I want to give you my personal feelings and observations on the D700

No facts just opinions

There’s plenty of sites with specific details on this new camera so i’ll not repeat this but give you a little of my opinion and leave the stats and facts to them.

My Camera background:

I’ve owned the following cameras

D70
D70s
D200
D300

I use lenses that are low light 2.8 or lower.

D300

That being said earlier this year I bought the D300 primarily because I wanted to be able to operate at higher ISO

While I’m happy I have the D300 i must say that I haven’t been operating at higher ISOs with it.
I think I’m getting pickier and pickier and the way they “get rid” of the grain wasn’t to my liking.

So once again I got a new camera hoping that it would work well in those high ISOs.

Problem Solved

And my first opinion is… it most certainly does seem to solve my ISO problems.

To someone taking pictures in darker situations (receptions or indoors anywhere) that’s a big deal and could be worth the $3k

Right now I’m looking at some pictures I took at a reception. It was dark outside they were cutting the cake and I wanted to be at a faster speed to avoid movement blur when they smeared the cake in eachothers face.

125th of a second speed and 1000ISO and the picture was completely useable… and that’s what it’s all about.

I haven’t been afraid to go up much higher than 1000ISO but I haven’t tested exactly the level that I am comfortable with. My guess is I’d probably go all the way to 3200 without too much concern. And if it’s alright to have a moody grainy picture I might even go up to 12k.

UPDATE: I’ve been looking at a lot of the pictures taken at 1600 and I’ll absolutely use them without any hesitation. They look great! They’re somewhat soft and maybe not crisp as most pictures but had I taken them with another camera the grain would have been prohibitive or at a slower shutter speed the pictures might have been very blury (and that’s worse)

Not only was the grain not a factor but the colors were beautiful!

A Pleasant Surprise

I wasn’t expecting that!
It will take some more shoots to really get a handle on it but my first impression is that the color of the pictures might be way better on this camera… which certainly saves me a lot of time in editing.

Enjoyed it more than I thought.

I always considered myself more of a telephoto kind of guy.
So when I picked up the full frame camera and lost that 50% increase in telephoto I thought it would just be alright. But I must say I really enjoyed it. My 28mm lens acted just like my 18mm lens of old.

Now this just means I’ve got to get a 14-24 2.8 nikon lens for $1600 later in the month.

This is my perspective and it comes from my opinions of my D300 and how it compares… If you have any questions ask away.

I’ve edited about a dozen photo shoots since I last posted one to the blog.
As i mentioned previously I’ve just been making the large password protected galleries, so that won’t let most of you see what’s been going down.

But now I’m almost done with all my edits (for now) and I thought I’d take a moment to post a recent photo shoot.

Since the last you’ve seen I now own 2 new lenses.

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It was hard to choose because there were seriously dozens that could all have been strong contenders for announcement pictures.

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Day 21 - Carcassone France - 84 Pictures
Day 22 - Balaguer (Catalonia) Spain - 28 Pictures
Day 23 - Catalonia Spain - 47 Pictures
Day 24 - Catalonia Spain - 35 Pictures
Day 25 - Costa Brava (Catalonia) - 51 Pictures
Day 26 - Barcelona - 75 Pictures
Day 27 - Barcelona - 33 Pictures
Day 28 - South Coast Spain - 15 Pictures
Day 29 - Alicante & Murcia - 34 Pictures

Jun08 - A Coruña - 40

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The couple members of the Jones family are related to a girl (Lisa Baugh) for whom I did Bridals, Engagements and later her wedding.

The mother called and wanted me to take pictures at the same place I did Lisa’s engagement pictures.

Therefore these pictures were taken on BYU campus near the Bell Tower and the water falls.

I took pictures of the whole family and then separately each family.

Last weekend I traveled with 3 friends to Page, AZ

While there we visited Lake Powell hiked through a lesser slot canyon and did other smaller hikes around town.
Then on the way back to Provo we spent a few hours at Bryce Canyon National Park.

There are 4 galleries all require Flash to view.

Lake Powell 35 Images

Canyons (Around Page) 36 Images

Bryce Canyon 52 Images

Page Area 36 Images

Small gallery of pictures from a recent trip down to Manti Utah

Go here to see Full Gallery of 15 Pictures

There are 2-3 pictures that were taken by a friend and edited by myself such as…
I’m not sure who it was because I let a few people borrow the camera.

I did a wedding about a month ago in Boston and a reception in Connecticut.
I stayed before and after and took pictures of the area.

Trip 1 - Circle around Connecticut
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I drove around the state of connecticut starting in the southwest corner going up to the northwest corner and all the way to the east corner. By that time it was dark so I made my way back. I started a bit later in the day followed the directions on my GPS device and made frequent stops but often for time’s sake took pictures from the car.

Trip 2 - Connecticut Coast
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I picked 4-5 parks or wildlife reserves to stop at and went along the coast of connecticut until I reached a lighthouse in Rhode Island where I watched sunset and then drove back.

Trip 3 - New York
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I walked around Manhattan for hours including central park and then when I was too tired to walk anymore I made my way back to where I was staying in Connecticut.

Trip 4 - Boston
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After doing the wedding at the Boston LDS Temple I went to downtown Boston and took some pictures for a few hours until it got dark.

See the Galleries:

Inland Connecticut
Coast
Boston
NYC