How old is too old?

I have GAS. Not gas like flatulence, or gas like gasoline, gas like Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It's a real thing, ask my good friend Wye Keen.. As a photographer I think it's almost impossible to not suffer from GAS, who doesn't want a $9000 Nikon D5 or the soon to be released Sony A9 that shoots a stupid 20 frames a second? I sure as hell do.. Unfortunately some people, like myself, don't have disposable income lying around, so we have to make do with what we've got.

In todays technology market, cameras are being churned every 12-18months, that's not even enough time to use the damn thing properly, but people demand new shiny toys and companies give the people what they want. Most of the time it's not good enough, but there's no such thing as a perfect camera is there? In 2009 Nikon announced the D300s, a minor upgrade to the already very good D300, 1 fps faster, 720p video shooting.. this and that.. not much of an upgrade but an upgrade nevertheless. 

So back to the title of this post, how old is too old? Lets find out. I inherited an unwanted and unloved D300s from my aunty last year when I went to HK to visit some family. I love cameras but more importantly, I love free things - I'm Asian after all. So I've had this camera for a few months now and I've pumped a few thousand frames through her already. The verdict? Not bad. 7/10.

The camera has the same autofocusing system as my D750 and the AF points reach to the edge of the viewfinder, but for whatever reason, it isn't as fast or pick up subjects as fast as my D750 does. Granted there's like 6 or 7 years of new technology in the D750, but the AF module is the same and I thought i'd get similar results? Anyway, when the camera focusses it's pretty sweet, the 1.5x crop factor is great for when you want to carry a lighter lens and not lug around a behemoth like the 600mm.

For games like cricket, AFL and soccer where the fields are often quite large, having the extra reach of the 1.5x crop makes a huge difference, you'd be surprised how much of a difference carrying the 400mm is compared to the 600! With most people who shoot sport, having the 1.5x crop is something they miss when shooting sports with full frame cameras, I personally like crop sensor, but my style of shooting is normally quite wide and by having a crop sensor, you often suffer on the wide end. Sure I can buy wide angle crop lenses, but there isn't a point considering I already own a wide angle lens for my full frame bodies. 

The D300s took some time to get used to, most of it was button placement and also the camera had a few quirks like not tracking targets as well as other cameras I've used and the camera seems to just feel laggy or sluggish compared to my current cameras. My D750 isn't a sports camera but can still churn out 6.5fps and the RAW buffer is really good with the 95mb/s cards I use. The D300's on the other hand, 15 JPEG files and half that of RAW files and the buffer gets full. Yikes.

Using the D300s for sport was a given, so I wanted to try my hand and using it for another subject I have a passion for - Macro.

Now i'm certainly not going to win any awards for my macro and i'm not particularly good at it either, but it's a nice way to slow down the way you shoot and focus on little creatures that often go unnoticed.

The one thing that can't be denied is that the dynamic range on this thing isn't great. Maybe because i've been spoiled with the D750, but when you try and lift shadows - nope - it's ok, but not great, highlights, also mreh and ISO performance is very mreh. 

Although the D300s has its quirks like ok only AF, mreh ISO, shadow and highlight recovery and relatively low megapixel count, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For those who want a camera with professional build quality, relatively fast frames per second, good ergonomics and on the cheap, I couldn't recommend the D300s anymore. Sure you have to be careful when shooting it, like don't under expose by 3 stops hoping you're gonna recover the shadows - because that wont happen - but slow down and shoot it like slide film. Back when I was at uni we used to shoot tranny* film (transparency) and boy was it hard to get right. That stuff had no leeway in terms of highlights and shadows and we were often taught to sacrifice either the highlights or shadows for the shots. 

BUT and there's a big but, when it worked, the developed film that came out was fan-flipping-tastic. Shooting the D300s reminds me a little of that, when you get the files right in camera, there really isn't much you need to do to make them pop, slow down, expose properly and you'll get great looking photos. Come to think of it.. why don't I do that more often...?

Well that's food for thought for the day, lets see where we are in another 8 years. I might have to re-read my D750 review in 2021 and see if the it was the GAS that made the camera good or whether it really was that good.. hmm

Chris.

*Tranny isn't politically correct but that's what it is/was called - Don't shoot the messenger.

Hello new friend - kind of a camera review.

******I wrote more than I planned to, but here's the TL:DR version. I love the D750, it has what I want in a camera and some more, plus image quality isn't bad either. ********

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I had just written a few hundred words into this blog post and decided to delete it. Why? because I think the only way I can explain this properly is to just get to the point. 

I bought a Nikon D750 and I love it. It's probably the best camera i've ever used/had/owned. Period. 

Like most photographers, I suffer from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) I always want the newest and bestest* (not a word) things. I'm always online looking at camera sites, rumour sites, just to see what the newest and latest in camera technology is. In the past I owned a Nikon D3s, I loved her, she was like the loyal dog that never left your side, she never let me down. However, although she took amazing images and was the queen of darkness, she was just too big to take around when not on assignment. Think of her as the great dane that you have to try and fit into your little hatchback, doable but annoying for everyone involved.

Over the years I bought cameras such as the NEX and X100s to use as my portable carry around cameras. They're great pieces of kit, the NEX is a mini DSLR and the X100s is.... well.. just a special item on its own, bit of a love hate relationship, mostly love. So as good as the NEX and X100s are in terms of size, portability and image quality, they can't beat a DSLR on continuous AF, battery life, lens choice and weather sealing. Yes there are some mirrorless cameras that come close to these things but for me, DSLR is still king. 

 

I'm planning on doing some freelance photography in the near distant future and unfortunately I had sold my D3s so I was in need of a new DSLR. Coming from professional style bodies such as the D3s and 1D series cameras that I use at work, instinctively I wanted a "professional" styled body. As a Nikon fanboy I wanted a Nikon, if I wasn't a fanboy i'd be all over the 5DMKIII in a heartbeat. 

Unfortunately, Nikon has been doing some pretty confusing things with their current FX DSLR line which made picking a camera that much harder. Currently in the FX lineup you can either buy the 16MP D4s/Df, 24MP D610/D750 or the 36MP D800/D810. As much as i'd love the D4s, I can't really afford to drop $6k and the Df is a near perfect camera for me, but the overall ergonomics and poor AF system are the reasons I didn't go for the Df. The D610 is nice in terms of MP size, but poor AF system in a consumer body means she's no good, and the D800/D810 are a perfect size, professional body with dials and controls where you need them, but 36MP... why can't you make a 24MP sensor or a 16MP sensor in the D810 style body.. argh.. Nikon are scared of cannibalisation of their products, ie D3 and D700.. I'm no business man but wouldn't you rather cannibalisation of your own products than money in the competitors pockets? 

Amidst all this confusion there's the D750, a Frankenstein camera of sorts. As its name suggests it should be the successor to the D700, many say no, but I say yes. I'll explain. The D750 has the superior 51 point AF system with group AF as the $6000 D4s, the 1080 60P video features of the $3200 D810, wifi, tilty screen, 6.5FPS, arguable some of the best high iso quality, BUT in a consumer styled body at $2200. It's all very confusing but here's why I think it's worthy of being the successor to the D700. 

The D700 put professional features in a small body, some have said that the D700 and D300/s were anomalies, flukes, products that will never be made again, but I think the D750 comes close. At its price point, nothing comes close to it in terms of features and image quality. Like the D700 before it, it really does have professional guts, but unlike the D700, in a not so professional body. But, lets be honest here and get to the crux of it all, does it REALLY matter that it's not in a professional style body even though it offers professional features? At the end of the day we're photographers, we're judged on the images we take, not the camera we use or whether it's professional or not. 

When I first started getting into photography, my dream camera at the time was the D2X with a 300mm lens. Why? because it was big. Yes, we photographers have small man syndrome when it comes to camera gear, i'll be the first to admit it. As a photojournalist who works in a regional daily, I don't really, need a 1Dmk IV or 1DX. They're nice but 90% of the time i'm shooting setup shots with nice light and flashes. Of course it's nice to have the high fps and vertical shutter when doing sports, but that's the other 10%. I'm sure that others will disagree, but this is my opinion and my shooting style. 

Right.. I didn't mean to write as much as a did but I got a little carried away. No more talking, time for photos.

This is my mate Wye Keen. (http://www.skaduweelig.com/) He came to Wollongong to visit me as well as shoot a small documentary about the rock pools in the region. These photos were taken on the day that I picked up the D750 and used with the 50mm f1.4. 

 

The first thing I really noticed was how quick and zippy the AF system was. It was nice to have a camera that just near instantly picked up on what you want to focus on. The button layout took a little to get used to, specifically the ISO button, but over time i'm sure it'll become second nature.

Having owned a Nikon D3s in the past, I had a benchmark set for what would be considered acceptable in terms of AF speed and tracking. The other day I went down to the rodeo and thought it would be the perfect place to test the AF and tracking of the camera. Safe to say, she didn't let me down. 

For the rodeo I used my 70-200VRI. I'm happy to say that the 70-200 is doing just as well on the 750 as it was on the D3s.

As you can see from the gif above, AF locked on tight. The images were shot at 1600ISO using the new group AF at 6.5fps. I'm currently using Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s cards and they had no problem churning through the raw images to the card. Not once did I have the buffer fill or have to wait for the card to clear. 

These horses came in quick and the 750 was able to focus in and get usable images at 8000-12800iso.

Before I bought the camera I did a lot of reading about the 750 having -3EV AF sensitivity. As a photojournalist who usually works in less than ideal lighting situations, being able to focus in dark environments is very appealing to me. 

When I saw this cowgirl on her horse I knew exactly the shot I wanted, all I needed was the camera to be able to create the shot for me before the moment disappeared. No word of a lie, this sucker locked onto focus straight up. Like a laser beam it just snapped into focus. I find that the middle AF point is by far the most accurate and it never missed a shot. When using the outer AF points in the dark, it did hunt once or twice, but locked on pretty much after that.

Again, black hat in dark light and the camera locked on instantly.

I've written more than I wanted to but I think i can safely say that the D750 is new best friend. Watch this space for photos from her.

Until next time,

Ciao.

Winners are grinners.

Everyone loves winning. I recently won a bet with a work colleague and the prize was $100AUD. Being a nice guy, I thought $100 would be a bit tough for a poor journalist to fork out. I made her cook me dinner instead..

Nikon D3s, MIR24n, 1/60th, 5000iso @f2

Nikon D3s, MIR24n, 1/60th, 5000iso @f2.

17-18-19/365

Sorry, i've been busy. The two photogs that I work with have both gone on annual leave - at the same time. Did I mention it's also been raining everyday lately?

So i've cheated a little, haven't had time to use the little NEX to shoot due to being the only one working and, cos it's raining so much - the NEX isn't water resistant. So sorry i've had to cheat a little and use the D4.. hopefully within the next couple of days when it's less hectic I can slow it down and use the NEX again. Anyway a few favourite from the last few days!

Fusion Salad. Nikon D4, 50mm, 1/125th, 500iso @ f1.8

Dessert. Nikon D4, 50mm, 1/160th, 500iso @ f1.8

Nikon D4, 24-70 , 1/100th, 800iso @f2.8