There is a rumor that the Rebel XT will be revised for Photokina. I expect a larger LCD, bigger buffer, spot metering and the like. If they replace the penta-mirror with a penta-prism like the Nikon D80 does, it’ll be a pretty good camera.

However I do hear ya loud and clear - there are loads of solutions out there, so why buy what everyone else tells you to buy?

You’ve inspired me to do a little more research before my next camera purchase. Thank you!

It does sound to me that a D2X, D200, or 1DsMkii, or 5D would be more along the lines of what you needed (14×20″ prints!). Actually, given that you do portrait and architectural shoots, I would think the Canon EOS 5D or even medium format digital (Mayima, Hasselbad, Pentax?) might have been slightly better (but you probably already have a huge investment in Nikkor lenses).

Definitely the lack of a sync connector in the D70 is going to be a big pain. I’m not too sure what sort of hot shoe adapter you had. I know that for a while a 3rd part was selling a cable release that would cover the IR port of the D70, but thankfully the D70s fixes this problem.

The original article’s intent is to buy the camera that speaks to you, not what other people tell you to buy. Cameras, unlike computers, do not have a huge network effect which forces people to move to a single “platform.” More than computers, they are expressions of your own personality and outlets for your own personal sort of creativity. For instance, I don’t do architecture or portraits like you do, or macros and action like Greg does. Who am I to advise on that? If someone asked me honestly why I chose Nikon, I couldn’t answer that honestly.

I guess for you the D2X spoke to you. I’m very happy to hear that the D2X has paid for itself—it’s a wonderful camera. I’m sure Greg and I are very jealous.

I bought mine 16 months ago (November,’05) and was absolutely thrilled to move up from my 5 year old Olympus E-10. I do professional product photography, portraits and real estate Virtual Tours and it improved the quality of my output immediately.

It would probably still be my primary camera except for 3 small drawbacks.
(I use Paul C. Buff White Lightning 800’s for studio work and I got a job shooting yearbook photos for a school. I was looking at over 1200 portraits to shoot over a 5-day period).
(1) NO sync connector on the D-70. The hot shoe adapter I bought made the strobes fire every time I touched the camera and
(2) I couldn’t make the D-70 match the color temp of the strobes. The shots always came out too magenta which meant a lot of Photoshop time.
(3) I had a contract to shoot custom houses and they wanted 14X20 prints, which I had to fudge up in Photoshop when using the D-70 shots. (You can do this but a critical eye will notice the loss in sharpness).

My local camera store’s proposed solution was to sell me a Nikon D2X body. Sure! You just want my $5K! My girlfriend (bless her astute business heart) was with me and said, “Will this camera make you more money?” This was 30 minutes after closing time at the store (bless their mercenary little hearts) and I had to start the school portrait shoot the following morning.
I said, “Yes. It will.” She said,” Buy it.”

The D2X made the difference in the school portrait shoots and the architectural shoots. It increased my confidence to take on magazine cover and layout shoots. It has easily paid for itself.

I still use the D-70 as a back up and for all of my “panorama for the web” work because the software has a built in accommodation for the 18-70 lenses with the D-70. It is dependable and will stay a part of my toolbox even though I have a love affair with the D2X.

What is my Point?
Buy what you need to get the job done efficiently and never let your tools limit you.

Greg modified one of his photos with the caption:

It isn’t quite as sharp as I’d hoped, because there was little light to work with.

Though I now know, thanks to my genius friend Terry, that my problem is that my camera’s flash sync is too slow and I should really buy a D70. Which would have really helped me shoot this high-speed, motionless subject. I think I’ll stick to available light, thanks.

Obviously since I don’t even own a macro lens, he is a better macro photographer than me. His reference was when I took objection to his blanket statement: “if you have to resort to flash you’ve lost already” by pointing out that flash has its place in macro photography or else setups like this wouldn’t exist. He thought I mean the flash-sync difference which is a non issue for macro photography.

I fail to see where I said he should buy a D70, but I did say that if a subtle low noise performance was such a deal-killer that one camera “blows away” another, he must be buying a D50 because it bests the D70 and the Digital Rebel. That was a bit cruel.

Time to go poo on is comments.

My opinion, for what it’s worth. . .

I’m not a photographer. To give you an idea, my photo camera is a Casio EX-Z750–not exactly in the same class as a D70/Rebel.etc.

I am, however, a filmographer (my cute, fancy way of saying “videographer”). Unlike most creative people, I have no camera brand loyalty whatsoever. I own 2 Sony cameras (FX1 & HC1)–not because I love Sony (actually, I think they include a lot of goofy gimmick features), but because they currently happen to have the best (and 3 of the only) high-definition video cameras available. The other HDV options are the JVC HD-10U (which I used to own) and the soon-to-be-released Canon XL-HD1.

The JVC camera had very serious issues with low-light performance (35 lux, ick!), which is why I bought the Sony FX1 (3 lux, yum!) for event shooting.

The Canon has not yet been released. I have no doubt it will be an excellent camera-even better than the FX1. I will most likely not buy it because: [a] too expensive for poor ‘ole me (almost 10k!); [b] too much camera for me at this point (still learning my FX1’s features/settings); [c] I have an admittedly anti-Canon bias. Yes, it’s silly. I’ve handled the XL series, and the camera feels sublime. I just have this thing about using what everyone else uses. . .

What I have noticed from camcorder reviews is pro-Canon shooters exhibit characteristics very similar to what Greg here is showing now. They rail into defects in other manufacturers’ cameras, while overlooking the same flaws in Canon’s offerings. Or bash features from other manufacturers (esp. those of Sony–though some of that is deserved), and bring out the red carpet when Canon “innovates” with these same features.

The example that comes to mind at the moment is ragging into Sony for including only 1/3″ CCDs, but proudly announcing Canon’s new 1/3″ 3CCD camera.

I think this is where Terry takes issue with you, Greg. It’s not that he disapproves of your choice in camera; he just does not like your Canon-like attitude toward people who chose the anything different (ex. D70).

A camera is a personal preference. We all shoot better under different circumstances. Though I’d admit Spielberg could kick my butt - no matter what camera I had - just using my Casio photo camera’s video feature.

As for pooing on your blog, my apologies, but you pissed me off.

Feel free to flush this if you’d like, I’m done now (really!).

I don’t have a blog for you to crap on in return, but you’re welcome to frag my crappy photostream on flickr if you’d like. Take care,

Greg