Lets Talk

Its been a while since i did a 'lets talk' general photographic chit chat,Well its one of those times when things are very quiet,Certainly in forums, Nikon has nothing new, The D3s has been out a while and seems to be available only to the lucky few, I have only seen one available at Amazon since it was announced and missed my chance and haven't seen one available since, Canons 1Dmk4 seems to suffer the same fate, The last 2 lenses from Nikon the 70-200 and 16-35 had there knockers early on but seem to have settled down-i have both and they seem very nice lenses, Canons 7D and 1D mk4 seemed to have there early problems but i think in the 7Ds case it was too many people buying a complex camera with little knowledge of how to set up a pro type camera, I blame Canon for this, too much camera for the price, As said the MK4 is in short supply but those that seem to have them have suffered from calibration problems but once these have been sorted it seems a very capable camera in the right hands, I have seen some stunning images fro the MK4 from the Olympics but it seems a camera that doesn't suffer fools gladly and in the wrong hands has given some horrible results and i have seen results where people have had better results with more basic cameras and seem to have had a step backwards when using Canons flagship, Thom Hogan did a good piece on his website on spending money on glass and using bodies lower in the range rather than thinking that the latest and great bodies will make you a better photographer, From what i have seen some people are better off with a 7D or even a 40D rather than a 1D4, I think people are falling for the high MP and high ISO possibilities and are taking shots are too high an ISO and then cropping the hell out of the image-this is bad photography, Being old school i still shoot at base ISO for the given situation and keep cropping to a minimum, This will always give the best IQ and will teach this to anybody who wants to know how to get the best from their camera, this is just common sense and will also help with fiedcraft-another thing that seems to be lacking in a lot of today's wildlife photography, last week i saw some images on a forum where the tog took some OK images of wildlife with a 1D4 only to say that he crops up to 75% so his 16mp camera becomes 4mp,The images look OK on the internet but i wouldn't want to buy a 16x24 image from him-BAD PHOTOGRAPHY but all too common, So lots of people who own Nikon gear wanting a 5D2 competitor-me included but nothing in the pipeline, Its that time of year when the big photography shows have been and gone and we hit the dead zone until later in the year, Personally i would love a higher MP camera from Nikon, i wont be getting a D3X but would consider a D3Xs or D900 to back up my D3, I hate the dust on the D3 although i love the camera-best i have ever used-so i dont want to get a D3X and keep the dust problem, If Nikon can do to the D3X what they did with the D3s i would be a happy camper-add a sensor cleaner,add an extra stop to the ISO and add decent video (not that i want it) and i would buy one or do the same but in a D700 body so much the better, MP still count where agencies are concerned and alot of the stuff i shoot lately don't need speed but could do with MP, Its a great time to be a photographer-never have bodies been better and image quality from all cameras is stunning (if you know how to use the camera) but we want more and more and more which is good news for the camera manufactures but can they supply?, Dont get me wrong i still feel 12 mp is more than 90% of people will ever need unless you supply photographic agencies or print very large prints, So the camera manufacturers need to up there game-its pointless putting out new bodies or lenses if you cant meet demand and photographers who buy the all new high MP cameras need to learn how to use them-don't forget that more MP will show up as badly as extra length on lenses so technique needs to be honed to get the benefits or else you are just wasting your money

Dave