Photicious All Photography

The Nikon D90’s an amazing camera for the price! I bought it for travel - my regular D300’s and D700 are just too big, heavy, expensive and conspicuous.

Click on the thumbnail to see the original image taken at 6400 ISO, F2.8, 1/10th of a second hand held (it was really dark in this cave in the Marble Mountains, Vietnam) with a 17-55/2.8, no flash. The image is straight out of the camera, all the EXIF data is intact. No, it isn’t quite near the D3/D700’s low noise levels, but then it costs just 1/3 the price!

The D90 sure has lowered the cost-of-entry for new wedding photographers entering the business. I’d say all you need to get some pretty darn good pictures is:

* A D90

* A 17-55/2.8 Lens

* An SB600 flash (the camera’s built-in flash is the backup)

* Your old SLR and lens as a backup

* A bunch of batteries for the flash, a backup battery for the D90 and some memory cards

* Your artistic eye and technical photographic knowledge (you didn’t think the camera alone would get you great pictures, did you?)

With the war between Canon and Nikon in full swing on all fronts: image, features and price (lucky us!), I can’t help but notice the production inefficiencies of Nikon, ultimately hurting us consumers but also Nikon. This is evident from small details.

The D300, D700 and D90 have the same 3″ display, right? That’s good.

But look at the display covers:

D90: BM-10

D300: BM-8

D700: BM-9

Say what?

Yes and they are not interchangeable, although the size difference is in the millimeters!

(the D3 has no display cover)

The D3X was just announced and I’m still wondering why Nikon chose this path.

Who needs the D3X? Commercial photographers and landscape photographers.

Hasselblad territory, although I doubt those people will stray Nikon’s way (those who wanted chose Canon a while ago).

With the Canon 5D-II with it’s 21MP just out, at ONE THIRD the price of a D3X, and the Sony A900 offering the same pixel count as the Nikon also at ONE THIRD the price, there is simply no reason for anyone to go Nikon, other than to reuse an available lens collection for supplementary commercial work.

Nada.

Bad move, Nikon. You should have plunked the sensor into a D800….

At last.

Ho-hum.

24.5 Megapixels. ISO 1600…

The price? Double that of the D3! Haha, you must be joking, Nikon.

A studio camera. But in the time it took to release this baby, Hasselblad has racked up to 50 Megapixels (H3DII-50). I think it’s a great portable all-round entry system for budding studio togs, but the Blad will still be the gear to get for the real pro. We shall see.

I love the Giugiaro design of this body, though! Just compare it to the clunky mess of the Sony below.