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Originally Posted by uppis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Any D300 users..? I got mine yesterday, great camera, at least compared to D50. Feels wonderful in my hands. I'm just having a little problem with custom setting f1, multi-selector in playback mode.
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Indeed! I am strictly a user only because the camera is my dad's. I've only read the last several pages and iirc there are at least 2 or 3 D300 users.
I went shooting (photos) with a friend today around the Mong Kok, Pacific Place and Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong. He has a D300 and I got a chance to try out two of his splendid Nikon lens, the 70-200mm F/2.8 and 35mm F/2.0.
The 70-200mm was heavier than I was expecting but the images are immaculate. AF is pretty quick and I liked the "Internal Focus" feature. I'm not so sure I'd like to lug it around on holiday though...
I was even more impressed by the 35mm F/2.0, which produced razor sharp photos. The generous aperture size makes indoor photography very easy (low ISO and fast shutters). Funnily enough, I never missed the lack of 'zoom' at all. Initially, I had trouble controlling the depth of view, which required a surprising amount of skill and precision with the F-stop. I have never shot at lower than F/3.5 and never expected the focus to be so shallow at F/2.0. I didn't have a chance to verify this myself, but I felt that the same F-stop value on the 35mm produced shallower depth of view than on my dad's 18-200mm. Am I imagining things? Nevertheless, I enjoyed the 35mm's short minimum focussing distance.
The 35mm F/2.0 isn't without its drawbacks though. First, the lack of VR (which I'm used to) means that I have to use a high ISO to compensate for low light when the shot asks for a particularly small aperture and therefore slow shutter speed. This quite frankly makes hand held shooting a bit of a pain in the arse... I also discovered that even 35mm (x1.5 on DX) isn't wide enough to take photos in tight indoor spaces. I know this isn't the lens'
fault. Anyhow, I was glad I could try the 35mm because I now know that the 50mm F/1.4
/8 I was considering would've been a tad 'narrow' for my needs.
I have no photos from today because I didn't have 'my' camera with me and shot with my friend's instead.
Later in the day, we went to a large specialist camera shop in Mong Kok where my friend enquired about availability of the 24-70mm. Apparently, they only sell it with the D3 body!?
Why? They couldn't tell us... Anyhow, my friend already has one on order from one of the larger electronics retailers and will hear from them early next week. I hope to be able to try it out if it arrives before I leave Hong Kong for university, which starts in a few days. Unfortunately, that also means I will no longer have a single decent DSLR at my disposal. I do have a colleague with a D80 but it would be inconvenient and awkward to use it on a regular basis...
Hence I need to ask for some advice as to what would be a suitable Nikon package for a beginner. For the body, I was thinking one with an AF motor. I personally would like to wait for the D90 (or whatever the D80 replacement will be called) because that should have some of the D3/300's waterdowned features. For lens, the 50mm F/1.8 should be a good place to start because it is so cheap. Later on, I could perhaps add in a 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 VR and a 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR. I find this all incredibly expensive and not something easily affordable by a student with no regular income whatsoever. Considering my inexperience and newness to this "hobby", for lack of a better word, should I start with the much cheaper, more basic but still very decent D60 kit? My main concern are the lens restriction and that the D60 may be too basic(?).
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