Oh what to do?

Well, I was at at the camera store to get my SB-600 speedlight for my Nikon D80 when I was distracted by the Nikon representative who was working the store that day.

He had pointed out that I could get a good deal on the Nikon 18-200VR if I bought it in conjunction with the Nikon D300. I was really interested inthe D700 (full frame) but I couldn't afford the glass, so it was suggested that I should at least go D300.

Well, I could get it from B&H at a significant saving (almost $300 less and that includes next day shipping)

If I end up making the plunge, what kind of Compact Flash cards should I get. There are so many grades. I know that I pretty much need 4GB at a minimum now with my D80 but often use the full 8GB (one 4GB + two 2GB) that I carry with me.

I really think I can swing this and it'll give me a great combo of the D300 plus the 18-200VR plus the SB-600 speedlight.

What do you all think?

 

Ray, you should invest in UDMA cards. Sandisk's Ducati or Extreme IV, Lexar's Professional 300x UDMA. PNY's new cards seems to get a good speed review from Rob Galbraith.

With the 300 and RAW you will notice the difference with the UDMA over the others. Even the Extreme III line.

 

IMO, you only need to invest in the ultra-fast cards if speed is of utmost importance. otherwise, i don't think it is all that crucial to have lightning fast cards when walking around in the parks. i have a few ultra2's and you notice the speed when dumping the cards at the end of the day, but it's not enough for me to justify the greater expense. just my opinion.

 

I think a Mark II would like to have a w {buffering} ord with {buffering] you.

 

you find me mark, and i will talk with him. deal?

 

Thanks everyone. The UDMA cards are a bit more expensive, but it looks like I could get one good sized UDMA card, a cable release, the camera/lens bundle pay for next day shipping and still pay less than I would for just the camera bundle at my local shop.

The decision is just whether to pull the trigger.

I called Craig last night since he upgraded from the D80 to the D300. His 2 cents was to not come down to MouseFest with the D300 because it's just different enough to drive me nuts. But he said he wouldn't go back to the cameras in the D80 line of products and is happy with his upgrade

 

Well, in my own defense, I didn't even know how to use Aperture or Shutter Priority modes on my camera when I met Tim (and Roger) for the first time at Disneyland in 2007. I had to figure out how to change the settings while in the park.

For some reason I thought Craig said the D300 doesn't have a greenbox mode. I may have misunderstood him

If the D300 is as intuitive as the D80, it'll probably not be hard

 

Normally I would agree with you, but 12mp 12 bit files are smaller than 14 bit 12mp files, and wayyyy smaller than 14 bit 22mp files. Plus maxing out at 3 fps is another issue, but not getting a UDMA card with any new camera (that takes CF) is like putting a governor at 55 mph on an Enzo. Yeah, you may usually never drive over 55, but what happens when you want to go over 55?

 

I like that analogy.

I've pretty much made up my mind. If I can afford it, I'll be getting it, but I need to make up my mind in time to make the Next Day shipping deadline tomorrow so I can get it Tuesday.

I'm bad when it comes to rewarding myself with nice toys. I'll drop money on my wife way before I'd ever do that for myself

 

Oh, this decision is killing me. I want, I want, I want...haha

 

BTW, I don't want anyone to think that I was putting down the discussion of the Ultra IIs and the Transcends.

Before UDMA the camera's write speed usually wasn't improved by the card no matter if you had a D40 or a Rebel or a EOS-1Ds. But as I found out with the Edsel, which outputs a 10mp file that is larger than the 5D's RAW file due to 14 bit RAW, but doesn't have UDMA...well, the camera's buffer was large enough for most bursts but it did have to slow down at times. Then all of the new cameras since that time have come out with UDMA, and almost all of them have 14 bit RAW now, so if you are shooting more than 1 image a second, you will notice a difference beyond download speeds (especially since you can't review the image until it writes to the card), which is also incredibly fast, especially with a firewire reader. I made sure my travel laptop had a firewire port just for that very reason.

I can't remember if Canon started it with the 40D but I know that all of the Canon prosumer and up cameras since the EOS-1DsMkIII are UDMA. Nikon from the D300 and up have UDMA, but Nikon had already switched their consumer line to fully SD just like Canon just did before then.

So the moral of the story is: the older cameras it really won't matter much, but the newer cameras you'll like them. Because they are an investment.


There is a difference between the Sandisk Extreme III SDHC and Transcend's SDHC Class-6, which is supposed to be the fastest SDHC standard.....

 

One more thing to add to your shopping list is a 72mm filter for the 18-200.

I agree with Scott and Micahel, just bring the d80 too, and if the d300 gets frustrating this trip, just put the 18-200 on the d80!

You'll love the d300, it feels much closer to my old camera, than the d80.
I've been toying around with writing a quick article on how to pick a camera. I get questions from my site on what to use, and I currently do not agree with Ken Rockwell (who swayed me from a d200 to a d80) at all.

 

Well, if I don't decide soon, the point will be moot. At least from a MouseFest standpoint. Right now anything over a $1000 makes me stop and pause