> Posted by Paul Tchiloyans (Charlie) > Get yourself a D70 and start enjoying the advanced features of this > great camera.
Excellent advice. For someone who does not shoot for a living, and are thus able to use time-saving and tax laws for a quick payback, cameras like the D70 provide excellent value. Gordon Moore's Law is in effect with digital cameras just as much as it was with integrated circuits when Moore first proposed it decades back.
The current specifications of the D2X will be the specifications of the consumer model in two years time, and the D70 will be exceeded by point-and-shoots then. Both will depreciate to almost no value, but in real currency, the D70 will depreciate thousands of dollars less. In the two years, the D70 will produce excellent image quality, as will the D2X.
For the enthusiast, the payback is both in satisfaction and in savings over shooting with film cameras. I do a few prints when I have something special, but for the most part am happy viewing on the screen. My 19" monitors are equivalent in size to 11x14 prints. Not counting the time running back and forth to the lab, the savings in film costs, processing and printing pays off my equipment well before I am ready to trade again. I kept my previous camera as a backup, since I figure it owes me nothing and would have just brought pennies as a trade.
Cameras are announced well in advance. If a D200 were announced today, it could well be nearing Christmas before you could just walk into a shop and find one for sale on the shelves. The first batch go to those willing to put the money down and then wait. They then have the priviledge of beta testing version 1.0. If the camera has problems - the early adopters have problems. Take to anyone who put their money down on the Kodak 14n when it was first announced!!!
For the enthusiast, a high end camera offers very little. They are ruggedly built - but who cares? For a casual shooter, they will be lower in specs than an entry level point-and-shoot by the time they wear out. For a working photographer, doing a thousand exposures a week or more, this is more significant since there may be an issue of reliability. There are probably a lot of Kodak DCS420 cameras still in good operation condition, but who would want a 1.2MP camera that cost $8,000?
Cameras such as the D2H would be a very poor choice for most enthusiasts. Most of the value of the camera is in its ability to shoot the equivalent of a roll of film in three (24-exposures) or four (36-exposure) seconds. For this is has an extremely large buffer and a very fast processor. In exchange, you get the resolution of a very inexpensive point-and-shoot. Great if you are covering boxing, but of little use when shooting the opening of family Christmas presents, or doing vacation shots. Eight shots per second really don't make much difference for landscapes when you consider the time it has taken to make the Grand Canyon.
I do realize that there are gear-heads who are into cameras - and not photography. They cover their personal weakness by having the best of everything - even if it is totally inappropriate for their level of skill and needs. There is no point in even trying to reason with someone neurotic enough to spend $5k just to have bragging rights.
For anyone whose interest is in photography, not gear, the time to buy is now. Superb cameras are available at rational prices. With lots of use they pay for themselves before becoming truly outdated - which is inevitable. This is not the "planned obsolescence" of 1950s Detroit automobiles, where the chrome was re-arranged and a "New and Improved" sticker was applied.
I bought my third generation of digital camera a couple of months back, and am deeply impressed by how much each generation improved in every possible way. Furthermore, it truly shows in my images - and that is what counts. With the savings of owning a reasonably priced digital, I feel no resentment at upgrading every two or three years. Plus I have the use of a remarkably satisfactory image making instrument for that time.
larry!
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ ICQ 76620504