Nnnnsic wrote:Geeze Walter, you change camps so damn frequently.
Leigh,
I have waited until the present acquisition season had passed so as not to derail this thread in appropriatyely.
It has been a long-standing tradition over many decades. The photo industry in Australia has lived high on the hog thanks to my frustrations with kit - particularly Medium Format kit where I would switch systems as often as a couple of times a year in quest of the ideal. I digress to point out that Nedium Format is uniqque like that and it's not just me. There was a US photo magazine article several years back about a guy whpo pointed out that he had bought ONE 35mm system and stuck with iot forever - Nikon, as it happens. The same guy had reached a similar understanding to myself and said that after 11 switches in 10 years he had come to the conclusion that in MF one really needed two systems to meet all expectations.
Why did you decide not to go down that path?
You mean, why did I choose to go Nikon in addition to Canon? Well the EOS 5D is a camera that I rely one commercially to derive an income and it cost 5 grand, sort of. I needed to get out and work with digital if I were to familiarise myself its foibles and develop a workflow suited to my clients' needs. If I stuffed the Canoin in doing this I would be in deep shit work-wise. I was offered a deal on the D70s and a 45mm P lens. I took it and on the whole was very happy with it. So happy in fact that I added to the system pretty promptly and re-evaluated my 'personal' exploits based on the capabilities it provided.
Hell, if you'd already started selling Nikon gear previously and were getting out of Nikon, why'd you even consider going down that path in the first place?
Given the benefits of the Canon with my commercial endeavours and, in particular, the incredible flexibility the 24mm TS-E offfered not only with work with the built environment but also the customised motorcycles I do frequently I purchased the other two TS-E lenses - the 45mm and the 90mm. Given their cost I had pangs of guilt about over-capitalising and decided that since the Nikon kit did not really earn its keep income-wise, I would forego it. Hence the sale. But some of the lenses have not sold - especially the 60mm Micro-Nikkor which is one of the best 35mm style lenses I have ever encountered (including Leica) and so I thought that perhaps a D200 as a stand-alone with the 60mm might be a pleasant way to go.
Truth is, though, that for my personal work digital capture (at the level of the DSLR, at least) simply doesn't cut it. The film holders have been loaded and over the break I shall be back into what I am passionate about and that is shooting sheets as my nom-de-plume implies.
That makes me quite a happy camper. There has been a slight cost to servicing my DSLR 'learning-curve' but not a lot and besides there's no free lunches.
The kit I use is always and has been always determined by the end use and sometimes you have to try new avenues that arise. Better to make a judgement based on experience than one based on conjecture and third-party opinion.
Thanks for asking.
Cheers,