Ok, have had a clear out of all my old camera kit and now I need a new camera. Thing is with the funds I’ve raised from selling everything I could buy what I had initially thought of which is a D300 (had been using a D200) and a nice fast wide zoom, I tend to shoot in the woods, or……… do I go mad and buy a D700(!) which would only leave me with funds at the moment to stick a fast prime 50mm on. Kinda thinking with this money, maybe now is the time to jump to ff, shoot with the 50mm for a few months, then buy a 14-24 when the next chunk of money is free *cough*
Head says D300 + nice fast wide, heart says D700 + 50mm and save for ff lenses…….
Oh, and I won’t be biking with either.

Not wanting to add more confusion, but have you considered the new D7000?

Preview here: http://www.dpreview.com/previews/NikonD7000/

It’s supposed to outgun the D300 in several areas.

D700 is meant to be good though……good luck deciding!

The D700 is a couple of years old now – and supposedly the new D7000 has comparable high ISO performance despite the smaller sensor.

If you can’t afford to spend lots on lenses then I don’t see the point in going full frame really.

14mm is WWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDE on full frame too – do you really need that wide?

full frame.
those mickey mouse small format cameras are horrible to look through. it’s like looking down a bog-roll tube to see the viewfinder. full frame viewfinders are bigger and brighter.

TBH, I’ll probably end up going full frame when the business can afford it. In the meantime though, a pair of D300s works well for me – low light noise just isn’t a problem any more – software has solved the (not very bad) problem.

I’d recommend a D300 and good glass – the D700(0!) won’t really give you anything that a D300 and top-notch lenses can’t – perhaps a 17-55 f2.8 and a superwide prime? And don’t forget your strobes and triggers if you’re shooting in dark woods….

EDIT: Oh, and there are light years of difference between the D200 and 300 in terms of high ISO quality / lack of noise – I really was blown away.

The D7000 is meant to have significantly better high iso performance than the D300s, which is in turn better than the D300 – and will cost about the same as a D300. Plus you get full 1080p HD – dual card slots – more MPs (which can be useful if you like to crop for composition).

What he said ^^^^^^ + more.

See the preview I linked to. It looks quite nice. My D80 is starting to become old hat already! 🙁

full frame – without question, you can actually focus my hand on FF vs Crop. Get a quality F 1.2 etc… lens and marvel at the depth if field and immense IQ – the zoom will never match it.

Ah the bliss of having to decide which “nice to have” item to buy next.

I remember those days, when I had a regular income.

Conversely, life is a lot simpler when you have more clarity in your life brought about by limited funds.

The other advantage is that you don’t end up with a drawer full of expensive, but redundant obsolete gadgets!

No more Bleeding Edge syndrome!