D2X or D200

Alex wrtoe: "The megapixels and image quality of the D2X will not save you from poor underwater photographic technique"

I thought that the more expensive the equipment you own, the better photographer you are.

Hi Gang,

Believe you me - now that I have a Seacam housing for my Canon I won't be changing my housing anytime soon. I bought it with the clear goal of upgrading to a 1DsmkII at some pt in the future so y'all can expect that and start preparing your jokes now...:-)

Remember folks, the D100 and D60 came out at the same time about 3 yrs ago. There have been many Canon prosumer upgrade options since then, and really NO Nikon upgrade options. Many Canon shooters opted to go from the D60 to the 20D, since it delivers lower noise higher megapixel images and does it MUCH faster. So, I'd call that a "worthwhile upgrade" if not a necessary one. Nikon shooters didn't even get the option - one which I would have liked - being a frenetic upgrader...:-)

Cheers

James

This whole subject really just comes down to how much money you have to spend, I think...

For 99% of non-professional photographers, the difference in the quality of the pics they can get with a D2x versus a D50 is very small. Sure, more megapixels are nice, but only if you're cropping or printing posters.

As our hobby is evolving very quickly, people are jumping in with gusto into the underwater DSLSR scene. If they jump in in the middle or toward the end of a 3 1/2 year Nikon product cycle, when Canon has a 12 month cycle, which system are they going to buy into? :-)

That is a great point, however I think the longer product cycle is also going to make new DSLR users take a serious look at buying used gear. The cost of getting into a DSLR is pretty intimidating once you start looking at buing a half dozen lenses, ports, extensions, zoom gears, etc. I was looking to buy a D70 for my first camera, but ended up with a pre-loved S2 and 4 good lenses with all the ports, extensions, gears, etc. for less than I could have gotten into a D70 with one lense for. And, the S2, though old, is still way more camera than I can handle.

This will help the equipment we already have hold it's value a lot better, making it easier for us to upgrade once we truly grow out of our current gear.

Is there any camera in the last 5 years (other than the D2X) that James hasn't upgraded to?  B)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The S3

That's about all I can think of

The S3

 

That's about all I can think of

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Doesn't count. No housing.

I expect James' upgrade coverage will actually increase in the future now that he can justify it as "doing it for Sarah".

At least we know why gas prices are so high...James "Oil Man" Wiseman needs to buy more cameras now that he is married... :)

We're both set up just fine thank you very much. Now if I was only some kind of oil company stockholder right now - instead of a lousy consulting engineer. We get no respect.

OK back on topic.

James

All this talk of updating cameras every x months is about to become a pretty moot point.

Resolution is almost as good as you need right now in the low-end cameras. If Alex can publish 6mp shots in a magazine how much more resolution do you need? And I don't see the resolution game keeping up from here on out the way it has been. Ken Rockwell has an article on this here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notmooreslaw.htm

Noise levels are already so low that it takes DPREVIEW charts to distinguish between cameras. Full frame should help here at very high ISO but so far that remains to be seen. So far the 20D cropped sensor is pretty comparable with the 1DS or 5D full frame. So when paired with digital WA lenses the significance of full frame is much less compelling.

The main limitations I can see right now are things that can't easially be solved in the budget SLRs. Autofocus and viewfinders could make getting the right shot easier. But I don't see the price of these features comming down much. I think these will always be attributes of pro level SLRs ($$$$$). And they are available now already at a price.

So I think that those who bought into the top bracket (D2X/1DS) will have protected their investment if your measure is by having all the camera you need to make stunning photos. Others that bought into the low-end DSLR need not keep chasing the latest budget SLR innovation. These cameras are all you need to produce stunning phots within their limitations. If that is not enough or gear lust is too strong he upgrade path is simply to the pro level , and not bothering with constant horizontal upgrades.

I think that the D70 is still more camera than I need. It autofucuses, allows manual control of aperture and shutter, reasonable noise and resolution "good enough for magazine quality" and now does TTL too. Everything else can be solved with technique (which is my main limitation).