got it serviced free of charge. Had I bought the camera grey in the USA, I would have ended up paying for it.

 

Japan has in my opinion one of the cheapest prices around, I bought a Nikkor micro lens there on a visit in the 1990s. But I haven't found any Japanese shop willing to send equipment by courrier servicve. If you have friends in Japan, it might be a good idea to get them buy the camera for you and send it over. Not sure about customs duty though.

 

Also take into account that the USA and Japan may have a different electrical voltage and different electrical sockets than in your country. It is certainly different from the power sockets in Spain. You can always use a socket adapter, but that is yet another thing to pack and carry when you travel a lot.

 

regards

 

Jan

[philg]

"interiors" implies the Canon EOS 5D, whose full-frame sensor makes it a low-light champion. "architecture" would point you toward the Canon tilt-shift lenses. The Nikon D200 makes sense if you want to continue using your old lenses.

[William Kahn]

I hope you're not giving up the Hassy!

[godfrey]

If you have Nikkor lenses that you're happy with, the Nikon D200 will do you well. This will

allow you to retain compatibility with your FM2 if you desire a 35mm film backup camera.

 

You'll likely need a couple more lenses at the wide end to facilitate wide enough field of

view for architectural interiors: a 14mm lens will net the 90 degree field of view across the

diagonal that is usually what one needs for this work. I recommend the 14mm prime lens

over the 12-24 zoom as it has much better rectilinear correction and will need less work

in image processing to do the job well.

 

Godfrey

[cyrus khamak]

First, for portrait work, you may want to consider this recent, comprehensive test done By "ShootSmarter University". Canon 5D does come first followed by Fuji S3 and D200.<BR> http://www.shootsmarter.com/DSLRshootout.html <BR>

 

My own experience with Nikon D70, Canon 20D, Fuji S3 and to a lesser extent, D200, makes the Fuji S3 a top choice for the following reasons:<br>

 

1-Right now you can buy it for about $1000.00, down from the original price of $2,500.00<br>

2-If you're not interested in spending time at the computer converting and post processing, it does deliver the best JPEG file in the industry with little or no post processing.<br>

3- It does give you an extra 1.5-2 stops of Dynamic range, if that is important to you.<br>

4- It does perform well up to ISO 1600 but you may find the ISO 1600 files on the softer side due to in-camera noise reduction but still better D70 and even D200, I believe.<br>

5-It is considered a 6MP camera but the sensor does provides another 6MP for dynamic range in it's high quality mode which to my experience gives me an quivalant of 8MP and even 10 with a good lens and good lighting.<br>

It also works very well with studio strobes, corded or wireless and it syncs up to 180 <br>

Cons:<br>

1-It's a very slow camera if you shoot in raw and it's highest quality mode. It will only allow you to shoot a frame every 11 second or three frames before the buffer fills. A buffer upgrade may be available in your area which allows you 7 frames before it fills, for a cost of course(around $300.00.) In JPEG mode and specially in it's normal Dynamic range it should be just fine for your use.)<BR>

2- The raw files are uncompressed with a size of 25 MP which is partly due to it's 14 bit sensor output, VS 12 in the other cameras mentioned.<BR>

3- It is based on N80 body with not so many bells and whistles. Although not a problem for me but I have heard many complain about focusing in low and very low light and the view finder is not that big and bright. I believe it has the same focusing system as does the Nikon D70.<BR>

4-You may find the review time on the LCD slow but I personally don't review files that much at all.<BR>

having said all that, once you appreciate and get used to it's file output, it would be hard to give it up. I no longer own the 20D and use my Nikon D70 very seldom.<br>

Hope that help, with kind regards.

[leicaglow]

Monica, I did a product shoot with my Hasselblad and an 80mm Planar. I had never used my then-brand new D200 in the studio, so I put on the 85mm Nikkor and connected my flash system. When I got the digital scans back from the Hasselblad, I accidentally put the images in the same folder as the D200 shots. I had one heck of a time telling them apart. The D200 is a superb camera and one that impresses me the more I use it. You're obviously used to quality optics, and you'll find them with the D200. As for where to buy, I'm not sure what to recommend, but Nikon USA has a pretty good warranty.

[jclaice]

Ok Ill put it out there, I recently saw a used d2x on ebay (last 30 days) it was about 2.5k. Cametaauctions.com last week I ordered a d200 for a friend that was a factory demo with 4 year warrenty was right around 1300.oo us. I have only made 5 purchases on ebay and all were good purchases. I purchased my wt-1a on ebay from cametaauctions for 107.00 , full warenty, new item only differance was it was 300 less than calumet.

joseph