Well, I finally bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on D700¹. Sounds painful, I know. But I’m happy that it finally happened. I’ve been saving up² and waiting for this since the end of August.

I’ve done a LOT of reading and was convinced that my old trusty D70 was needed to be replaced and that Nikon D700 was my dream camera. There are multiple raving reviews all over the net. The camera has an amazing ISO performance and one of the best AF systems. A lot of that is contributed to by it’s full frame sensor³.

There are multiple other distinctions which are covered in numerous reviews, so I’m not going to go through the list. ISO and 51 AF points (as opposed to 5) were among the main reasons for me.

Initially I decided to wait for the next iteration of the camera. And then several weeks ago I saw a whole different perspective on the issue. The price has came down from $3,000 to $2,399. I think its safe to assume that the new one will be introduced at the same price point. Is there any new future that I would pay $600 more for? I can’t think of anything.

Video? Nice, but it would be 1 week of play for me and never would be used again. A second CF slot? Again, nice, but not $600 nice. Improved sensor from D3s? Again, nice, but not $600 nice. And resolution bump for sacrificed ISO performance? Would be a downer for me. I was happy with 6 mega-pixels, I sure will be happy with 12.

Either way the upgrade for me is huge and most of it is positive. The only negative is that the new combo is noticeably heavier and bigger then the old setup, but I’m more than happy to live with this trade off for all the benefits.

I also did buy a new “main” lens. The jump from DX to FX have rendered a pair of my lenses somewhat useless. Beside that my D70 kit lens was never anything to write home about. The new lens is one of the top Nikon lenses — Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED. According to reviews the lens is extremely sharp in all of its extremes and has very little distortion of any kind. After all, the body is going to only perform as nice as the glass attached to it.

In short, I’m very happy and very excited. Have a lot of learn about the new body, get rid of some of the habits that formed over the years with D70 and then have fun.

I just love getting presents! This birthday has been especially good for my photography hobby. I got 2 great new lenses. One is a wide lens that I mentioned yesterday was given to my by Alena, my parents and my sister Lina. Today I got another one. An awesome Sigma macro lens (check out the shot on top) from Eldar and Moisha! Last year was great as well, when I got a super zoom lens from Maruks for my birthday. Thank you, everybody!!!

Here’s my current list of lenses (all autofocus), listed in the order I got them:

• Nikon Zoom Super Wide Angle AF 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor
• Sigma Zoom Telephoto 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG APO HSM
• Sigma 2x EX DG APO Autofocus Teleconverter
• Nikon Normal AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
• Sigma Zoom Super Wide Angle 10-20mm f/4-5.6D EX DC HSM
• Sigma Telephoto 105mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro

I can’t wait to take more pictures with my new ones now. Niagara Falls will be a good test for wide angle lens, weather permitting.

I wanted it for a long time now. Finally I have it. Bought it today at Best Buy.

The battery is charged. I took about 40 pictures of misc stuff already. It feels awsome.

A cool discovery: when you decrease the aperture the depth of focus increases.

The first picture is taken with aperture of f/5.6 and ISO 200. Second is taken with f/22 and ISO 800. The hairy cactus is focused on both of them, but on the second picture 3 other cactuses are also focused!