Nikon D90 vs D700

[nachi_abrams]

<p>Presently I own a D90 with the 18-135 kit lens. Assuming I would get a D700 and use a 50 1.4 lens on both cameras, would I get sharper shots with the D700? The largest I print is 11 x 14. I do however, crop often. Thanks.</p>

[mihai_ciuca]

<p>It depends what are you shooting for... Definitely D700 will give you better results in low light and in landscapes... but for many other situations you'll not see a difference. You can improve very much by purchasing a better lens for D90, not necessary by upgrading the camera. </p>

[nachi_abrams]

<p>Any recommendations of a portrait fixed lens? Also, do fixed lenses come in VR?</p>

[uzay_ki_i]

<p>Do you mean prime lens by saying fixed lens? If so i recommend 85 1.8 or if you have budget 85 1.4 for portrait, but on the other hand if you will go with D90 50mm 1.8 or 1.4 will give you satisfactory results for portrait since the D90 is DX then 50x1.5 will give you 75mm which is ok for portrait again.</p>

[pictureted]

<p>Regarding a portrait lens, I suggest you spend time with a subject and your 18-135. Frame and compose in ways that please you and look at the focal length used. Any focal lengh can be used successfully. Once you determine the focal length(s) that look best, look at faster lenses available. The faster the lens, the shallower the DOF which is often better for portraits.</p>

<p>On an old F3hp, I used 105/2.5 and 85/2 most frequently. I'm still looking for a portrait lens for my D90. My 60/2.8 macro is just OK, not great. The Voigtlander 58/1.4, might be an option. Since I shoot a lot of macro, I plan on getting the Zeiss 100/2 macro and try it for portraits. It's on the long side, but I prefer that to short.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>You would likely not be able to tell the difference in good lighting or with flash for normal sized prints. Keep in mind that I am not suggesting that the D90 is as good a body as the D700 - he D700 has many advantages over the D90.</p>

[joe_overton]

I have a D700 and use it to make prints up tp 17"x25" on my Espon 3800. More than likely the issue is your lens - I use th2 24-70mm 2,8

and the 70-200mm 2.8 [ both retail for about $1,800 US ] and get very sharp images. If I were you, I would start buying FX lenses and add

an FX body later.

[elliot1]

<p>Joe, Nikon's consumer lenses give basically identical image quality to their pro counterparts when it comes to sharpness. And this does not really answer the original question posed which was related to the 50mm f1.4 lens being on both bodies.</p>

[uzay_ki_i]

<p>By the way, if you're not used to manual lenses and if you're not fast enough i don't recommend manual lens for portraits.</p>

[joe_overton]

Elliot is correct, a good analysis was done by Ken Rockwell and is available on his web site "Nikon D3, D90, D300 and

D200 Sharpness Comparison" using the same lens.

[douglas lee]

<p>Well, if Ken Rockwell said it must be true.</p>

[Two23]

<p>Highly doubtful you'd notice any difference, especially if using studio lighting. Lighting makes a bigger difference for portraits than a camera.<br>

Kent in SD</p>

[dbcooper]

<blockquote>

<p>" Assuming I would get a D700 and use a 50 1.4 lens on both cameras, would I get sharper shots with the D700?"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>All other things being equal, no. Either the 50/1.4D (good) or 50/1.4G (better) will have the weakest/softest parts (corners and edges) cropped off by the sensor in DX format. What you'd gain with a D700 would be about a stop of low-light or high ISO performance, the full angle of view the 50mm lens was designed for, and a little more DoF.</p>

[Two23]

<p>Doesn't DoF decrease as the sensor size get larger? I have used DSLR, 35mm, 645, and 4x5 and noticed that there is actually a loss of DoF as the image capture got bigger. Thus, wouldn't a DX sensor have a bit more DoF than an FX sensor?</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[acarodp]

<blockquote>

<p>What you'd gain with a D700 would be about a stop of low-light or high ISO performance, the full angle of view the 50mm lens was designed for, and a little more DoF.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not only. I rarely see mentioned a fact that was readily apparent to me when I started using the D700: the main limits of fast primes (such as the 50 1.4) are usually not due to sharpness, since they are in general sharper than zooms (much true for WA below 35mm, on the other hand, and not so true when comparing to the latest and greatest pro zooms), but to purple fringing and longitudinal CA. Both these issues become more and more significant when you work at fast apertures, and can definitely impact an image more than some lack of sharpness.</p>

<p>Now, both these issues are almost totally independent from the distance from the center of the image, but on the other hand, LoCA fringes (and I guess PF as well) have a constant linear size on the focal plane, which means that at the same aperture, and printing at the same size, they will appear 1.5 times larger if the photo has been taken with a DX camera. Also, if you want to get a given DOF, you will need to open ~1 stop more on the DX camera, which makes PF and LoCA worse (and sharpness, for that matter). If instead you are shutter speed limited, given that a D700 has at least 1 stop noise advantage over the D90, you will need AGAIN to open 1 stop more on the DX camera.</p>

<p>Also, these same facts tell you that, while the D700 shows outer parts of the image circle where, sharpness wise, the lens will perform worse, it has also a much lower linear resolution on the focal plane, which largely compensates for this. And, both to reach a given DOF and to get a given shutter speed with a given noise level, you will be using the lens about 1 stop more closed on the D700 than on the D90, which again, compensates for the corners. Or you can use a faster shutter speed, which reduces motion blur risks.</p>

<p>In short, my finding is that practically I get better IQ from my lenses from the D700, and have a higher keeper rate. It is misleading to compare lenses on DX and FX at the same <em>settings</em> , one has to compare them at equivalent settings, this is, the ones you would use in the same real world situation.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>L.</p>