Did you try thinking about ordering out of country?

I ended up buying a D300s over a used D2xs due to the speed of the D300s and the fact that will also shoot 720p video, and also can my old AI lens.

I wanted to buy a D3s however Nikon Canada has a super inflated price of $5495. for just a body without a lens

jesus $2k?
Man I feel "ripped" that I spent $750 more than that, lol!

I figured the D3 should cover me for the next 2 years, at which point the D4 will be out and drive down D3s pricing.

I plan on ALWAYS staying 1 step behind Nikon Pro bodies since it's just too large of a price drop from buying new. . .hopefully, the D3 will sell for $1250 in 2 years (current D2xs pricing), and I would've made up the $1500 price drop in profits in those 24 months (hopefully, we'll see). . .

D3s will probably hold its used pricing longer, as I suspect the D4 will disappoint on noise-levels. . (assuming MPX increase). . .

Wow are you serious? The D3s is that cheap now? I haven't bothered checking body prices for awhile because I have loved working with my D700 these past 8 months. Thats a great deal for the Lord of Darkness body though. Your prices actually seem about right as well.

guys, to make You even more jealous there was a d3 on the auction in poland that sold for $2000 - unfortunately it wasn't me who won it, as for other prices, You can quite easily get a used d3 for app $3000

PS, shivas, that's awesome about the D3. I can only be jealous.

I'm probably the wrong person to ask because I don't generally care very much about dust on the sensor. Because I do mostly portraits, I'm almost always shooting f/4, and occasionally at f/2.8 or f/5.6. At wide apertures, you don't notice dust on the sensor unless it's a big piece of dust (as in, big enough to be visible to the naked eye when you look at the sensor).

So I only wet clean my sensor about once every 3-6 months. When I do, I use a PEC pad wrapped around something flat like a broken plastic knife. And I try wiping it clean with a dry PEC pad first and only when that doesn't work I put eclipse E2 solution on it or sometimes straight methanol. The E2 stuff works for all sensors. The original eclipse solution can supposedly have problems if there are transparent electrodes made out of indium tin oxide on the sensor.

JA - have you cleaned a sensor before with the wet swab? What should one use? this E2 stuff that "they" speak of? I've googled, but wanted other pro opinion. . .

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think the sensor cleaning routine on the other cameras would do anything about greasy dirt on the sensor.

Maybe they use graphite, which it might be able to handle.

kyoshinikon said:
Probably the #1 reason I hate my D90 is the stinkin viewfinder. While much clearer than the 50D the crop ration messes up many compositions. Even the viewfinder on a borrowed D700 does that too from time to time. Another reason to get a D3 off ebay...

Yeah, the more reasearch I did into getting the D700, the one glaring error that stuck out to me was the 95% VF. I mean, they have to cripple it somehow, and frankly, there was only so much room in that body to squeeze all the goodies in!

The largest omission in the D3 is the shake sensor - and I'm just stinking worried I'm going to actually need it since I've read EVERYWHERE that the D3 kevlar shutter has some sort of lubricant on it that will spit up greasey gunk on the sensor every now and again. . .kind of annoying, but understandable since it's tested to last 300k at 9fps shots. . .:-/

shivaswrath said:

What actually sealed the deal for me?

The 100% view finder. . .I was doing a shoot this weekend and I was cropped real tight to the studio lighting (some of the equipment, using my 70-200, was just barely in the shot) so I could get an interesting composition. . .and when I got home to look more intently, found that some of the equipment got in my shot (f'in 95% VIEWFINDER).

Probably the #1 reason I hate my D90 is the stinkin viewfinder. While much clearer than the 50D the crop ration messes up many compositions. Even the viewfinder on a borrowed D700 does that too from time to time. Another reason to get a D3 off ebay...

yeah?

I just won a bid on one - $2750 with all accessories. Not sure if it's coming with a box, but I was frankly surprised that I won, haven't seen any that cheap.

I think at $2750 it made a LOT of sense. . .$600 difference with a used D700; but if I added the Enl4a battery/MH22 charger/BL3 battery door/Grip ($550), I'm already close to the same price. . .

What actually sealed the deal for me?

The 100% view finder. . .I was doing a shoot this weekend and I was cropped real tight to the studio lighting (some of the equipment, using my 70-200, was just barely in the shot) so I could get an interesting composition. . .and when I got home to look more intently, found that some of the equipment got in my shot (f'in 95% VIEWFINDER).

So key photographer takeway: COMPOSITION IS EVERYTHING, and in tight rented studio spaces in NYC, you don't have much margin for error.

I love my Used D3 :). For 3500, It was the obvious choice over a D700 with a grip.

lol, my question got dropped of at the end of my last post - are you guys seeing the same price drops?

D700 vs. D3 a worthy consideration with the D3s out and D4 on the horizon?

D2xs are going for about $1500-1750 (as far as I can tell)
D2x just around a grand

D3's are about $3300-3500; some just around $3k.

Used D700's (considered pro by Nikon) are going for $2100 or so (which is stupid since new is about $2400!)

The biggest drop looks like the D3 - I'm thinking of jumping on a used one, I feel the price difference between a new D700 ($2400-2600) and a new D3 ($3k) is SO MINIMAL for the,
1. 300,000 shutter life
2. 2 CF cards
3. Faster AF
4. longer STOCK battery life