Choosing a DSLR is all about compromises… And I believe a real pro will not compromise on the same things as I do. They always seem to want it all, even things that might not be important to you and me. Shopping for photo equipment is more difficult than ever because the market is changing so quickly. New top features seem come out every 6 months and deciding to go for a product always means leaving the next one aside. Pros don’t care about this because they know they will change every 6 months if they have to. Not me.

For the last 15 years, I’ve had a Canon AE-1 program, a Nikon D100, a Sony DSC-R1 and a Nikon D700 which I purchased recently. That’s it. I tend to keep my gear for a long time until I feel a new product will bring me new valuable features that will change the way I take pictures radically. With digital SLR’s, price of used equipment is dropping much faster. Your three years old camera has probably lost 50% or more of it’s value, so selling it for buying every new hot camera will quickly cost you a fortune. Manufacturers want you to upgrade as often as possible of course. But for a non-professional like me, any 6MP+ DSLR is at least as good as anything from the 24×36 film ages in terms of image quality, when printed up to 30×45 cm. Everybody was very happy with that no longer than 10 years ago. As far as I’m concerned, the DSLR pixel war ended in 2002 at 6MP . From that point, I never considered more pixels as a feature any more, just as a bonus. Why change then?

I think every new camera you buy should open new perspectives in terms of photography.

Back in the 90’s, I was a student so I couldn’t afford the fancy camera I was dreaming of (a Nikon F100) and I didn’t want to burn money on a a crappy consumer SLR kit, with cheap plastic zoom lenses, either. So I decided to drop the autofocus from my priority list, and to learn the hard way on an old fashioned (but trusted) Canon AE-1 program. The good news was that nobody wanted this kind of  gear any more, so it was very easy to fill a big photo bag with tons of used equipment and great manual focus lenses for a couple of Euro. The body itself was belonged to my father and wasn’t  being used it for quite some time, so it didn’t cost me a anything. I was shooting mostly B&W (HP5, Delta 100, Delta 3200) and processing everything in a small home lab in order to control the whole chain from framing to printing. This is where I learned it all.

In 2002, student days were over and I didn’t have time to play around with my lab any more, so purchasing a Nikon D100 and Photoshop was a great way to get even more control with no compromise on image quality. I chose the Nikon instead of the Canon EOS D60 because it was better featured, I got it for an incredibly low price and I didn’t mind changing brand since none of my manual focus Canon lenses were compatible with the EOS system anyway.

I shot a lot of pictures with the D100, and loved the result. But in the meantime I had kids and I realized quickly that a big and heavy SLR’s aren’t exactly what young parents need. It soon became difficult to find a place to fit a photo bag with a couple of lenses in the trunk of the car, or to walk around all day long with an SLR on one shoulder and a baby sleeping on the other. Above all, a baby’s natural environment is around 30 cm above the ground, and I was spending much more time eating the dust laying on the floor, trying to find a good angle, than actually taking great shots of my kid.

How lucky…  Sony came out with the perfect camera for me : the DSC-R1, a big point and shoot with a 10 MP large APS sized CMOS sensor, looking like a small and light SLR. Not bad… Did it have more?  Yes, a great  24-120mm f/2.8-4.8 lens, with a manual zoom and a focus ring. The lens could not be removed from the body, which solved problems like “shall I bring one more big heavy lens with me” and guaranteed a sensor free of dust.

The screen could move in any direction. No more laying down on the floor. I could shoot in any position from any angle! Last but not least, it was not an expensive camera considering the great value for money. Unfortunately it didn’t have a optical viewfinder though.

I kept using the D100 for serious stuff in parallel with the DSC-R1  until recently, still having in mind Canon’s range of full frame DSLR (the first one being the EOS 1Ds in 2003)  running around my mind.  I knew full frame would be my next step, and I’d jump on  the first  reasonably priced Fx camera Nikon would be kind enough to produce. So I skipped the D200 and the D300 because I didn’t feel the step forward was huge enough to me, although the D300 was very tempting. So was the EOD 5D when it came out, but selling all these great Nikon lenses? You know what I mean… During this period, I deliberately avoided buying any Dx Lens (Nikon name for lenses designed for small APS sized sensors). The D700 came out 5 years after the 1Ds. A long wait indeed!

In the end, I’m very happy of my choice. A D300 wouldn’t bring me a full frame format, an insane ISO range, a huge viewfinder or the magic automatic ADR (Adaptive Dynamic Range or D-Lighting). Other major improvements from previous camera include AF, handling, build quality, in-camera controls & shortcuts, etc… Waw! Now that’s a big step forward!

So does the D700 open new perspectives? Yes, definitely. Shooting with available light in any condition, having a true ultra-ultra-wide angle and cranking up colors the way I want are just a few examples of what makes this kind of picture possible now. And beleive me I have tons like this!