I think you'll love the 70-200. I have the 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S and don't know how I ever did without.

Mark

 

I almost snagged the Kenko 1.4 converter, but decided to hold off a bit on that.


Get the Nikon TC-14 converter. Trust me.
Jim

 

We (my employer) just ordered the Epson 7600, the stand, and the network card from B&H for "work".
--
Cheese

 

After seeing all the pics in here, I'm desperate for a camera upgrade - main criteria being one with zoom enough to take good shots at Autocross. I'm thinking about just jumping right in and getting a Nikon D70... perhaps a bit foolish though and it could become a hobby as expensive as the MINI

I'm still using my paltry Canon PowerShot S110. I bought it years ago and its still working perfectly. It will stay on board as the 'throw in my pocket' camera.

 

The D70 kit lens won't be enough to get very close to shoot autocross. With a D-SLR you probably would be looking at a lens in the 70-200mm or 70-300mm range. So remember to factor that in to your buying decision.

 

Thanks for the info Substantial research is in order...

 

As your search goes on, please post about it. There are a lot of people on the forum that can provide assistance to you as you look at making a jump to a DSLR.

 

Stef, the D70 is a really good camera. I have the D100, which cost me $2000 a couple of years ago, and the D70 is a better camera in some ways. Offhand, the Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 ED lens (which has a rebate right now) or the Nikkor 70-300 mm f4-5.6 G would probably be good choices for you for the autocross stuff.
Mark

 

The 70-300 ED Nikon lens, for the money can't be beat. IMHO.

 

My 70-200 VR came today. It's actually a little smaller and lighter than I remember. :smile: It almost seems compact.

As for my D70, I got that back on Tuesday and all seems to be well with it again.

So far just test shots with both the camera and the lens. I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to do some shooting with the D70 again.

 

Ooooh, more cool shots to check out.
Glad to hear you have your camera back.

 

i'm thinking about picking up a canon 20d.

it seems everyone here loves nikons...

 

The 20D is a very nice camera. Actually I have two friends that now have 20D's and two more that are talking about getting one. I'm starting to feel like the outsider with my Nikon gear.

 

I was looking at an EOS 20D last night....EXTREMELY tempting. Was also looking at the Mark II just to compare the differences (outside of price) I could easily live with the 20D...and an adapter for my Leica lenses....tasty thought indeed.


FYI - Nikon has ceased production of the D1X, and dropped the price on the D2H to $2000!!!! No news yet on the arrival date of a D2X though.

Dave - glad to see you're up & running again. Great choice on that lens.

 

Cheese - which inks did you order the Epson 7600 with? We use the Utlrachrome inks in our 7600 & 9600, they are truly phenomenal printers.

 

D2H for $2000 - I saw that.

RE: the lens - I wouldn't have the 70-200 without the photo forum. I probably would have gotten the slower autofocus 80-200. Thanks for the help guys!

 

I've got the 80-200 AF-S and, the first time I saw the 70-200, I was surprised at how much smaller it looks. Should be a great lens for you. Glad the D70 is back and working again!

Mark

 

I bought a 300mm IFED lens on eBay, $200 bucks. Old beater body, which I love (nobody, knock on wood, hijacks you for old, beat uplooking equipment!) excellent results and the IF makes it just small enough to be hand-holdable. The zoom portion would be nice though.

Now, looking for padding I can put in an old army bag. I use surplus bags as my camera bags. Again, to me, walking around with LOWEPRO screaming, expensive camera in here, isn't a safe thing in many parts of the world.

Anyone know who sells nice, cushy, closed cell foam? Or better, just the insides with velcro from an old case? Anyone have a riped, 'I'm throwing you out' case with innereds they'd want to sell, cheap?

 

Ah, I've got the 300 f/4 IF ED, too. It's a great lens, especially for that price! Good deal. AF is pretty slow but I mostly manually focus for the racing stuff, anyway, so no big thing at all. I've also got the tc14b for it. The resulting f/5.6 is a bit slow but it works well.

Mark

 

... AF? Nikon F3 here. That might explain the price difference. Although, at $200, it was a home run, even for manual. (I don't recall, but I think the manual is f4. Certainly not slower) I am resisting AF because it will be my confirmation that I can't see for sh&t and I'm getting old.

I do, however, use AF on the Panasonic DC1 (which is the Leica digital) IN fact, I usually use auto everything on that and the results are astounding. Still, I like film, and I still love my M7.

 

Ah, okay! I bet you've got the f/4.5 300 EDIF if it's MF. Even smaller and lighter, I think, and a nice choice if you're not using AF at all. Not enough of a difference from f/4 to matter. I have the previous generation 300 f/4, which is AF but not AF-S like the current one. But I use it mostly for motorsports stuff and I almost never use AF for that. Even with a much faster focusing setup (like the 80-200 AF-S on a D2h), I still don't really like to use AF unless I really have to. Though at some point, maybe soon, I might have to bite the bullet and admit that AF does a better job as AF improves and my eyes get worse.

Mark

 

eyes? going bad?


hmmm. maybe if someone could invent autofocus eyes, we'd all be better off

 

Ultrachrome! We'll have the spiffiest CAD drawings around!

 

Darn you guys!

I was thinking about taking the jump into DSLR for a few months. Then last night you guys got me looking at 20D v D70... for some reason I have migrated to 1Ds price levels in about 12 hours.

Now I have to at least attempt to work my way back down. We are talking about FOUR new 20D's for the price of a used 1Ds.

*edit*
Does anyone know if I buy a 20D if I could use the lenses on a 1ds (&mark2)? From what I understand they both use EF mounts but I read somewhere that the 1ds series uses something different...

 

It sounds like you may be getting ready to start digging your DSLR moneypit with a backhoe.


Good luck with that. Keep Casey's words of wisdom in mind. He made an excellent point about not going overboard on spending money for a digital body when you could get a good D-SLR and put the "extra" money towards a LOT of value in lenses, which you could use with your *next* camera body once you've had a chance to do some solid learning with the first one.

(the above was probably a bit wordy)

From dpreview:

Canon EOS EF MOUNT - Canon EOS-1D Mark II, Canon EOS-1Ds, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II
Canon EOS EF and EF-S Mount - Canon EOS 20D

So if you buy EF mount lenses, they will work on the 20D, 1D, 1Ds, and 1Ds Mark II, but EF-S mount lenses will only work on the 20D.