[StosPhotography]

Originally Posted by reddogphoto

I hate a gripped body. After experiencing the tight, integrated, and slightly smaller feel of a pro body, I could never go back to a grip. It just feels wrong. Entirely my preference though.

uh oh... this post is dissuading me from a 5d2 maybe w/grip haha
exactly like you said tho, not sure if i could "downsize" from the ruggedness and durability of the 1d3 to a 5d2

[reddogphoto]

May the photo gods look out for me, I just listed my 1D, 300L, and 2x II on POTN. Here goes...

[fainerbainer]

[.Outlaw.]

I don't mind the grip so much. Yes, the 1D models feel better compared to my gripped rebel but I was even using a generic grip. This time, I might invest in a Canon grip. Either way, I don't feel the need to use a 1D to get the portrait benefits.

[reddogphoto]

It's just a personal preference really, to be honest I hardly ever use the secondary controls on my 1D unless I have the sun behind me on a wider shot and I'm trying to lower my shadow profile.

[outkast kid]

Originally Posted by .Outlaw.

I don't mind the grip so much. Yes, the 1D models feel better compared to my gripped rebel but I was even using a generic grip. This time, I might invest in a Canon grip. Either way, I don't feel the need to use a 1D to get the portrait benefits.

95% chance it'll be the same. I bought a grip for my 7D with a pair of generic batteries and charger for 100 bucks off ebay. A friend has the actual Canon factory grip and aside from hers having Canon's logo on it, they are identical.

I shoot with and without a grip. I like to have it for sports when I want something to help counter-balance a big lens. If I'm walking around the city or shooting indoors I'll usually take it off for a more compact feel. I never actually use it for anything besides ballast.

[Rebeltilldeath3]

Here's my kit:
D700
24-70
70-200 I
85 f/1.4d
Sigma 50 f/1.4

I'd strongly recommend having those (maybe not so much the Sigma) in a Nikon bag. The 24-70 acts like a prime across the entire range, it is truly amazing. The 1.8 lenses are tempting, very tempting, enough so that I bought some, and then got rid of them. The 50 1.8 is amazing blah blah blah, but it lacks the character of the 1.4. Same with the 85 1.8g, I had it for a few days and was so disappointed that it wasn't giving me the character that the 1.4D I tried out did, so I got rid of it and went with the 1.4d. Nikon glass is confusing as hell and there are a lot of old gems out there.

If you go used:
70-200 $1400
24-70 $1600
85 1.4d $800
Tokina 16-28 $800 if you must go wide
300 f/4 $800
50 1.4 $350

[reddogphoto]

UPDATE:

Must have picked a lousy time to get out of Canon, as most of my gear remains unsold. I did however strike a deal with a dude on POTN to exchange my 5D II and 50mm for his D700 and 50mm. I figured I'd go a little extra and have a D700 as a backup, rather than a D300.

Well, the D700 showed up yesterday, and I must say I'm extremely impressed. While I don't feel like I can get a secure one-handed grip on the differently cut D700 body, the camera overall feels heavier and much more substantial. The overall control layout is going to take some getting used to, especially the AF control, but I'm getting the hang of it.

What impresses me most is the grain. It actually feels like grain, as opposed to the noise I've experienced at high ISO on my Canon bodies. I feel like I could actually use images taken at 25,600 if necessary. At "normal" ISO ranges it's 2-3 to a full stop cleaner than my 5D was, and the all-around low light performance is staggering. The body customization is almost exactly where I want it too.

At this point, I'm quite anxious to continue unloading my Canon gear and finish getting switched over. Thanks to all that have helped me so far in this transition.

[fainerbainer]

You'll enjoy the buttons for AF, metering, etc. Once you get used to it it's easier to do it on the fly. It also reminds you to check the manual button instead of an electronic display. While I'm shooting I can just feel on the body if i'm in continuous or single. On canon you have to stop shooting to figure it out.

[reddogphoto]

Anyone know if it's possible to copy settings from one shooting or custom settings bank to another? I don't see an option for it, nor do I see anything in the manual. I'd like to create some mild tweaks, but I don't want to rebuild every single one of the CFn banks when I do it.

Here's some of what I'm loving:

• Auto ISO that actually works. The D700 doesn't cheat on auto ISO by running high, It actually makes intelligent decisions. I like that I can also set a baseline shutter speed that the body won't exceed in aperture priority. Even when it does jack the ISO, I still get usable images.
• Programmable front buttons. Why did this not become an option on a Canon body until the 1DX?!?
• Built-in intervalometer. Not nearly as versatile or user friendly as my Promaster add-on unit for my Canon bodies, but at least IT'S BUILT IN.
• Control. The level of control you have over the body is phenomenal. For a control freak like me, it's perfect.

And a few things I hate:

• The multiselector feels vague and has a longer throw than a Canon joystick. My thumb is sore as a result, but I'm sure I'll get over that in time.
• Live view SUCKS. I didn't use it a lot on my 1D, but with my 5D it was perfected to a high level of usefulness. Nikon falls behind on the live view implementation. I can work around it for the most part, still figuring out what the hell the difference is between "handheld" and "tripod" modes.
• It's backwards. I'm getting used to the knob orientation, and I've already reversed the exposure meters to the 'proper' orientation with - on the left and + on the right. The lens mount direction has me all screwed up though, it's a good thing I don't have a plastic mount lens as I'd have probably already broken it by cranking it the wrong way out of habit.

Still, no regrets though.

[fallen9210]

The 700 is a wonderful camera. You wont be disappointed with your selection!

[pbjunkiee]

you can change the wheels too

[reddogphoto]

Originally Posted by pbjunkiee

you can change the wheels too

Found it and fixed it. For some stupid reason I thought there wasn't an option to change rotation, just orientation. It's now set up properly for my previously Canon-wired brain.

I wish (and this goes for any manufacturer) that the settings export file could be edited with a regular text editor. Even a piece of OEM software that allowed menu based configuraion (without scrolling around on the camera) would be nice. Canon USED to do this on an old version of the EOS Viewer software for 1D/1Ds Mark II bodies on a Firewire connection. But that's just me being picky. Even my more recent Canon bodies didn't support that.

Originally Posted by fallen9210

The 700 is a wonderful camera. You wont be disappointed with your selection!

There's been a bit of a learning curve, but I'm not disappointed at all. In fact, I'm beginning to question whether I really need a D3s (or D3 for that matter) for what I do. Coming from a 1D/5D combo, the D700 is a substantial leap ahead on what can be expected from a non-pro body full frame camera. After several days of experimenting with shots and tinkering with settings, and a thorough review of the feature sets of the D3s and D700, the only thing I'd be gaining out of a D3s would be extra high ISO performance and AF-linked spot metering.

• The 9fps of the D3s is nearly matched by the 8fps of the D700 with the motor drive attached. With a fast card, I get good speed out of the D700, just nowhere near the buffer that the D3s has.
• With all I'm getting out of the D700, I may be able to live without linked spot metering. The regular Nikon matrix metering does a damned fine job for 4 out of 5 situations. For the 5th situation, the better AE-L system makes spot metering easier than it was on my 5D. While linked metering was handy on my 1D and I missed it on my 5D, the D700 meters a lot better overall.
• I'm not as afraid to shoot at higher ISO on the D700, as the noise is a lot more tolerable than what I was accustomed to on my Canon bodies. 1600 was my hard limit on my Mark III, under the right conditions I have no qualms about taking the D700 up to 6400. I've not messed much with expanded modes yet, but I'm not at all intimidated by them.

I think that once my remaining Canon gear starts to move, I'm going to go into heavy glass replacement mode and hold off on a D3s. When rec basketball kicks off after the 1st of the year, I'll shoot a few games with the D700 and see how it does for me. If I can work around the fairly mild list of limitations, I'll just pick up a second, backup D700 and save myself considerably over a D3s, putting the money back into glass.

[fainerbainer]

d700 will be fine with basketball methinks, unless you want linked AF.

Also, the metering...geeze the metering on the d700 kils any canon I've ever used. It still has limitations but in AV (sorry, A) it has a much higher success rate and knowing what I'm focusing on and wanting to meter.

The only problem I actually have is ease of changing ISO. The scroll wheel for shooting mode is super nice though. All the little tactile buttons on the d700 is what made me say, "Oh, this is nice." I had only played around with the lower end nikons before getting the d700. I haven't even looked at another camera body since getting it.

[pbjunkiee]

any updates on your kkkiitttt?

[reddogphoto]

Still shooting with the D700 and 50 1.8G. I bought that AF-S 80-200 and it should ship out Monday. Still got a stack of Canon glass and a 1D sitting here that haven't sold yet, so I haven't made any more moves. It's frustrating as I see a lot of nice Nikon glass going up on Fred Miranda.

Plan is, as the funds become available to pick up the following:

• Ultrawide: 17-35 2.8G OR another Tokina 16-28 2.8 plus a 35mm prime.
• Portrait: 135 DC OR another Sigma 85mm, undecided on that.
• Maybe another fast 300, depending on how things go.
• Probably a D300 secondary body.

I kinda hate my 50 1.8, while it puts out decent images, it feels like a toy and I'm always afraid I'm going to break it. I might seek to replace it.

[outkast kid]

I was playing around with a D600 yesterday and absolutely hated the button layout. Too many switches all over the place and not enough unified control for me. I know some of you said you liked the way Nikon set up their controls but I really did think it was awful. I love the setup on my 7D.

[reddogphoto]

Meh on the D600, I've seen its layout online, and the controls are far too consumer for me. The D700's layout is better for me.

The Nikon way of control takes a little time to get used to, but once you do it's nice to have nearby tactile control of focus modes, focus point selection type, and metering mode. What I don't like is the long throw of the focus point selector pad, and the fact that the ISO and review buttons are on the left side of the body. It would be ideal if I could map them to the front control buttons, but those aren't options.

I combat the ISO issue by having a shooting bank set to activate auto ISO. The D700 uses auto ISO intelligently enough that I feel safe using it. I didn't do that with my 5D, as it would forever push the ISO too high.

The reason I'd like a playback button in my right hand is that I've shut off image review from appearing immediately after a frame. The reason for this is that as a Canon shooter, I was used to being able to move my focus point immediately between shots. With the D700, the pad defaults to image review control when the image appears on the screen after a shot. I'd end up shooting, then trying to move my focus point, which wouldn't move because I was scrolling images. Since I hadn't yet hardwired my brain to halftap the shutter release between images, I just shut off the auto review. I just hate having to put my left hand up to hit the review button every time I want to chimp.

[fainerbainer]

Originally Posted by outkast kid

I was playing around with a D600 yesterday and absolutely hated the button layout. Too many switches all over the place and not enough unified control for me. I know some of you said you liked the way Nikon set up their controls but I really did think it was awful. I love the setup on my 7D.

It's a matter of getting used to it. I thought that at the beginning when I made the switch but now I'd much rather have a tactile switch than holding down a button and then scrolling.

[reddogphoto]

Gah, and like that the sale fell through on my 35L. Fuuuuuuuuk, somebody has got to want some good Canon glass...

[Rebeltilldeath3]

Originally Posted by reddogphoto

Meh on the D600, I've seen its layout online, and the controls are far too consumer for me. The D700's layout is better for me.

The Nikon way of control takes a little time to get used to, but once you do it's nice to have nearby tactile control of focus modes, focus point selection type, and metering mode. What I don't like is the long throw of the focus point selector pad, and the fact that the ISO and review buttons are on the left side of the body. It would be ideal if I could map them to the front control buttons, but those aren't options.

I combat the ISO issue by having a shooting bank set to activate auto ISO. The D700 uses auto ISO intelligently enough that I feel safe using it. I didn't do that with my 5D, as it would forever push the ISO too high.

The reason I'd like a playback button in my right hand is that I've shut off image review from appearing immediately after a frame. The reason for this is that as a Canon shooter, I was used to being able to move my focus point immediately between shots. With the D700, the pad defaults to image review control when the image appears on the screen after a shot. I'd end up shooting, then trying to move my focus point, which wouldn't move because I was scrolling images. Since I hadn't yet hardwired my brain to halftap the shutter release between images, I just shut off the auto review. I just hate having to put my left hand up to hit the review button every time I want to chimp.

The multi selector has a long throw because on the D300, as soon as you shoved your face against the camera, you'd see the AF point go jogging across the screen.

This would generally result in throwing the camera at the nearest small animal. The D700 does not have this problem and I was so pleased because of the longer throw.

Awesome choice on the 80-200 AFS. However, I recently saw one **** the bed, and Nikon wants a small fortune to repair it. Focus stops just before the near limit, can't force it past manually either. Had to be taken out to infinity and back for it to go to the near limit. I believe Nikon quoted $500-600.