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Nikon recommendations

September 6th, 2008 · No Comments · Geek

Thom Hogan is a great reviewer of Nikon stuff. I love his six word summaries which basically say the best price/performance right now is the Nikon D700. He BTW really dislikes the Coolpix P6000 which has a crippled RAW capability because it require you use Windows Vista (ugh!), but it is 13MP and has GPS location and Wifi ethernet access.

Six Word Nikon Reviews by Thom Hogan

The most concise reviews and advice I’ve ever written. 26 products in 156 words (just six per product):

Nikon D3: Best Nikon design, best Nikon sensor

Nikon D700: 95% of a D3, much cheaper

Nikon D300: Can’t afford D700? Then buy this

Nikon D80: Old before its time, now retired

Nikon D60: Great AI camera; meter/focus yourself

Any Coolpix: Look elsewhere, nothing to see here

18-55mm VR DX: small range, high performance, low cost

55-200mm VR DX: right telephoto range, performance; low cost

16-85mm VR DX: useful range, great performance, but pricey

18-200mm VR DX: superzoom does nothing perfectly, all decently

12-24mm DX: Wide both ways: DX or FX

17-55mm DX: Too expensive, heavy, for better performance

14-24mm AF-S: Most exceptional lens I don’t use

24-70mm AF-S: Where’s the VR? Otherwise no complaints

70-180mm Micro-Nikkor: Short-lived wonder of macro world

70-200mm f/2.8 AF-S VR: Perfect except for the FX corners

200mm f/2: Pug-nosed perfection, practice lifting weights

70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF-S VR: Good value, but nothing is exceptional

300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR: Tests how good your camera is

200-400mm f/4 AF-S VR: Perfect on paper, less so otherwise

Capture NX2: If it runs, you might like

ViewNX: Reinventing the wheel again, and failing

Transfer: It’s free, it works, big deal

Camera Control Pro: Too expensive for a necessary item

Photoshop CS3: Best and trickiest Swiss Army Knife

Lightroom 2.0: Gets images from here to there
The Luminous Landscape
“Personally, I’m disappointed in Nikon’s Coolpix efforts since the 8800, and the P6000 actually increases that disappointment. My advice is to look at the Ricoh GX-200 and the Panasonic LX-3 if you want a quality compact camera in the near term. Both have true raw support. Both are excellent, photographer-centric cameras. And with care using raw conversion, both produce fine results at low ISO values. Looks like I need a new Coolpix bumper sticker to add to my collection: Skip the P6000”.

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