It's Hard to Take that Plunge

[Marko]

Those are good lenses F8!
I can vouch for the D700 - it's very solid and a very good deal at this time!

[F8&Bthere]

Thanks Marko. Yes the D300 is a great camera too, and this is why I'm so on the fence, but aside from what I mentioned above, there are little perks too like the viewfinder level indicator, the built-in eyepiece shutter, but the biggest reasons are that the price came down to around CA$2500 and as I sell through all my unneeded gear it comes very much within reach and it's mainly about the bigger viewfinder, better low light performance and last but not least- I've had a struggle with UWA optics on crop sensor bodies, most of the available options to get down to 10-12mm (15-18mm in 35mm terms) just not really being that good.

And I don't know why, maybe just a hangover from film days, but my 50mm and 85mm lenses on a APS-C sensor just seem a bit too long. I guess it's because I'm using them mostly indoors in smaller environments? I'm always backing up and tripping over the baby or stepping on the dog, lol

[casil403]

Sorry Syd...what I can say is no regrets on my purchase and my empty wallet would be happy to sit beside yours!
Personally I hope you do it.

[JAS_Photo]

Well if the camera store is The Camera Store, you will probably buy the camera. They treat their customers very well and will let you spend all the time you need trying stuff out.

About the carrying of gear around- my D300 with the 17-55mm 2.8 is worth about 4k if you kick in the Singh Ray Polarizer. And I spend a lot of time in the downtown core. I don't look for trouble so it's been good. But what I did do is get extra insurance specifically on my camera gear.

[F8&Bthere]

Well I did it, and had to have a couple stiff drinks when I got home to take the edge off. This combo (D700/16-35/4VR) is so heavy that I can't even imagine having chosen the 14-24/2.8 on that point alone, despite the fact it is almost legendary. Now I have to pray to the eBay gods that I sell the rest of this stuff to help subsidize my visa bill. I did really well the first few days on my Pentax gear at the pentaxforums.com classifieds, but I still have a ways to go and now the D300 as well.

Thanks for warming up the ol' cold feet you guys, I think I'm going to enjoy the new gear.

BTW for accuracy's sake, I now see that the Nikon virtual horizon only displays in the rear LCD not the viewfinder like I thought. Canon's version is even niftier with forward and backward tilt as well. But minor issue, those little 3-way hotshoe bubble levels are so cheap.

JAS- I will be looking into that insurance idea. Thanks for the reminder.

[zenon5940]

Congrats on your new acquisition F8. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[casil403]

[Marko]

Way to go F8! I'm Still learning how to use mine. There's lots and lots of menu options.

In terms of the horizon thing...there is a setting that allows you to overlay a grid in the viewfinder. That also helps me big time.

Congrats again!