Needs Advice

[Buki]

hello guys. Can anybody give me any advice on something that I am thinking of doing. I was thinking of selling my Nikon D60 to upgrade to a D80. Is that a good idea? or it doesn't really matter if I upgrade. I bought a new lens a couple of weeks ago and it works perfectly fine with the D60. So what do you think is my best option. Keep it and continue working with a good lens or sell it and buy a better camera?

Buki

Edited November 8, 2008 by Buki

[NordicMan]

hello guys. Can anybody give me any advice on something that I am thinking of doing. I was thinking of selling my Nikon D60 to upgrade to a D80. Is that a good idea? or it doesn't really matter if I upgrade. I bought a new lens a couple of weeks ago and it works perfectly fine with the D60. So what do you think is my best option. Keep it and continue working with a good lens or sell it and buy a better camera?

Buki

It's a tough question. It depends on where you feel your current limitations are. Perhaps you often feel that your lenses do not get wide enough for you to capture the scene, in which case buying a wide-angle lense would give much more improvements. Or perhaps you would like to photographs animals and birds.

If you want to shoot sports, a faster camera will help.

Or, you could want better weather sealing, so you can use the camera in rain and mud without worries.

or, perhaps save the money and spend it on a trip somewhere instead? A trip to Sukothai with your D60 will give you better photos than staying in your home with a D80...

I use a D80 myself and am generally happy with it except for high noise in shadow areas, even at low iso on tripod.

cheers

nm

[Bard]

hello guys. Can anybody give me any advice on something that I am thinking of doing. I was thinking of selling my Nikon D60 to upgrade to a D80. Is that a good idea? or it doesn't really matter if I upgrade. I bought a new lens a couple of weeks ago and it works perfectly fine with the D60. So what do you think is my best option. Keep it and continue working with a good lens or sell it and buy a better camera?

Buki

I would invest in very good lenses instead, low f stop and good quality. What normally limits the pictures first is the kit lens and or cheap additional lenses with high f stop. A better camera body only shows you the limitations in the lenses more. When you have a wide, standard and tele kit you're really happy with add up with a D80 or D90 and use the D60 as a spare body...

I don't know your needs so it's hard to speak for others, take a look at www.photo.netequipment/nikon and check out there Nikon section for the small sensor cameras I think they recommend Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC for Nikon or the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX As a standard lens, Nikon 12-24mm f/4G ED IF Autofocus DX for wide angle and a Nikon 180mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF for telephoto. The Sigma is very hard to get hold of in Thailand it's easier to order it from Amazon or any other overseas seller. The 17-55 zoom is easy to find in Thailand and very very good. These lenses are not cheap but very good and would get the best out of your camera body.

Cheers Bard

[Buki]

thanks for all your advices. The very reason that I have my dslr in the first place is because I wanted to pursue photography as a hobby(flickr: Nong Bee). I am still learning the ropes in photography. Though, I try not to be technical on how I shoot but I rely more on my instinct; to think whether it was a good shot or not. However, I sometimes feel that I don't have the best camera with me, so I want to sell it; or I would sometimes think I haven't really used the maximum functions of my camera, so I want to keep it for some time and work with it; thats the irony of things.

And looking at the nice photos taken by the D80 makes me want to buy one. But I also feel that I can really make use of what I have now. I recently bought a sigma lens (18-200mm 3.5-5.6 HSM OC) and its working fine with the camera. But there is a nagging thought of upgrading, and knowing that I might have difficult time learning again with a new and advanced camera. I placed some ads online, about selling my d60, and there are some decent response. So i am stuck.

[Bard]

Take a look here http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nikon%20d6...w=all&s=int gives you an idea of what the camera can do, plus it might give inspiration for you.

Cheers Bard

[baahjun]

I try not to be technical on how I shoot but I rely more on my instinct

And looking at the nice photos taken by the D80 makes me want to buy one

- It's good to learn about the technical aspects of photography, so that after a while you can use it without thinking about it.

- the camera doesn't take the photographs, I have seen great photographs made with far worse cameras than the D60

If you want to spend money, buy glass, the first nikon lens to buy would be a 50 mm 1.8, one of the best lenses nikon ever made, and very cheap, it also takes away your possibilities to zoom and forces you to be more creative.

Also when I look at link in prev post on flickr, there's a lot of photoshopping going on so improving postprocessing skills will help you to get more satisfiyng results

good luck

[Buki]

Thanks for all your advices. They were very helpful. I decided not to buy a Nikon D80 but instead, I bought a Nikon D90. I read the reviews, the D90 sounds promising and without any hesitation, I bought one two days ago. I'm very happy with my purchase. It is an amazing camera. Since, I have invested so much money on this hobby, I think its about time to take it seriously and invest more time on learning how to use the camera, learning on how to take great shots, and learning on how to improve my post processing skills.

btw, I am glad that we have this forum to talk about these things, because beginners like me would be lost without the guidance of experienced photographers who know more a thing or two about photography. So, thank you everybody.

[The Vulcan]

Thanks for the thumbs up - good to hear others are benefitting.

Good luck on your learning curve. Post a few shots in the "evaluate my photograph" section and see what the feedback is. Great way to learn

[Kf6vci]

Mmh, are you unhappy with the D60? What makes you think a new body will be the answer? often, a single focus lens might give better performance... What are you photographing? A macro lens might open up new possibilities and work well for portraits, too.

If you are serious, look into medium format film cameras like an old Mamiya RBG 67 or a Hasselblad 500.

At some point, I felt that the quantity is not the answer. The quality of a medium format photo is the answer. Take less but better quality photos. A few good ones will give you more pleasure than hundreds mediocre ones.

You can get used MF gear on eBay.

*********

If you like digital and the smaller size, then wait until new sensors come out. I cannot see benefits from the proposed upgrade. Get to know your camera and all the settings. Use photoshop and try a fast tele or something besides those horrible zoom lenses with an aperture of 5.6 (I used the Zeiss 2.0 / 110 mm lens for portraits on a Hasselblad and the results are amazing). Nikon has many lenses, just lok beyond the standard zooms!

[phuketrichard]

good luck with the 90. I borught the 80 and am very pleased with it.

Also have the 18-200 vr lense and a 50 1.8 and thats all I need till i can afford the fish eye

Learn photoshop cs3 BUT take my advice and don't rely on it to make your average photos great

shit in....shit out

Edited November 21, 2008 by phuketrichard

[Kf6vci]

Hello agaion, Buki:

if you are pleased with a superzoom like 18 to 200 mm, then you really won't need a body upgrade!

Instead of looking at hardware, why not focus on your own education?

Fred Picker has some great books. You should benefit from learnign Ansel Adam's Zone System and do explore black & white photography and darkroom technique if you can.

The only zoom I have is a Mamiya 100-200 mm. The better ones are Canon's L glass. As I don't know nikons, I cannot recommend any lens.

But to learn the basics, a manual focus lens would have its benefits. Re-learn depth of field, stopping down and even the way you measure light. Caucasian skin requires an overexposure of 1 stop. (Most films are faster than it says on the package).

Bottom line: until you see the limitiations of that superzoom, don't bother with more gear. Because when you reach the stage when lenses matter, there will be far more sophisticated camweras available.

I kinda liked a Yashica T4 with a Zeiss 35 mm lens. Many pros like the Canon G9 although they have digital medium format equipment worth a lot more than a new BMW.

Taking one portrtait with the Acute Matte focussing screen and a Zeiss 2.0 110 mm lens will spoil you for your superzoom.

[svenivan]

Take a look here http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nikon%20d6...w=all&s=int gives you an idea of what the camera can do, plus it might give inspiration for you.

Cheers Bard

Thanks for the link! I have been to flickr before but forget the name.

Now I also searched for "Sony A900" and I could see lots of fantastic photos. There are a lot of very, very good photografers that post photos in flickr.

Thanks again!