I Must Be Crazy!

Coming up in the next couple of weeks, we have consultations with two couples to shoot their weddings. This evening, Donna asked me in an e-mail if I thought we needed to buy a D200 to replace one of our D70s’s in support of these jobs.

I told her no.

Here was a chance to get a D200! And, I turned it down! I must be crazy!

Not really. The D70s, even at 6.1MP, is still a quite viable camera. Sure, there are advantages to the D200 — the biggest being the 10.2MP sensor. But really, what will be of better use to us in both the short and long run is better, faster lenses. And that’s a direction we’ve already begun to move in with the purchase of the 90mm f/2.8 and the 28-75mm f/2.8.

At the last wedding we attended, I made careful note of what the photographers were using. The camera bodies were not the latest, greatest. They were Canon 10D 6.3MP cameras. The primary shooter was using a 28-70mm f/2.8 and a 70-200mm f/2.8. The second shooter/assistant was using a 28-70mm f3.5-4.5, and a 70-200mm f4-5.6. While I haven’t yet seen any of the pictures, I’m told that this particular studio turns out fabulous work.

And besides, excellent new lenses from Sigma, Tamron and Tokina have less impact on the wallet than new camera bodies. And, they’ll make a greater impact on our work in the shorter run.