Will the 5d mk2/D700 come down in price due to the new cameras?

[James J]

Sold my D5100 a few months ago and have missed it ever since. Saving up as much cash as possible to go full frame (still), yet the new pricepoints of the D800 and 5D mk3 are just too damn pricey for me.

Due to this, I'd be looking at the now "old" tech. My question is will these come down in price or are the current prices gonna freeze due to the new models being vastly more expensive? If they do freeze, I'll have to look at second hand, which I'm not liking the idea of as I'd only buy from someone who really looks after the gear well.

Either gonna buy later this year or early next year, based on funds. Total budget would be between £2-2.5k for the camera and a good macro lens.

Advice?

 

[James J]

If anything they've gone up :s

Bought my 5Dmk2 from Jessops in January for £1521, now it's selling for £1.6k, on both the rainforest and Jessops.

Can't speak for the D700 though.

This is what worries me as I also did track the prices of the two cameras before the new ones came out.

Probably gonna look at the second hand market then and give the seller a proper grilling on how the camera has been treated etc to ensure the kit is in good condition.

Swaying more towards the D700 at the moment as the autofocus and ISO performance appears to be better than the mk2 which are ideal for my type of photography.

 

[James J]

After a very long chat with the mrs, I've decided to sell my PC to raise the funds for full frame DSLR kit as it means I can photograph her graduation and concentrate more on my work and buy a new iMac after the refresh later this year, which was a long term plan.

Gonna be hard/impossible to find someone to trade their gear for mine so selling is the best option it seems.

To the members market I go!

Still got to decide between the D700 and the 5D mk2 though and then lens choices ontop of that -.-

 

[James J]

Would you be doing any video?

Also not sure, which is why the 5D mk2 is still playing on my mind lol.

 

[James J]

I own a D700 I love it to bits. shot at 6400 iso last night and the pics are sharp in light areas. but noisy in dark, but you can increase the contrast and boost the blacks so the dark noise is invisible.

It depends really, consider do you need video? you can always get a cheep 3100 3000 5000 5100 crop frame for extra reach and video.

consider the lens choice. look at the lenses nikon and canon offer. its sad canon offer cheep L glass for the 70-200 f4 / 2.8 without IS but nikon only have an option for a 2.8 with VR but however it is a bit cheaper than the canon 2.8 IS version.

also consider the focal ranges with nikon you can get from 14-200 in 3 lenses at f2.8 where canon's equivalent will cost you.

Consider if you need the extra AF points. more AF points means you can take a picture at any composition you want without having to worry about your focus. also its a tad better for taking fast shots.

speaking of fast shots do you need the d700 fast rate of burst? bear in mind the buffer isn't that big on it. about 13 raw shots.

do you like the interface on both cameras?

I like my D700 its nice to hold and 12mp isn't a big deal. you can sharpen up a 100% crop to get a fairly decent a4 print out of it which is enough for me for now. Its also nice to hold with a big lens attached the weight balance is perfect, you can hold it safely with just fingers.

The lens choice for the D700 is insanely confusing for someone coming from a DX camera as I havent seen a single lens less than £800 that is branded FX yet.

I'd want a 50mm for portrait work and a macro lens for close up stuff. I'd probably invest in a telephoto at a later date. Its sad to see the prices of the D700 still so damn high as well as its still a very expensive body to buy without even factoring in a lens

The autofocus points are something I used often on my 5100 and that used an 11 point tracking autofocus system which was decent but not amazing. The canon uses a vastly different system though and reading on ken rockwell it works well enough for most things, yet loses out massively to the D700.

Do you ever feel like the 12mp rating isn't enough? I was more than happy with the 16mp rating of my 5100 as the photos where large enough to be blown up without losing detail.

 

[James J]

I upgraded from a D300 to a secondhand D700 last month. The original plan was a D800 but finances and availability meant it was a no-go. I'm now glad I did go for the D700. Even though it's old technology, the same age as my D300, it feels much better. The focus feels quicker and the images, even though only 12mp the same as the D300, are much richer with more dynamic range.

Lenses can be expensive, but don't discount the secondhand market. There are loads of lenses out there which can be bought quite cheaply. I didn't want the expense or the weight of the 24-70 2.8 zoom, so I went for the 24-85 3.5-4.5 AFS lens which, secondhand, is less than a fifth of the cost of the 24-70. There are also loads of primes which aren't too bad in price or quality wise.

How cheap can a good 50mm prime be had for? Don't particularly want too much vignette on my images so I'm really stumped at what I should potentially buy lol.

 

[James J]

Every single Nikon lens in existence is an FX lens unless it explicitly says DX.
Nikon has supported its F-mount for well over 50 years so you have decades worth of fully compatible top quality glass.

For a 50mm prime you can't go wrong with the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF-S G lens.

Thanks thats useful info.

Looking at a D700 then with a 50mm prime and a decent telephoto lens to start with, then I'll save for a macro lens (105 or potentially the 200mm).

Which telephoto is good for portrait AND potentially wildlife photography? Could throw around £600 at the telephoto, depending on how good it is. How much are the f1.8 50mms (AF-S version?)

Thanks in advance!

 

[James J]

The 50mm f/1.8 AF-S is 170GBP.

The 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D is a good portrait lens and will work for wildlife if you can get close enough, they are still made new and cost around the 600GBP mark nut you may need to look for one 2nd hand. There is also an 80-200 f/2.8 AF-S and the older version of the 70-200 f/2.8 AF-S VR1, neither are made new anymore

But really, a portrait lens is not at all the same as a wildlife lens. For wildlife you really need as much reach as possible and ultimate sharpness, portrait lenses can have much shorter focal lengths, the Out-of-focus background and other rendition characteristics are important, and often extreme sharpness wide open is not paramount.

Thanks again mate. i'll have a look at some reviews later