Whew! I'm tired; just returned from my day's outing to the San Diego Photo Expo and want to report on my experience with Nikon cameras at the show. As you would expect, Nikon was out in force and had lots of cameras and lens to play with for a short while. I was able to literally have all three subject cameras in front of me at once: a D90, a D300s, and a D700. Yes, it was lots of fun.
It didn't take me long to determine that the D90 is a bit too small for my hands. While feeling better than some Canons, the D90 is smaller and just too closely configured to be really comfortable. The most comfortable was the D700; the D300s was really comfortable also. Importantly, I Really like the larger viewfinder on the D700. The viewfinders on the D90 and D300 are about the same, if not exactly the same. Workable, but not as good with my glasses. I am right eye dominant so I don't have a problem with lining my face up to the viewfinder.
I discussed camera bodies/lenses/my shooting/my experience/the weather/and MLB with the Nikon rep and left feeling that I will probably go with the D300s because of the better feel but lower price.
Because I KNOW that when the D700 is upgraded to whatever (D700x/D800/D900/?), I will be getting one.
In the meantime, I can get the D300s, play with the video a little bit, and acquire some lenses that will work on both the DX and FX bodies.
I was tempted to buy one of the "show specials" kits (they had one for each of the three cameras in question. However, with all of these kits, they had paired the body with a lens that I would not buy all by itself. Plus, you were buying in the kit, a tripod, a camera bag, a UV filter, and a circular polarizing filter, plus a few other diddly little gadgets. None of that stuff interested me. So even though they were not collecting state income tax (almost 9% in Calif), the show "deals" just weren't good enough for me. Too bad as I would have liked to benefit the local dealers that were the sponsoring vendors.
So, I have decided to just continue to wait until the Christmas specials/rebates come along and see what happens. At that time I will probably buy the D300s, along with 2, maybe 3, nice lenses. In the meantime, I can drool and contemplate what lenses to buy.
Oh, I did attend four of the hour long seminars and really enjoyed and benefited from them. I sat through two put on by Nikon: one about use of speedlights and flash, and the other about different camera setups and lenses. Both seminars were great for me and I learned lots.
I'm tired now; off to bed. Yawn~ Nick V
