Ahhh the fun of buying equipment!

So I got a new camera the other day, a D300, which will let me take band, dj, and club photos again with the best of them. So, let me walk you though what went though my mind when buying this, and why I didn't go to other cameras.

- I shoot in the studio, and it seems that Nikon hasn't made a better studio camera at iso100 other than a used D2x that's affordable. It's amazing, but the only camera that could really help me is a D3x - but I'd rather rent one than pay 8k for a camera body.

- In a few years I think I'm going to get a Mamiya medium format setup, so I really don't want to spend the money yet into a 35mm based camera system.


So my camera choices were the following... Get a great used D3 at a great price, get a D700 around $2200ish, or get a D300 at $1200ish.

The D3 is a great camera, but then I don't shoot sports, I have no use for a fast frame rate, I don't really need to go above iso3200, and it's $2000 more than a D300 which seems to do everything just fine.

I wouldn't mind getting a D700 but it's not a studio camera and I wouldn't gain anything with the bulk of my work. I also don't shoot wide, and the extra stop of high iso isn't really worth $1000 to me.

I ended up getting a D300 for $900 off of craigslist. It does great over everything I need. It focuses well, and it does high iso pretty good compared to the others I was looking at. Also with the money I saved I could more than likey buy a nice super wide lens and that Sigma 30 1.4.



I'm posting this because it seems that a lot of photographers buy something on impulse and want rather than a need or to fit a use. Then they end up spending way more money on something they will never have a real need for or something they will never use to it's fullest extent.

One light headshot shots!

So I was toying around with the idea of headshots with just one light, well, one big light - 4 foot octabox - and it worked out really well. I guess the road to figuring this out was pretty long, but after a few years it finally stuck.

What's good about this setup is that you can get light that's a little bit dramitic, but also is even enough to flatter just about anyone.

=)

Try it out!