The price to performance of used cameras is absurd. My view is that digital photography tech hit maturity in 2008 with the release of the Canon 5D Mark II and Nikon D700.
There is an overwhelming amount of professional gear out there at rock bottom prices. Consumer gear can be a blast when it’s cheap enough. The right camera for a style of shooting is going to be better than whatever the newest camera happens to be. (Unless you’re doing sports/action/wildlife. AF tech is getting absurd.)
Third Party Battery Paranoia
I have had batteries fall apart, fail within months, and with a capacity far below what’s on the label. It’s difficult to find good quality third party batteries.
There is an easy way ANYONE can inexpensively capacity test camera batteries. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to capacity test camera batteries. It is a simple DIY project that only requires, ~$30, a screwdriver, and pair of wire strippers.
Picking Out Vintage Lens Winners
All lenses aren’t equal, especially when it comes to vintage and early digital camera lenses. Modern lenses will give you images that are razor sharp corner to corner. Vintage lenses can set themselves apart by how they render, the color you can get with them, interesting bokeh, or other characteristics not valued by current photographers.
On the other hand, many vintage lenses are not good. Their performance may not be good enough to set them apart from other lenses. Worse, as time has gone on some lenses have defects such as haze, fungus, balsam separation, or degraded grease, that will render them worthless because of the difficulty in repair.
I’m somewhat indiscriminate in my purchasing of gear, so I get a mix of good, bad, and average. The lens reviews will help you find a lens worth owning. These are popular film cameras that recieve frequent lens questions.
The largest Compact Flash card that is compatible with the Nikon D2X is 32GB. There may be compatiblity issues if you use a larger card.
The memory limit is due to the camera using the FAT32 file system. The D2X can not format a card to greater than 32GB.
If you don’t want to read a bunch of specifications, my recommended Compact Flash card is:
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The maximum size Compact Flash card that is fully compatible with the Nikon D2XS is 32GB. There could be compatiblity issues if you use a larger card.
The size limitation comes from the use of the FAT32 file system. The D2XS is not able to format a card to larger than 32GB.
If you’re in a hurry, my recommended Compact Flash memory card is:
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The Nikon D3 uses Compact Flash memory cards. 64GB is the max card storage capacity that is compatible with the camera.
A card bigger than 64GB will not be recognized or cause the D3 to display an error.
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The biggest Compact Flash memory card that is compatible with the Nikon D300 is 32GB. There will likely be compatiblity problems if you use a larger card.
The memory limit is due to the camera using the FAT32 file system. The D300 can not format a card to greater than 32GB.
If you don’t want to read detailed specs, my recommended Compact Flash card is:
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The Nikon D300S uses Compact Flash memory cards. 64GB is the largest card storage capacity that is compatible.
A CF card over 64GB will not be recognized or the D300S will display an error.
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The Nikon D3S uses Compact Flash memory cards. 64GB is the largest card storage capacity that is compatible with the camera.
A CF card over 64GB will either not be recognized or cause the D3S to display an error message.
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