Finally pulled the trigger

[SLC Flyfishing]

Well my wife did, but that's really not the point.....

We ordered our D700!!!! My wife finally went ahead and put in the order for the Nikon D700 from Adorama yesterday, along with the Nikkor 85 f/1.8. We're on a wait list for the Nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 at the local camera retailer, and we're deciding which 70-200 to order, wait for the new one, or pick up the old one and see if we would be happy with it.

I'm totally stoked, look for some photos to be posted soon!

SLC

 

[Phrasikleia]

Congrats! What are you upgrading from?

 

[GoCubsGo]

That is great but imho you're better off waiting for the new 70-200 if you've got the D700. I think the other one will disappoint. There are too many negatives out there from D700 owners as I understand. If you do not need it right away, wait. Are you working professionally where not having the 70-200 will hinder business or is this a hobby that will afford you some down time without a zoom?

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Congrats! What are you upgrading from?

Well not really upgrading, but adding to a kit. We've got a Pentax K10D with a bevvy of lenses and some flash guns.

The D700 is our high ISO rig, and will turn into my wide angle rig, and the setup that I get my feet wet trying motorsport with.

That is great but imho you're better off waiting for the new 70-200 if you've got the D700. I think the other one will disappoint. There are too many negatives out there from D700 owners as I understand. If you do not need it right away, wait. Are you working professionally where not having the 70-200 will hinder business or is this a hobby that will afford you some down time without a zoom?

I'd tend to agree, except we've been mulling over this one for a very long time, long enough to have shot with all the different lenses on this body, and to have taken it out for rentals a few times. My wife does portraiture and weddings mainly (just starting out) and the vignetting, while very very minor to my eyes, is something that she often adds in PP anyway. Also, the corners are nowhere near as soft as the net would have you believe. Well within our tolerances at least.

We may still wait for the new 70-200, but if the price is as high as Nikon is suggesting, that'll make our choice for us, the current 70-200 is a fine piece of glass.

Perhaps a very gently used model is what we should look for, that way if we decide the new lens is a must have, we can take a very small loss and purchase the new one. But my wife can't really be without that lens until November, so we're likely going to order the current model.

SLC

 

[GoCubsGo]

I am certain there is some hype to the 70-200 on FF cameras being "horrid", but where I tend to read is not places like this. In other words, the number of qualified and bona fide professionals seem to exceed the casual hobbyist like myself. That being said, you have used and reviewed yourself and you are very happy with the results then the extra money spent on the new lens will be gravy and we all know gravy is not entirely necessary all of the time.

If two professionals such as yourself and your wife see true beauty in what you produce from that lens then it should be a no brainer. Especially if November is too far away to wait. For some it is and others it is not. I'm not a pro and my gear didn't automatically turn me into one so if I were in the market and I was using a FF camera, I would and could wait.

 

[compuwar]

We may still wait for the new 70-200, but if the price is as high as Nikon is suggesting, that'll make our choice for us, the current 70-200 is a fine piece of glass.

I keep seeing price complaints- but people keep comparing the MSRP of the new lens to the street price of the current lens. The new better image circle, nanocoated lens has an MSRP of a whopping $104 more than the current lens. While the MSRP and MAP of the new lens may be the same for the initial release, it's unlikely to remain so. Given fairly constant margins in the retail space for any popular product, I'd suggest that complaints on the price are silly at this point (unless you're also complaining about the price of the old one, and don't understand the Yen's strong position and how it affects the camera manufacturers.)

Edit:

If I were going to take a loss, I'd do it on the 80-200 AF-S, there's an EX for $1219 at KEH, almost $400 than an EX 70-200 there.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

You know Compuwar, I had thought about that. And it makes a lot of sense, except that we'd be buying the used 70-200 with every intention of keeping it unless we felt the pull of the new 70-200 when it starts selling. Yeah the price might not be much different as advertised, but we haven't had any difficulty negotiating the price of this lens (and the 24-70) down to about $1,700 (perhaps because we're talking about purchasing all this glass simultaneously). That makes for a difference between the MSRP of the new lens, and what we know we can get an unused current 70-200 of about $600.00. If we were just buying a used lens to tide us over until the new one hits the street, I'd be getting the 80-200 without hesitation. Except that I'm somewhat leary that it will lose a bit more value now that it's two generations old instead of one.

SLC

 

[compuwar]

You know Compuwar, I had thought about that. And it makes a lot of sense, except that we'd be buying the used 70-200 with every intention of keeping it unless we felt the pull of the new 70-200 when it starts selling.

Trust me, you'll feel the pull. The nanocoated stuff is awesome when it comes to flare resistance, and for weddings I think it's a no-brainer.

Yeah the price might not be much different as advertised, but we haven't had any difficulty negotiating the price of this lens (and the 24-70) down to about $1,700 (perhaps because we're talking about purchasing all this glass simultaneously). That makes for a difference between the MSRP of the new lens, and what we know we can get an unused current 70-200 of about $600.00.

I expect we'll see the new one down in the $1900-1999 range about sixty days after release.

If we were just buying a used lens to tide us over until the new one hits the street, I'd be getting the 80-200 without hesitation. Except that I'm somewhat leary that it will lose a bit more value now that it's two generations old instead of one.

In my experience, older Nikkors hold their value pretty well. The difference is that you'll already have 25% of the cost of the new lens once it hits MAP != MSRP if you get the 80-200, and the AF-S version focuses fast enough to work for almost anything. Once MAP != MSRP on the new lens, you'll see the older ones drop a couple hundred- so I expect you'd have to try hard to lose money on a good copy of the 80-200 even if you decided to get a 70-200 in a couple of months.

 

[seedster2]

Congrats on the new acquisition. I recently picked up my D700 from a D90 and I love it. 85mm is an excellent portrait lens as well. I have the f1.4 but the differences are minor.

I would really wait for the latest 70-200mm VR II unless you stumble upon an amazing deal on the current model.

Can you point me in the direction of any 24-70mm deals? Best option I have found was Robert's Imaging.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Can you point me in the direction of any 24-70mm deals? Best option I have found was Robert's Imaging.

http://www.adorama.com/NK2470AFSU.html?searchinfo=24-70

This is the deal that I'm operating on. I've never dealt with a better online outfit than adorama!

But I take their price in to a local shop and give them the opportunity to match or beat it first. So far I've been fairly successful.

SLC

 

[Hmac]

The "old" 70-200 is an excellent lens on the D700/D3. I agree that for the likely difference in price between new and old, the new one makes more sense, but I'm pretty sure there we will start seeing some stellar deals on used 70-200's any minute now.

 

[seedster2]

http://www.adorama.com/NK2470AFSU.html?searchinfo=24-70

This is the deal that I'm operating on. I've never dealt with a better online outfit than adorama!

But I take their price in to a local shop and give them the opportunity to match or beat it first. So far I've been fairly successful.

SLC

Thanks for the link. Adorama is my local shop so that's where I usually go

I was hoping you had found a smaller mail order outfit that had them in stock and could beat their price.

 

[GoCubsGo]

SLC, in case you have not already been notified, here is the pricing of the new 70-200 as sold by Ritz.
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541533931.htm

 

[Cliff3]

SLC, in case you have not already been notified, here is the pricing of the new 70-200 as sold by Ritz.
http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/541533931.htm

It looks like Adorama is taking pre-orders too, and has it listed at full retail: http://www.adorama.com/NK70200AF2U.html. They are indicating November availability.

 

[luminosity]

Congrats on your purchase . I've had my D700 for a week now, and it has been tremendous. I love the full frame aspect of it, and I was reminded of that today, as I used my 85mm (for the first time on it) to make a couple of great images on the fly. I shot at ISO 1000, and it looks like a somewhat older DSLR's ISO 200.

Best of luck in using it .

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Well my D700 is in town at the UPS warehouse, set to be delivered tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately I'll be out of town on a flyfishing trip from this evening until thursday. My wife gets the first 3 days with the camera uninterrupted.

Can't wait till I can get my hands on that camera!

SLC

 

[Clix Pix]

Wow! Sounds to me as though you're making a big jump -- first, in terms of camera gear and secondly in terms of using it to shoot for pay (weddings, portraits, etc.). IMHO, with this weak economy, you're really taking chances. You mention that your wife is "just starting out...." Well, good luck! Wedding/portraiture photography is highly competitive and certainly is a field filled with people who have good gear and years of experience in using it.

As far as the great deal you're getting from Adorama: better make sure that none of the gear is grey market, as I think they do dabble in that......

 

[ProwlingTiger]

Wow! Sounds to me as though you're making a big jump -- first, in terms of camera gear and secondly in terms of using it to shoot for pay (weddings, portraits, etc.). IMHO, with this weak economy, you're really taking chances. You mention that your wife is "just starting out...." Well, good luck! Wedding/portraiture photography is highly competitive and certainly is a field filled with people who have good gear and years of experience in using it.

As far as the great deal you're getting from Adorama: better make sure that none of the gear is grey market, as I think they do dabble in that......

What an optimistic post!

 

[Hmac]

As far as the great deal you're getting from Adorama: better make sure that none of the gear is grey market, as I think they do dabble in that......

Are you saying that Adorama might try to sneak a grey market lens in on him?

I didn't think so. Maybe you were thinking of Brooklyn Photo. Adorama clearly labels their grey market SLR lenses.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Wow! Sounds to me as though you're making a big jump -- first, in terms of camera gear and secondly in terms of using it to shoot for pay (weddings, portraits, etc.). IMHO, with this weak economy, you're really taking chances. You mention that your wife is "just starting out...." Well, good luck! Wedding/portraiture photography is highly competitive and certainly is a field filled with people who have good gear and years of experience in using it.

Well my wife is "just starting out" in terms of doing this for pay. But she's been shooting for over 10 years. She's damned good at it, and she makes more than enough at it to amortize all this gear in a few months. We're not worried at all, and seeing as how it is our finances we're dealing with here I'm not sure why you are either, but thanks for the concern, honestly! We have been doing quite well, despite the economy.

As far as the great deal you're getting from Adorama: better make sure that none of the gear is grey market, as I think they do dabble in that......

Adorama does dabble in grey market stuff, but it's always clearly labeled and they don't sell grey market D700's. Adorama and B&H both sell the camera (pre-rebate) for the same price as the mom and pop stores sell it post rebate. So the camera showed up as $2,650.00 or something like that. But once it was in the cart the $300.00 Nikon rebate was applied and that brought the price down to about $2,350.00. No grey market, Adorama and B&H must just get a better price on the units from Nikon since they sell in such volume.

Anyway the camera is here, I just got back last night from a Fly-fishing trip to Island Park Idaho so I've not had a chance to shoot with it yet, but my wife has and she's in love with it so far. Her only complaint yet is that the 85 f/1.8 doesn't focus as closely as she'd like it to sometimes when doing portraits. We've got a neighbor with the 50 f/1.4 AF-S G so she used that when she went to a photo club shoot on Tuesday. She liked that lens, and it's minimum focusing distance is closer than the 85, so we may end up ordering it as well.

SLC

 

[GoCubsGo]

The minimum focus distance would increase between the 50 mm and the 85 mm. On the 85 mm it should be around 2.5'. I rented the 70-200 this weekend past and the minimum focus distance there was 5'. It did allow me to zoom past the obstructions but I had to switch to my 50 mm 1.8 if I wanted to get even closer.

I loved using the 90mm for my portraits to be honest because I could give the subject breathing room.

As far as the great deal you're getting from Adorama: better make sure that none of the gear is grey market, as I think they do dabble in that......

Has this been your experience as it has not been mine. Both B&H and Adorama do grey market and neither have "accidently" shipped GM when I bought USA.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

Here's the link to the product we bought. Not that I'm worried in the slightest about getting a grey market unit, but incase you wanted to check it out.

http://www.adorama.com/INKD700.html

I noticed today that they may have actually sold it to us for less than intended. There is a rebate, but the ad says that the $2699 price represents the rebate applied (should cost $2999.00 before rebate); but when you add the camera body to the cart the price drops another $300.00 again. I'm not sure if this is a mistake or what but you can get the camera body for $600 less than the pre-rebate price right now.

SLC

 

[Clix Pix]

Sorry, didn't mean to come across as so negative! I tend to be very cautious when buying expensive gear. As long as Adorama clearly indicates that some of its gear is grey market (as does B&H), that's fine..... Sounds as though you got a really good deal on your D700! Enjoy!

 

[luminosity]

Adorama isn't what I'd call a fly by night, though their recent listing of a "very good lens" (without saying what the focal length or anything else was) in their Nikon prime lens listings is a bit odd

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

First impressions:

This camera is very user friendly, but it's a whole different beast compared to my K10D. There's a huge disconnect between the Pentax Control scheme (which I think is superior) and the Nikon Control Scheme. Aperture and Shutterspeed command dials were opposite (I changed them in the D700), there are only 4 shooting modes: (Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Program Automatic); while the K10D has 9: (Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Sensitivity Priority (which would have been cool on the D700), Shutter & Aperture priority (which I think is unique to Pentax), Bulb, Flash Sync, Program Automatic, Green, User Manual). I also have noticed the lack of Shake Reduction since the K10D has it built in. Shutterspeeds that I used to hand hold on the K10D are really tough now, (and I was beginning to think that the SR on the K10D wasn't really working for me, guess I was just getting complacent).

But I do really like the ergonomics of the D700, at least as much as the K10D, the build quality is superior, not that the K10D was bad in this area but the D700 is much much stronger (and heavier). I can tell that even without the added shooting options, the D700 will be a much more versatile camera, it's so far ahead of the K10D in AF speed and ISO IQ that it isn't even funny. Those were the two most limiting aspects of the K10D in my mind, and now we've leapfrogged to the top of the hill in those areas, it's shocking how big of a difference there is. With the K10D I could only use ISO 800 if I could absolutely nail the exposure, but with the D700 I don't even have to think about using 1600 since it looks about like 400 on the K10D did.

The Autofocus speed and accuracy is astounding, even in dim lighting and with a non AF-S lens (85 f/1.8) the camera obtains focus almost instantly. The Pentax oftentimes struggled in anything but bright light, often refusing to lock focus at all.

Anyway, I've been very busy the past few days with other things so I haven't gotten a chance to get out and really use the camera, but as soon as I do I'll post images.

I've got to sort out upgrading to Lightroom 2, Lightroom 1 won't support the D700's .NEF files.

SLC