Friday, December 07, 2007


It's a photography-oriented post, folks! Isn't that exciting?

A while back I mentioned that the M8 was my dream camera. Underline, highlight and italicize "dream", 'cause, sadly, I ain't got the cash. So, what to do, what to do, what to do? Easy. Buy a Nikon D40x with a 35mm f2 lens. Or a 24/2.8 if you prefer wider.

Seem a bit of a jump from a camera that sells for just under 6 Gs for the body to one that sells for just under $700.00, with an 18-55mm lens? It ain't. Not if you're talking function. Both are small, both are light, both produce photos that, if they're being used by someone who knows what they're doing, would be indistinguishable from each other. (And, if you think that's an overstatement, you might want to read Michael Reichmann's review of the Canon G7 - a 10 MP camera with a sensor a fraction the size of those in the M8 and D40x. Note this section: "Much as I would like to pretend otherwise, it sometimes was difficult without close examination to be certain which A3-sized print had come from which camera. Yes, a close look would almost always show the G7 files to have a slight "digital" look, while those from the M8 did not, but it was remarkable how well the G7 did. I showed mixed-together prints to several technically knowledgeable and experienced photographers and it took each of them close examination to tell the cameras apart simply from the sample prints, and even then not always. As I said, remarkable image quality (but JPG only)." (I added the italics)

The thing that brought this little post on was a question on another blog from some poor guy wondering whether he ought to buy the D80 or D200. Easy to answer - "Are you getting paid?", "Are you using the camera all day, every day?" If the answer's "No" to either of these, then neither camera is worth the money. Buy a D40x. Spend the big bucks on lenses, not bodies.

What'll you lose? Well, weight, for one thing. Depth of field preview, for another, but so what? The 3" screen on the back of the camera isn't enough d.o.f. preview for you? Multiple focus points? Oh, no! If you're helpless without these, you might consider a point-and-shoot. Fancy flash control? Yeah, right. You're about to shell out how many hundreds of dollars for the kind of set-up needed to take advantage of this?

So, obviously, my answer to that poster (and 99% of the others) - D40x with a good lens.

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