Hi OSP folks,

I've come to that point where I'd like to get a new camera. I've been reading and shopping and studying and I've made a decision.

I've decided that I'm evidently a wishy washy spineless dork.

Man, I'm dying. I'm an amateur shooter. I've shot a couple of gigs but don't have a business or anything. I don't post often here but I read any post that remotely piques my interest. I shoot Nikon right now. I've got a D70 and a couple of lenses: 85 1.8d, 50 1.8, the 18-70 kit lens and this kinda crappy quantaray telephoto lens.

I've got assorted filters, batteries, an sb600 flash and some memory. so even though most of you might say that I'm not really invested in Nikon, it's relative as this is still very much a hobby.

All that to say, I need some advice. I've looked at the S5, the d80. the d200, and then now have begun to contemplate "the switch". If y'all have a sec, I'd love to hear thoughts. I know a lot of folks say that it's the glass so I'm interested also, if I made the switch, what people think is a good canon body to start with if I was to put some money into glass. I know that sometimes this question can be bothersome but I'm kinda at a loss as to what direction to go.

thanks for the help.
Jake

Hey Jake-
I personally love the D80. It's going to have a LOT more shortcut buttons on the camera aka- you don't have to hunt through the menu. It's basically the same camera as the D200, just with a plastic body- which I personally like carrying around as little weight as possible when shooting weddings. We're going to be upgrading our primaries to the D3x soon, but the D80 is a nice workhorse.

Definitely upgrade to the SB800.
Hope that helps

Jake!!!! Why haven't you listened to me yet??????

Take it from a Nikon shooter: Switch to Canon.

Get a 30D and a bunch of primes: 100/2.8, 85/1.8, 50/1.8, 35/2, 24/2.8 etc. You'll learn the Canon system, enjoy low noise, and challenge yourself by having to use "sneaker zoom" to compose your shots. Once you start booking jobs you can upgrade bodies to the 2DMK10 and snicker at the fools who still use Nikon...

We're so heavily invested in Nikon (we just bought another 70-200 VR) that we'll probably never use Canon. Between the cost ($10K+ and the customer may never notice the difference), re-learning the buttons, modes, focus points, and having to deal with the different-feeling cameras it just isn't worth it to us.

But that's not the case with you. You've got time and you're early enough along to do it.

+1 - The Canon high ISO performance when properly exposed, even on a 30D, is excellent.

I went back and re-processed a hign iso image to as-shot with no NR and no sharpening to show you what's possible. This is a test shot after bath time from a a few days ago when I was practicing pushing my 30D to the limit. It was 8:00 pm, so there wasn't much light coming through the windows and less on their faces.

30D and 85 1.8 - Manual, 1/80s @ f/1.8, ISO 3200, Auto WB, No flash, NO PP

Resized Only


100% Crop of darker area - As shot


I missed focus by a nose - but it's would still have been a usable image.

I have shot all the images on my website with a D70s and an SB600, or at most 2 SB600. I had ('til about 2 weeks ago) the same setup as you do, except I don't have the 85 f1.8 lens, and 2 weeks ago I got the D200. I am going to be investing in good glass, because although the naCon (oops, Canon) users will say that the Canon's have less noise at higher ISO, which is true, simply switching based on that attribute alone is silly. The Nikon's ergonomics are far superior to that of Canon cameras. With barely reading the manual, I have been able to learn to use my D200 very fast, because things are very similar to the D70s. And if you, like me, want to use off camera flash, you don't need more than a D70/s and an SB600 using Nikon's Creative Lighting System. I put my SB600 on a light stand with an umbrella, and I am golden. Mos images of the senior on my site were shot like this.



Why does he need the SB800? It costs over $100 more than the SB600 and about the only 2 benefits I see are the 5th battery for faster recycling and the PC plug. The power is not that much grater than the SB600, raise the ISO by 1/3 stop and the SB600 has the same "reach" as the SB800. If using it with a D70/s, D80, or D200 in commander mode is not necessary because all those cameras do commander mode with the built in flash. He would need it for that application only if he was using cameras like the D2X or D2H, which have no built in flash. I have 3 SB600s that I use in commander mode from my D70s and they work perfectly. I do want more power, but for that I am looking at an Alien Bee strobe, which has gobs more power than the SB800 and costs about $50 less.

My $.02

The sb-600 is a great secondary flash to have around, without a doubt, but if you're shooting a weddding or anything with a mild bit of action you need every bit of recycle time you can coax out of the things. That alone makes it worth it for me. There are so many one time moments that i've missed with my sb-600 that is why next wedding i'll have a sb-800. I was looking into an external battery pack for the (sb-600) flash but that costs about the same and then i still only have one strobe so if something breaks i'm bunked.

You must have your finger glued to the shutter then As long as I have freshly recharged batteries on my 600s, I have been able to set my flash to TTL and +2 compensation and it recycles within a second. The times I have missed shots because of the flash not recycling fast enough, is when the batteries were about dead and the flash would take several seconds to recycle. Something else I do is shoot wide open at f2.8 and ISO 800, set the flash on manual at 1/2 or 1/4 power, and this way I can fire the flash at the rated 3 fps of the D70s. So there are ways to squeeze more use out those little flashes.

One other tiny benefit of the 800 is the integrated bounce card. I say tiny because a business card does the same thing on the 600. At a wedding I was getting dark eyes from bouncing my flash off the ceiling. I pulled out a business card and held it on the back of the flash and problem solved. People still looked at me like I was an idiot, but who cares, it got the job done.

Thanks so much for the $.02 guys. ('cept for you KK, Haha)

I know in the grand scheme of things that I'm not too invested and that the switch is possible.

If not the 5d, then what? If I get the 30d, am i going to be having this conversation in another year or two. If so, is it a case where I should shoot for a 20d and spend my cash on glass and flash? or is the 30d my best option just short of jumping to what I see as "the next level" in the 5d or an older EOS model?

Steve's images are really convincing. How come nobody has put the canon sensor in a nikon body with Nikon's flash system and, evidently, Fuji's dynamic range?! I just don't get it.

Anyway, thanks again for the opinions. I respect you guys a lot.(all of you, especially KK, Haha)

I could tell you tons of the technical reasons, but it's not really all too interesting.

www.thedigitalpicture.com is a great resource for camera and lens reviews. If you do decide to go with the switch go for 5D (if pocket allowes of course) and for glass you must already know this, nothing beats Canon L series lenses.