Photographic Equipment: Why I Would Like a New Camera

I'm going to do something I typically try to avoid: write about my photographic equipment and the equipment I wish I had.  Note that I have managed to keep myself honest enough to know that I don't NEED a new camera.  I would like a new one and this post will help me get my thoughts straight about why I would like a new one, just to make sure I'm being honest with myself.

My reasoning for usually avoiding these subjects is that photo equipment is really just a set of tools.  It is funny that people usually won't ask a painter or sculptor too many questions about the tools they used to create their paintings or sculpture.  But I've often heard, and I'm not criticizing anyone when I say this, "Wow--you must have a really nice camera!"  I usually take that to mean that they appreciate my photo.  Nevertheless, our culture seems to suggest to people that nice cameras produce nice photographs.  Obviously, that is not always the case.  It can go both ways.

Another reason I avoid this subject is to keep myself from falling into the "...if only I had this one camera body..." trap.  Substitute "camera body" with any other photo equipment you can imagine.  It takes the fun out the craft and I'm pretty geeky so I fall into this trap easily.

So here it goes.

I currently shoot with a Nikon D50 which was one of Nikon's original entry level digital SLRs, first released in 2005.  They stopped making this model in 2006 or 07 as I recall, simply because they introduced others with more features and greater capabilities.

This D50 is a fine camera and I find it a pleasure to work with under most circumstances.  I've come to know how it works reasonably well so that it is like a trusted friend.  I've even found a couple of quirks that are sometimes annoying but not completely debilitating--and which of our friends don't also have a few of those?

For example, sometimes when shooting with a speedlight (either an SB-600 or 800) connected to the camera with the SC-29 TTL cable, the camera just stops focusing for each shot.  Not sure why.  Turning the camera and flash off and then back on again seems to solve the problem.  Annoying?  Yes.  Do I hate my camera for this?  No.  It would probably be a little more problematic if my livelihood depended on getting shots quickly but that's not the case.  At least not yet.

And while we're on the subject of flash, MasterBuilder, one of our readers asked whether I use Nikon's CLS system to trigger the off-camera flashes.  The short answer: Not usually.  I'll address that in more detail in a later post but I've found some things about CLS that I don't like and some things about full manual mode that I like.

For a mere six megapixel camera, the D50 is usually more than adequate for creating images to display online.  For print, six sometimes seems a little spare, especially when I consider printing anything larger than 8x10.  So this is an area where my next camera will need to step up the game a few notches.  I don't think I need a 24 megapixel Nikon D3x but 12 megapixels or more would be enough to get me in the stock photo game and allow me to make larger prints.

Focusing on the D50 is one area where my good friend could stand some improvement and that improvement would allow me to take a substantially broader array of shots.  The D50 is much more nimble than most point-and-shoot models in terms of focusing and capturing an image.  But as soon as my subject starts moving very much, things become pretty challenging.  I also struggle with the mere 5 focus points.  If one of the points do not fall in the part of the image you need to focus on, you have to go to manual focus.  This in itself is not horrible for landscape work, but the combination of manual focus and relatively small viewfinder make it tough to get focus right when you're doing it manually.

The D50 is also not the fastest in terms of frames per second.  We pretty much top out at 1.5 frames per second in practical terms, even with a higher end memory card.  This became painfully obvious when EV and I went to shoot the skeleton and bobsleds at the olympic park a few months ago.  Granted,  the sleds are moving at more than 70 MPH (that's about 110 KPH for our non-US readers).  But it would have been nice to grab two or three shots each time a sled passed vs. just one.

Bracketing is somewhat limited as well.  You get three frames per bracket set but you can define how many stops above and below the metered frame you get.  Given my interest in HDR landscapes, it would be really nice to shoot a five frame set.  In fact, I believe this could result in substantive improvements to many of my shots.

For macro shots, it would be nice to have better high ISO capabilities but I need to do more homework here.  Flash may actually be a better answer to this problem and I've got some decent flashes now.  I can hardly wait for spring.

The 2 inch LCD screen is also a little rough to work with.  I cannot count the number of times I thought I nailed the shot I wanted based on looking at the LCD on the camera only to find that the focus was off or the camera shook and blurred the image once I download the file to the computer.  Pretty much all of the newer DSLRs solve this problem with larger, higher resolution screens.

So, while I really enjoy my D50, these are the features that would permit me to make substantive improvements in my images:

- 12+ megapixels

- Faster focusing

- More focus points with larger frame coverage

- 4+ frames per second

- Bracketing with five frames per set

- Larger, higher resolution LCD screen

- Higher ISO capabilities (this is not critical but would be nice to have)

This all points to the Nikon D300 or it's soon to be replacement.  I handled one at Pictureline in Salt Lake a couple of months ago and one thing struck me immediately: It is much more nimble in terms of focusing and shooting.  Hopefully Nikon manages to announce the D400 or whatever they will call the replacement to the D300 in the next few weeks, possibly at PMA (photographic trade show held each year in March).

So there, my friends, you have it.  I'll try to stay away from this topic and keep to the images.

Comments

[emptynest]

Just glad to see you are back posting. Seems there is always something better we would like to have, but don't really need. I am learning like my point and shoot Nikon. Photoshop Elements really improves some of my photos! Glad I took your advice about the camera.

[Sijbrich]

I wish you could have been here for New Years and you could have played around with my D80. It fulfills a lot of the requirements that you'd like to improve upon. But you know, skipping up to a D300 wouldn't hurt, either.;-)

[Edwina]

I saw a D90 yesterday and it was a discounted (30% off) floor model. Hmmm. I can only imagine how many ribbons you'd have with a D200. ;)

[r-dean]

i definitely have seen lot's of evidence [on flickr] on the point, that what camera you have, does not mean you take 'good' photo's or 'bad'. it really does come down to you deciding to/have the skill/artistic vision, to use what you have.

i'm guessing the d300 is around the same level as the canon d40/d50. and yes, i'd like one of those. for most of the same reasons.