Did I make the right choice?

[Ihastar]

Wondering if I made the right choice.

I just jumped from canon digital rebel to Nikon D200. It was a tough jump as I already had 50mm, 105mm, and fisheye lense for Canon and my move to Nikon was to a D200 instead of D300. I still cringe a bit as I read about the new features on the D300 and wonder if it was a bad idea to move to D200 instead. Cost was the reason behind that decision, since replacing camera, housing, and lenses would have been too much for D300 vs 200.

So did I make a mistake?

 

[vladimir]

I just jumped from canon digital rebel to Nikon D200. It was a tough jump as I already had 50mm, 105mm, and fisheye lense for Canon

So did I make a mistake?

I don't know; I've never used a Canon, but I am curious about why you jumped. I have never considered switching to Canon simply because of the investment I have in Nikon glass and the presumption that the cameras are roughly equivalent.

 

[Fota]

Wondering if I made the right choice.

I just jumped from canon digital rebel to Nikon D200. It was a tough jump as I already had 50mm, 105mm, and fisheye lense for Canon and my move to Nikon was to a D200 instead of D300. I still cringe a bit as I read about the new features on the D300 and wonder if it was a bad idea to move to D200 instead. Cost was the reason behind that decision, since replacing camera, housing, and lenses would have been too much for D300 vs 200.

So did I make a mistake?

Well first of all, people are still taking amazing shots with Nikon D70, typically using Nikon lenses such as 60mm (old one, AF-D still rocks!), 105VR, 10.5mm, 12-24 as well as Tokina 12-24, and 10-17.

The D200 is in many ways better than the D70. The display, the resolution, the AF and many neat features. The D200 takes excellent shots in low ISO. In high ISO... well nah.

I recently switched from D200 to D300.
The D300 is a very nice camera. No doubt about it. Due to my non diving wife and small kids, I don't dive as often as I'd like to, so I use my camera more on land than underwater. So I really appreciate many features that doesn't matter that much underwater. But, here are a few that are really nice underwater as well. This is compared to D200.

* Better AF:
- Much more focus points (51 vs 11?).
- Much more cross focus points (11 vs 1).
- Faster AF.
- Better AF in low light.
- More precise AF.

* Much better display.
The display in the D70 sucks. The D200 is OK but the D300 rocks!!!
Not only is it better, it has much higher resolution and on top of
that it is constructed in a new way that improves the overal
image quality alot.

* LiveView
Yes it's not as good as it could be, but it's nice and useful in
many situations. This in combination with the new display that
is viewable in almost any angle. I think that the Handheld mode
with the true AF will become useful when shooting wideangle.
With the the Ikelite housing you can turn on/off LiveView underwater.

* Manual Focus
Ever felt the urge to focus manually?
Well with the D300 it's finally possible. The LiveView
with it's Tripod mode in combination with the great display,
is truly excellent for this. It has simply never been easier.

* Longer lasting batteries.

* Better at handling large difference in contrast.

* Much better at high ISO (> 200).


/Fota

 

[SparticleBrane]

Wondering if I made the right choice.

I just jumped from canon digital rebel to Nikon D200. It was a tough jump as I already had 50mm, 105mm, and fisheye lense for Canon and my move to Nikon was to a D200 instead of D300. I still cringe a bit as I read about the new features on the D300 and wonder if it was a bad idea to move to D200 instead. Cost was the reason behind that decision, since replacing camera, housing, and lenses would have been too much for D300 vs 200.

So did I make a mistake?

If you can use a D200 rig to take photos like these, these, or really...all of this entire gallery...

While the D300 is arguably a better camera, the most important aspect of taking photos is behind the camera -- you, the artist. Not the camera.

 

[justleesa]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This poster deserved his own thread

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[Fota]

If you can use a D200 rig to take photos like these, these, or really...all of this entire gallery...

While the D300 is arguably a better camera, the most important aspect of taking photos is behind the camera -- you, the artist. Not the camera.

My intention is not to say that the D200 is a bad camera, cause it's not. Some of the (not all though) of the photos on the links above are awesome.
But, I am a little allergic to the comment that you can take great pictures with any camere. My point is that, yeah _some_ people can do that. It takes skill, it takes luck, it takes very good diving spots and lots of dives. All of this in a nice combination.
I have friends who takes excellent shots with Nikon D70 and even with the old compact Oly 8080. To me that is irrelevant. There will always be great pictures taken with almost any camera. If you have the time, skills and oportunity.
What matters to me is what pictures _I_ get with the equipment. Counting the way too few numbers of dives I do per year, the bad conditions these dives mostly are in etc. I still want to get great shots though, so I try to optimise my equipment.
Bottom line, I take much better pictures with my D300 than I did with my Oly 7070.
I also find it easier to take great shots with the D300 than with the D200.
But, if I would live one year near a tripocal reef, I am sure I could get fantastic shots with just about any camera.


/Fota