Choosing New Digital Photographic Equipment

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The following is a summary of the thought process behind choosing a new digital camera system.

Ethan Parker had used his 35mm film system consisting of (2) Canon A1 film bodies, (5) lenses, and (2) flash units from 1982 through most of 2005.  In 2005 the decision was made to switch to digital photography.  Unfortunately, this would not be as easy as purchasing a digital SLR body.  Canon changed their lens mount with the introduction of their EOS system, making their older equipment no longer compatible with newer Canon equipment.  As a result, any upgrade to digital would involve repurchasing an entire camera system.  So prior to making an investment of that magnitude, a comprehensive analysis of the offerings of camera manufacturers was made.

It was determined that both Nikon and Canon offered the most extensive product lines of any of the equipment manufacturers.  A detailed comparison of the Nikon and Canon equipment found that both manufacturers had an impressive lineup of lenses.  Canon lenses had the advantage in some areas; however, the Nikon (Nikkor) lenses appeared to have a slight advantage overall.  An indirect advantage in lenses that Nikon had over Canon was that all of their digital imagers were the same size (or close enough to be the same for all practical purposes).  This allowed any Nikon digital body to use any Nikon lens.  Canon had three different sizes of imagers for their digital cameras.  As a result not all Canon lenses were compatible with all Canon digital bodies.  

Both manufacturers' cameras had excellent picture quality and are getting better with each new generation of cameras.   Some might have a preference of one manufacturer's controls over the other (the zoom and focus rings of Nikon turn in the opposite directions from those of Canon and there are also differences in camera body controls).  Since there would be a steep learning curve in going from film to digital anyway, it was determined that adapting to new controls would be a relatively minor issue.

What tipped the scales was the metering and flash control capabilities of the Nikon cameras.  Some might think that this is a relatively minor issue, but in photography, getting the proper light exposure is critical.  Good metering and flash control systems that work together make the photographer's job much easer.  Nikon's 3D color matrix metering and i-TTL flash control systems worked together to produce an image that was less likely to exceed the dynamic range of the imager and produce adequate detail in both the shaded and highlighted areas of the picture. The bottom line is that both manufacturers have excellent systems, but in the final analysis, Nikon with its consistent imager size and superior metering and flash control systems carried the day.

The camera body that was chosen was the D70s. At the time of purchase the other digital camera bodies available were the D2 (h and x), D100 and D50. Of these camera bodies only the D70 had both iTTL and Commander flash controls compatible with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (CLS). The ideal camera body would have been the D200 had it been available at the time of purchase. 

The Commander mode flash control allows the use of an off camera flash with full use of iTTL as well as manual mode. This combination maximizes flexibility and workflow allowing for greater productivity. The initial perches included a single SB600 flash.  The plan is to ad additional SB600s and an SB800, also, eventually adding radio slaves to increase the range of operation.

Lenses are one of the primary reasons for going with Nikon or Canon. The initial perches included a (Full frame) 28-200mm zoom instead of the DX 18-70mm kit lens.  One reason for this choice was the wider zoom range.  Another, was the full frame format which allows for stacking of filters without vignetting.  The previous camera outfit had a 28-90mm zoom lens that vignetted without any filters, when set to 28mm and f/2.8, which was very annoying.

A spreadsheet analysis, of the focal lengths at which photographs were actually taken, found that there distribution had a high consideration at the 28mm and 200mm ends of the zoom range. Between these ends was a more normal distribution with spicks in the 35mm to 50mm range and in the 70mm to 105mm range.  An examination of this data found that both wider and longer focal lengths would be usefully.  It was also observed that any upgrade to a faster or sharper lens should occur in the 35-50mm or 70-105mm focal length range.

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