Time to upgrade

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thepharcyde

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Okay I'm at that crossroads situation with my photography. I have taken it up seriously in the past year and a half, moving fro a Fujifilm upto a entry level Nikon DSLR in the form of the D60. It's been great for the type of photography I do i.e. Motorsport and Travel. The image quality looks good, and ease of use is up there.

But big question, are the daddies further up the food chain worth an upgrade for a casual user like myself? The advantages of upgrading seem to stem with a lot of the functions that you have to go into the menu system on the D60, can be accessed directly on the camera body as they seem to contain more buttons/switches. The disadvantages that I can currently see are one being heavier, and the jump in price seems to be pretty steep.

One thing which believe would be an advantage, especially for motorsport is an inbuilt image stabiliser system.

So put it to the board would you say an upgrade is due or, stick with my D60. But what am I potentially missing out on/what would you recommend. I would rather stick with Nikon as opposed to having to purchase new lenses too :)
 
I've recently changed from a D40 to D90 - I had the offer of a D2x for a great price as it was just too heavy for walking about.

As you say, the main differences I've noticed are access to more functions by pressing one button and scrolling the thumbwheel, better resolution meaning cropping in post production works better, higher frame rate and superior processing through active D lighting.

Photography is a strange activity - I feel that if I've got better kit (up to a point) I COULD take better pictures, and as such I find that I DO take better pictures. Purely psychological, but there you go.

Have you got a super fast prime lens? I found that my Nifty Fifty made more difference to my pics than I could believe.
 
Don't know, I have the standard 18-70mm VR Nikor lens, and a Sigma 70-300mm HSM lens.

One last thing to note, obviously I have to buy lenses with the motor built in to autofocus, so my lens cost a bit more :)
 
Can't comment too much about Nikon but with more expensive cameras you get better focus and low light shots. This can make a huge difference in your keeper rate. The D400 must be round the corner soon which might reduce the price of the D300 or were you planning on going higher up the food chain.
It also depends what you use it for and your current cash flow.
 
i think maybe try better lenses first instead of a tempting d90 unless you want faster focusing movie mode higher iso and a few more stuff more lens choice :shrug:
 
I've just upgraded my D60 to a D90, only 2 days old, feels really nice in the hand, great LCD, higher frame rate better iso, (pictures of the dog last night) I'd say jump in if you can afford it!
 
thepharcyde said:
One thing which believe would be an advantage, especially for motorsport is an inbuilt image stabiliser system.
Click to expand...

You wont see this in any Nikon dslr's, maybe in the future, but not now. I think you would be looking at Sony or Pentax for this, and a new set of lenses.
If you want image stabilisation, look at the range of Nikon lenses with VR, they will all work with your camera.
Or look at the Tamron and Sigma offerings with image stabilisation.

Allan
 
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