timo_jarvinen

<p>cameras don't take good pics, it's always the photographer. the most important part for great results is few inches behind viewfinder when shooting, after that comes the glass. full frame beats dx any given day, it's a pure pleasure to use lenses when their focal length is true to the number. beg, steal, save.. do anything to get the coin together and get used d3. you'll love it and that's not a joke. it's expensive, but that'll have way more miles in it than any of the plastic consumer products like d300/d90. d3 is a tool for a tradesman when nikon's dx bodies are consumer electronics with a small sensors with small pixels which love noise. i know it, i have them both and i don't even feel like shooting with d300 anymore if it's not sunny f16 and there's no need to extend my 500 f4.</p>

<p>After shooting with 24 f1.4 last 3 weeks, i have to say that it's one amazing piece of glass. I have superb 14-24 as well, but after getting this 24, zoom will probably go to find a new home. Distortion is barely visible which is pretty cool for a fast w/a, but edge to edge sharpness is just mind blowing. It amazes me how Nikon managed to screw their latest 50 1.4G with buckets of barrel distortion and then went to design a serious wide angle which has zero distortion when compared to 50 1.4G, or even to 45 T/S. Now Nikon bring on the AF-S 135 F2 DC, and the package is complete.</p>

<p>buy it if you need a real camera right now and start shooting instead of reading these answers! just like so many others have mentioned, it definitely won't go obsolete after new one gets released. d3/700 are already old cameras if you think about digital cameras and their progression, but still today canon hasn't been able to top those bodies if you only shoot photos. and for gods sake, don't listen to morons who tell you that 12mp won't cut it.. i shoot for living, i own 2x d3 and d300, and to be honest i haven't never ever faced a situation where i might lose a gig because my cameras are 10mp short, or even heard about one. that's just bs which sounds like coming from a person who's too happy to fill his drives with tiffs from 5d2. i got my 2nd d3 from ebay, it had 23000 clicks in it with upgraded sensor and it was fresh from service; it cost me 2200 usd and it's been busy at work, everyday. get your 700 now, start shooting with it and save the rest of your budget to get some crisp glass, there are some nice but addictive new optics out there which will let you take full advantage of the full frame. and once you go for full frame, then cropped cameras won't feel that great anymore. my trusty d300 gets called from bench pretty much only when situation calls for longer glass.</p>

<p>sorry about double post.</p>

<p>Hey Nathan, i'm stoked to hear that you found that piece of glass. It's the classic lens for skate photography, an industry standard, although digi's been killing it lately, but that only has made them more available. I have one and i love it, never gonna sell it. You said that you have 80mm as your 2nd lens, now if you plan to expand your gadget bag then i'd say that have a look around for CF/CFi 150 f4, those fly out from ebay with some 300 euros which is a joke after you've processed your first roll. It might be nice to have russian cheapo fisheye in Blad, but nothing beats 1/500 sync and that's already worth all the numbers those papers called money have. </p>