The Industry

If you've been paying attention to what the camera industry is producing, one thing you'll notice is there always seems like a new and different digital camera hits the market whenver you turn around. While you may have been happy with your film based camera for years and the camera manufactures recognized this with slower and slower real improvements to their camera lines, this all has changed with the rise of the digital medium. Most companies, Canon specifically, have introduced seemingly an endless line of updates to their camera lines. The changes and introductions happen so quickly, when a photographer is just used to using and satisfied with making such a costly purchase, the manufacturer seems to introduce something new and in the process obsoletting his seemingly yesterday's news camera. If you pay lots of attention to this phenomenon, you might either spend yourself into the poor house, or just get frustrated with the apparently indiscriminate release of one new capability after another. It's a weird situation to be in. But, at least there's a silver lining to all this. The tremendous intro of new and better cameras means new and better things are on the market. So, whether your dip your toe into the digital improvement waters or not, eventually if you do, you'll get to take advantage of new and different cameras.

As you all may know, I'm not much to run after the latest and greatest technology. I didn't buy my first digital camera until the D1h was almost out in the field for a year. The same went for the D2h. And, I only purchased that camera after much gnashing of teeth of the merits of such an expensive purchase. The eventual item that brought things to a tipping point was the super-huge purchase price reduction Nikon instituted prior to them introducing the supposedly new and improved Nikon D2hs. A 40% price reduction wasn't something to sneeze at.

The D2h, Enough?

I took full advantage of the situation and after a year of intensive use can say I completely love this camera. I love it if for no other reason than it had no surprises. The camera was well vetted out in cyber-space. Its only problems were well documented and honestly had little to do with my style of photography. Image noise at higer ISO's are a bit problematic but not a show stopper and if you practice good photography technique, this completely a non-issue. The only times I wished I had something different were the few times in this last year that I wished I coudl shoot a single digital image that could be printed on a 20x30 inch paper. Since I assumed my 4mp D2h could do 13.3x20 inches, doing simple math meant I needed about 9.3mp imager. Okay, not long after I bought my D2h, Nikon introduced the D2x. The neat thing about that camera was not only it's identical form factor to the D2h, it also had a 12mp+ imager. This could easily meet my needs, I thought to myself. What's the problem? It was introduced only 2.5 times as much as my D2h. At almost $5,000 bucks, that meant this would be a serious investment. So, the considerations and thought review set in. Was this the camera to buy or what? Would I get my monies worth or not?

Well, one way or another I would've recovered my costs getting this camera. The process of considering it really turned into whether I would get enough bang for buck. So, the beat began and I hemmed and hawed about the merits of the camera while I continued to make great images with my D2h. One reason I wasn't to hell bent on large mp camera was I was having great success with my landscape photography. With four images stitched together, I was easily making 10mp's images through post processing. The results were superb--they continue to be btw. The only problem I had was I wasn't getting that single shot 20x30 inch capability I wanted. And, this wasn't really a need.

The New Requirement

While vacationing with my wife in her childhood territory of South Dakota, I was so taken with the Custer, Rapid City, Black Hills environment, we resolved to eventually setup a full-up photo gallery showcasing my work. Everyone needs a life goal. I set this as mine; In ten years I would have a full-up photo gallery showcasing my work.

This meant I needed to be able to produce big images. What was big? I set the initial goal of 32x48's. This would fit on a 40x60 inch sheet which is a large piece of paper. Doing simple math using the D2h capability as the standard meant I needed a 10.5mp imager. Of course all this match is subjective--not all imagers are created equal in other words. But, it was a starting point. Here I was, needed a camera with a big mp imager but not really wanting to spend the money on the D2x. What to do... What to do...

Enter the D200

Almost on cue, Nikon announced the long rumoured D200. With a 10.1mp imager, the camera on spec seemed to answer my wishes. Not only that, while the previous D100 was a bit prosumer like without the obviously characteristics of Nikon's pro series, the D200 promised to have all that and more. More? The more was at a price point of only $1700 bucks. Wow! Three years ago with the D100 was introduced I lambasted Nikon--while pulling out my credit card to purchase one mind you--for setting such a high price point for that camera. It was neat to have a 6mp camera but it really wasn't the revolutionary camera at a price point that matter to really convert the masses to digital photography. While the D100 had a fine feature set for the time, at $2,000 bucks it was too expensive for the masses or the near masses.