It was nice to have a muscle-memory familiarity with the Nikon body. It’s interesting that Nikon sticks with the dial/rewind-crank bump on the left side of the camera, as almost a throwback to the F-series of cameras. The button capability of the 8008s cameras seems like a much more functionally appropriate thing to do. Further, the dial there, as Mark pointed out, is a place for fine dust to collect, as compared to the canon button system on the top left of their bodies.
(Continued after the Jump)
This body will immediately become my primary camera when shooting with Nikon, and I will just hope that when it fails, or I have to switch to my secondary body for a quick-lens need (i.e. my wide is on there and my D3 has my zoom) that it only happens when I am comfortably at iso500 or below. 
Barbie sure likes the camera’s familiar look. In fact, so much so that I had to do a little retouching to the photo because she was showing her appreciation just a little too much when I reviewed the shoot after the fact. Perhaps I was just so focused on how great I thought the camera looked, that I was more interested in looking at the camera than, well, Barbie and didn’t even notice until the images were up in PhotoMechanic. That must re-validate my geek card.
The body did feel a bit smaller in my hands than I would have liked, but that’s a bias of having larger than normal hands. Most people I know who say they prefer the D200 over the D2x say so for capabilities purposes, not body size. Not so with the Canon’s, where people just think that the Mark II camera is just too big size-wise, and they prefer the 5D because of the feel in their hands.
The camera is damn noisy. I didn’t put a dB meter on it, but it sure is loud. Further, why on earth they would put self-cleaning technology on the D300 and not on the D3 is just an example of incompetence and lack of due consideration. However, where it really matters, in file clarity and noise, Nikon really shines, and I was duly impressed.
- Nikon vs Canon – Introduction
- Canon – A first look
- Nikon – A first look
- Nikon vs Canon -The Noise Issue
- Nikon vs Canon -The MegaPixel Issue
- Nikon vs Canon – Shooting Tethered
- Nikon vs Canon – The LCD Screen
- Nikon vs Canon – External Ports
- Nikon vs Canon – Buttons and Access
- Nikon vs Canon – Card slots
- Nikon vs Canon – The Future
- Nikon vs Canon – Conclusions
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Originally published on Photo Business News & Forum on December 8, 2007. Comments are closed; this post is part of the archive.
Canon’s large rear rotary dial certainly has the “neato” factor, but in reality, is much less useful than a 4-way navigation switch; Nikon allows you to use the small rear dial as well as the navigation switch for the best of both worlds, and again, the thumb motion needed for using the 4-way navigation switch is much more natural than the motion needed to move Canon’s large dial..
It’s no surprise that Nikon’s ergonomics are almost universally praised..
As for a dust reduction system, I don’t consider it a big deal.. These systems are more a gimmick than anything, being less than 100% effective, and adds cost that I’d personally prefer not to pay for..
Now the real question is, did ya get a parental model release of those two very cute, yet underage models???
What rate did you offer them? Are you going to jail for showing off too much?
😉
Keep up the good info. thanks. I am happy to see Nikon come back with a solid tool to use again.
I see buying a digital camera as the same as buying a specific stock of film for 2-3 years.
Chris P