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<p>"D700 - I don't like the 95% viewfinder and I hate the memory card door."</p>

<p>Run a batch job after the shoot that crops each and every image. Now you have a 100% view finder (Nikon could have done it in firmware and avoided all this nonsense). As for the memory card door - mine works fine, but you could place a bit of gaffers tape over it if you want greater security.</p>

<p>The 50/1.8 is a nice portrait lens on DX, and it's only about $125 new (no VAT here in the US). Add in the 35/1.8 ($200) and you've got a normal lens and a portrait lens for a total of $325.</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-50mm-Nikkor-Digital-Cameras/dp/B00005LEN4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1267897051&sr=8-1</p>

<p>http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-35mm-AF-S-Digital-Cameras/dp/B001S2PPT0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1267897092&sr=1-1</p>

<p>I shoot basketball often, but with an FX sensor.</p>

<p>I'd suggest that you try shooting under the boards with your 50mm, but bump up the ISO to get 1/500 shutter speed, and shoot in manual mode. You'll get some really nice shots that really show what the players are experiencing. You can also capture drives heading in towards the paint. And you can always slide a bit to the corners or switch to a shorter lens if you want full body shots in the paint.</p>

<p>I often use a long telephoto to capture defensive play at the far end of the court. The challenge is that you will probably need to stop down a bit to get enough DOF (here's where DX has an advantage because I use a 180mm lens at f/4 where you can use something closer to 135mm at f/2.8). You don't have to have the ball in every shot, but you do need faces. So position yourself accordingly.</p>

<p>The light isn't changing during the shoot, so your exposures should be constant (there can be variations across the floor, but I usually expose for the brightest areas and make adjustments in post processing). So get the exposure right once and leave it in manual. And do a custom white balance and shoot NEFs in case you need adjustments later.</p><div></div>

<p>Here's a crop of your unprocessed image with an LCH curves adjustment. It's just an S-curve to compress highlights and shadows a bit and increase the contrast of the mid tones. Just an example that you'll have much greater flexibility in post.</p>

<p>How much or little contrast is a personal preference. The sky in this shot is pretty much featureless.</p><div></div>

<p>"On the D700, for me to get comparable coverage, I'd have to get a fixed 300mm 2.8 lens that goes for between $4000 (sigma) and $5000 (nikon)"</p>

<p>Many people opt for relatively inexpensive teleconverters to get additional reach.</p>

<p>http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/228165-GREY/Nikon_2129_TC_14E_II_1_4x_Teleconverter.html</p>

<p>A quote from the review:</p>

<p>"I used the Colorneg calibration without adjustments and spent perhaps a minute or so tweaking the colour balance and tone in Lightroom."<br>

It really makes sense to make all color and tone corrections in ColorNeg/ColorPerfect. That would really be the true measure of performance.</p>

<p>You're in for a treat. Here's a scan of Fuji Astia that I shot with an Ercona II (first is entire image, second is a 100% crop of a wet scan):</p>

<p>

<p>Here's a recent review of the ColorNeg plug-in.</p>

<p>http://dpanswers.com/content/rev_colorneg.php</p>

<p>" I am not a pro but I can imagine that a D700 + a prime is much more limiting than a D300+80-200."</p>

<p>I shoot with primes most of the time and don't find it limiting at all. It actually forces me to frame differently based on distance, and that adds variety to my shots. I do, on occasion, rent an 80-200 AF-S for $30 for an entire weekend. But most of my shooting is with primes.</p>

<p>"The thing is, indoors, in a gym that is horribly lit, I can't really get much better glass than a prime 50mm or 85mm 1.8."</p>

<p>Exactly right. Sometimes f/2.8 is just too slow. You can get a stop better performance from a relatively inexpensive prime, and an additional stop better, or more, performance from a D700. Seems like the right choice to me.</p>

<p>"The D700 would not work with your 35 1.8 or your 55-200 leaving you with no zoom."</p>

<p>Absolutely untrue. The DX lenses work, they are just cropped to the size of a DX sensor. Not a huge issue unless you plan to make large prints.</p>

<p>I shoot indoor basketball often, and I opted for the D700. The low light performance is very good. I'd much prefer the D700 with a prime to a D300 with an expensive zoom.</p><div></div>

<p>Try a hood hat:</p>

<p>http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=hood+hat.&N=0&InitialSearch=yes</p>

<p>Another option to consider is the CF Systems Color Perfect Photoshop plug-in. Scan as a linear positive and then invert with the plug-in. Here's a link to a site with examples and information on how to get a good linear 16 bit positive scan (examples are from an earlier version of the software).</p>

<p>http://www.colorneg.de/virtualgrades.html?lang=en<br /> http://www.colorneg.de/nikonscan.html?lang=en</p>

<p>And here's where you can download a demo version:</p>

<p>http://www.c-f-systems.com/Plug-ins.html</p>