On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 01:19 -0400, Marvin Dickens wrote: > I second Leica lens quality. In the event you can't afford/get a Leica lens, > Nikon is my second choice.
My work had a Nikon D1 before we got the more recent Canon EOS 10D. The Canon was a massive step up in quality, performance, and reliability. It's not as solidly built or "nice" a camera, but unlike the D1 it works reliably. It wasn't just one particular faulty D1 we got, either. Before we gave up on them we had three TOTAL replacements. They all just went flakey and died. I was also never particularly happy with the D1's ability to handle weird lighting. It was extremely prone to colour casts and incredibly sensitive to exposure in some lighting conditions. I had to "fix" some truly ghastly photos at various points, especially things like shots inside art galleries. Unfortunate, as it *did* produce beautifully sharp, clear shots when it wasn't playing funny business with the lighting. Perhaps Nikon have improved the D1 since then - we did start out with an early model. Hopefully they've improved the software too, since it's was worse than the Canon software we have (but don't use) now. Ah well ... it's entirely possible I was unlucky, or that the photographer at work is somehow intrinsically destructive to Nikon digitals. Still, my experience with the D1 wasn't a good one. > Also, as someone else pointed out, digital zoom is absolutely worthless. This > technology, like image scanners that claim 2400 x 2400 DPI resolution (Or > better), is based on digital algorithms that enhance by guessing what the > image should look like if enlarged - In fact, the algorithm produces an > enlargement that is hocked off to the user as a magnification. The quality, > as my high school aged nephew would state: 5ucks. The worst thing is it's just one of the many dodgy scams in the business. Those resolution claims don't usually even come with a little (* interpolated; physical resolution 2400x1200 dpi); similarly dodgy scanners rarely say (* theoretical; measured dynamic range approx 3.0). I laugh when I see scanners claiming "Dynamic range of 4.2!". For why: http://www.scantips.com/basics14.html http://www.photo.net/learn/drange/ It seems scanner manufacturers really must have discovered the "new black" and "new white" :-P -- Craig Ringer
