Thursday, March 20, 2008

Hah this place is pretty pathetic.

D60 - announced recently. IMO, not worth it. I'd rather have the D40 for the price. I'm sure there will be a lot of beginners who buy the D60, and it is a better camera. It has a very nice dust reduction system inside. It has a handy rangefinder for focusing non-AFS lenses, instead of just the little dot that tells you when you're in focus. It's nicer. It's just not THAT much nicer. I'd rather pay the $300 difference between the D50 and D80 (commander flash, 10mp, 3fps, more ISO range, dof preview, etc.) or the $500 difference between the D80 and D200 (metal body, metering with ai and ais lenses, 5fps, etc.) then the $100 difference between the D40X and the D60 (live view, dust reduction, bigger screen, and that's about it...) or the $900 difference between the D200 and D300 (more unneeded AF points, much better noise, faster fps, dust reduction, live view, is that it?!). You get the idea. I opted for the D50 because it was the cheapest usable camera on the market for my needs. I still recommend it.

24mm f/3.5 PC - this is a professional grade perspective control tilt-shift lens. Very cool stuff, but it only fits on the D3 (and the D300).

60mm f/2.8 AF-S - finally D40/X/60 users have a prime option under 100mm. This is a great update to a great lens. It has 1:1 macro for extreme close-up photography, plus nano-crystal coating and a 9-bladed aperture. Cool stuff.

16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR - first of all, from the results I've seen VR works great. But $700?! The 18-200 VR can be found for $550 these days. My 24-120 VR, which is great for FF cameras like the D3 and F6 by the way, sells for $500 new and $300 used, which is how I bought it. I don't think it's worth it, the 18-70 is still a better choice.

That's about all of the new updates. Here are some things you may expect on the horizon:

80-400mm VR update - this has been anticipated for a while. Hopefully the new one will have AF-S (and FAST this time please!), VRII, and nano coating.

70-200 VR update - I don't see why, this is an extraordinary lens. It has some vignetting on the D3, and apparently VR isn't as good as some of the newer lenses. So it could use an update. Still a fine lens.

85mm f/1.4 - VR in the next version? AF-S? No one knows, all rumors over everything so far.

85mm f/2.8 PC and 45mm f/2.8 PC - these are prototypes, Ken Rockwell even has pictures. : P I want to get into these lenses, but unfortunately they're a bit too expensive for my current budget.

That's about it. Peace.