Fresh Memories
I'm doing my best to cope with the loss of my wonderful Pomeranian Alvin. One thing that has been helping is photography. I am really thankful for my better camera and that I was able to get some pictures of Alvin that are of better quality than the jpeg pictures my little Kodak takes. Not that I got great poses of him - most or all of the pictures are really still snapshots in that they couldn't really be considered are or striking poses. But my snapshots will print out nice and have more detail than the jpeg's. They won't bring him back but they'll help keep his image vibrant for the rest of my life.
That's the same for capturing the places I've taken the landscape shots too - the pictures just have better detail and color saturation than the Kodak. They help me revisit the places when I look at the pictures. And, even if they don't do anything for anyone else, the vivid memories make the camera worth it to me.
Memory Helper
Not to change the subject drastically but I have a hard time dwelling on thoughts of Alvin so I'm working at dealing with my loss by thinking of other things along with my thoughts of him (which don't seem to quit). I've been thinking of photography even more, both because I find it comforting, and because I want to capture my memories better and especially memories of my remaining dogs.
I am now approaching the one year mark of getting into photography. I promised myself I'd wait a year until I upgraded my camera, and I'm now starting to get serious about the upgrade. In fact, I've had the camera that I plan to purchase in my online shopping cart many times. I haven't pulled the trigger yet because I still ponder my decision and then justify my hesitation because it isn't quite a year since I set that restriction on myself. I may break it yet, though!
I thought I'd write my decision making process down, possibly to convince myself even more thoroughly that I have a solid plan.
What's Wrong with my D3200?
The first questions I need to answer are "Do I really need a new camera? What's wrong with the D3200?"
The D3200 works fine. I get quite a few good shots with it and have had compliments on some of my pics from a number of people (not just relatives either). That's what I really expected based on the information I read prior to buying the D3200 - that any of the current DSLRs are going to give good results. There is some difference between cameras at various price ranges but the entry level DSLRs like the D3200 are still plenty capable of producing a nice picture. Most of the difference between pictures is photographer technique and lenses. The camera body itself just records to the capability of the lens in front of it and how it's used by the photographer.
So beyond that the differences, for me, break down tothe camera feature set, and whether to go full frame or not. There's also the question of switching to another camera manufacturer.
Without necessarily explaining what the following items are, I'm going to list my wants.
As far as features, I really want automatic exposure bracketing. The times that I've had problems dealing with wide dynamic range I've tried doing manual exposure bracketing and it just always leaves me unsatisfied. I really want an in camera depth of field preview. I want mirror lockup. I want a bigger view finder. I want a dedicated aperture control. These things are in addition to keeping the features I have currently.
I also want better performance. While the D3200 is good, I get more noise than I like and I have a hard time getting rid of it from my pictures. Some (or even a lot) of this may be technique, and I am constantly trying to figure out how to reduce noise. In addition, when I see pics other people take with better gear, I know that I just can't get there. Most of that is due to the lenses, but it's also due to the camera.
My bottom line is, I want the best picture quality I can get out of my camera. I shoot mainly landscape, almost always on a tripod, almost always with ISO 100. I know I don't have top of the line lenses and may be pushing them to their limits, but between the missing features and the noise, I think it's time to upgrade.
Here it comes
My main want or desire is to go to a full frame camera. I've read a lot about this and I've bought into the theory. Taking pictures is the process of capturing reflected light. Full frame cameras have bigger sensors. Bigger sensors gather more light; smaller sensors gather less light (given the same exposure settings). Little sensors (like on the D3200) must compensate for less light in some way - the shutter staying open longer, the aperture being bigger, or greater sensitivity or amplification on the sensor. Something has to be done to a smaller sensor to make it gather, or report, the light the same as a larger sensor.
There are some good articles that discuss the performance differences between full frame and the smaller frame (APS-C, or DX in Nikon speak). Here's one, for example (be sure to look at the graphic on page 5 that demonstrates the difference between pixel sizes):
http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/11/21/full-frame-sensor-size-explained-how-to-exploit-its-advantages-and-cool-effects/
Basically, a larger sensor should, in theory, provide less noise in an image due to the larger pixels, with everything else being the same. If you look at the SnapSort comparison between the Nikon D610 and the D3200 (http://snapsort.com/compare/Nikon-D3200-vs-Nikon-D610) you can see the 20% picture quality improvement rating (not to give anything away...). That should be noticeable!
Nikon or Canon or ???
When you choose a camera, the best advice (again, that I've gathered from many sources) is to choose the manufacturers system, not just the camera body. The common wisdom, from photographers that have been doing it much longer than I have, is that a camera body is basically disposable. It may be on a 2 year cycle or a 10 year cycle, but eventually you'll likely get a new camera body.
Lenses, however, last a lot longer (although I did just read how some of the glass can develop crystals due to the chemicals used for treatments, etc.). In the long run, if you buy good lenses you should be able to use them on the different camera bodies you go through.
I don't know how long it will be before I want a new camera body after I get this next one. I hope I don't need a new one for years and that the next one I get will have the features and quality I am happy with for a good long time (at least as long as Alvin!).
I've known that Canon offers more lenses than Nikon for some time. However, Nikon does offer enough, and that's good enough. I read over and over that unless you get the Canon 5D MK II or III, Nikon's beat Canon's for image quality (IQ) across the board. Canon may have some other features that some people like, like a touch screen on the back of the body, but that just seems like a gimmick to me. There's nothing wrong with Nikon's menu system as far as I'm concerned. The difference between 2 menu clicks or 4 menu clicks, or to be able to tap on a screen instead of tapping on a button, doesn't mean much to me.
So, based on IQ and price (the Canon 5D Mk III is over $3,000), I'll stick with Nikon.
That leads me to, as if you hadn't guessed earlier, the Nikon D610.
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| Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D |
The downside of going full frame will be the lens cost. I may end up using more primes due to the cost of the zooms. In fact, I have already ordered a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D that I am interested in trying. It's a manual focus only on my D3200, but that's how I mainly shoot anyway. It has good marks from DxOMark when mounted on a D600 (the predecessor to the D610). On the D610 the auto focus will work and it should give good pics. After that, well, I'll have to spend more bucks on more lenses!
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