Later on this year I'm looking at investing in a Digital Pro or Semi-Pro Kit with Lenses etc. along with a quality Laptop for my Wedding Photography Buisness that I am hoping to start up. I use Nikon Gear so what would be the best buy for my investment? My budget will hopefull be between £2-5k.

Lots of people shoot weddings using D200s - they are not designed as a pro camera but give great results. If you can wait a while then seriously consider the Fuji S5 - basically a D200 with extended dynamic range, allegedly lower noise and Fuji colours. They will be out in Spring - we'll have a review "soon".

Whatever camera you buy you will want 2.... I can still clearly remember the day my D2X packed up minutes before the bride walked down the aisle. If I hadn't had another on the other shoulder and a D70 stashed as backup then the bride would remember it too.........

Lenses? Try the Sigma 18 - 50 2.8 and the Nikon 70 - 200 VR. That's what I use (plus a bag of primes) and you'll probably want a couple of SB800s too.

That will come to about £4.5K which doesn't leave much for a laptop. What do you want the lappie for?

Another thing that I forgot to mention in my previous posting is that. Buying a Fuji DSLR is something that I have pondered over for quite a while but do not know much about them.

As with most DSLR's on the market today all I have to go by are Reviews in magazines and on websites. I will not be buying any Digital Gear until the summer anyway, as I turn 50 on June 27th and it depends on how long it takes some money that I am entitled to to be sorted. Hence me seeking guidance and researching at the this present time. I want to be sure that whatever I buy will be best for my needs.

Lucky you Michael to have lots of money to buy a camera! And plenty of time to research it. I have both a Fuji and a Nikon, although not the models that Jonathan has recommended. They are both fine cameras and I've used the D200s. I don't think you'll go far wrong with either of them. You ought to see if anyone will let you have a play with the D200s.

OK, I wasn't allowed to say this on Wednesday - but now it's Friday ;)

Based on a very brief acquaintance with a pre production model, IMO the best buy Nikon DSLR for Spring 07 will be......the Fuji S5. It's like a D200 with better image quality :)

Thanks Johnathan, I did in fact look up on the S3 Pro and even ordered a brochure from Fuji. I must admit I did like what I saw. I was told by a local Camera Retailer that the S3 Pro used Nikon lenses, hence my interest in it.

I have since heard or read somewhere that Fuji stopped producing the S3 Pro. If there's any truth in what I heard, why? I have also read that the S3 Pro is hard to come by. I checked out ebay yesterday after I received your email and I could only track down 5 of them.

Do you have any idea how much the S5 is expected to retail at and what Megapixels will it be?

Yeah the S3 Pro is a very nice camera but it's very slow. For portrait photographers in a studio it's great. The way I shoot it's not so great.

Fuji have stopped producing the S3 Pro because the S5 Pro got announced at Photokina a few months ago (there is no S4). I have one of the very few pre prod S5s in the country on my desk right now and I love the pictures it gives me. It's also a LOT faster than the S3.

MP is "6+6". That's not 6 and not 12. It's a special CCD with interlaced photosites of different sizes. They tell me it's like loading ISO 400 AND ISO 50 film at once. A file opened in Photoshop is 2848 pixels by 4256 which is 12MP. Some people are comparing it to an 8 - 9 MP camera as far as resolution goes.

"Street price" is expected to be around £1,000 (probbaly £995!)

You read my article, right?

Yes Johnathan, no sooner had I posted my thread then I went to the article. I was about to repost what I had done but you beat me to it.

I must admit, I like what I have read and seen and I am starting to get rather excited about the whole purchasing thing in the summer.

This site has been one of the best websites that I have visited regarding information and feedback to date and I have'nt been signed up a week yet. great stuff, keep up the good work.

Having just upgraded from Nikon D70 to D200 - am impressed. Haven't done a wedding yet - but D70 as back up. Taken lots of other pics and compared with the D70 much better in all forms. The power grip came today and then makes the handling even easier in both landscape and protrait forms.

I did look at the S3 and S5 but the cost of the S5 is much more then the D200.
As for Lappy - try www.laptopdirect.co.uk - very good service and a good price.

Thanks for that tip Andrew I will checkout that website. The reason for the Laptop is to show prospective clients in their homes my images as a slideshow, which I hope will make an impression, as well as seeing the proper images in my portfolio.

Another reason for the Lappy is to use as back-up when at weddings, just in case one of my Flashcards gets corrupted which I've been told can happen. I am also looking at investing in an External Hardrive, again mainly for backing up and storing my work. Just in case a problem arises with the Lappy or my PC crashes. It also helps free up space on the Hardrive which hopefully helps keep the Lappy and PC running at its best.

Michael
I use a 40gig Flashtrax photo viewer - or use the Epson viewer - 80gig hard drive on the lappy as you say to show clients. I back all raw pics in original format to DVD, only keeping the best photos on the lappy. For speed I use a 320gig external hard drive also.

Thats my set up for whats it worth.

>> Another reason for the Lappy is to use as back-up when at weddings, just in case one of my Flashcards gets corrupted which I've been told can happen.

Hmm, yeah - that can happen. However, most of the horror stories I've heard from wedding togs losing or corrupting files involve using portable hard drives/FlashTrax etc.

There's nothing wrong with these devices but they add another layer of complexity and another point of failure. When I'm shooting the flow is "shoot until the card is almost full and at a quiet moment rip out the card and drop another in". Full card goes straight into a case in my pocket. That's it. I carry a lot of memory. :)

With a FlashTrax it would be
1. take old card out and drop new card in
2. put old card in FT
3. hit the button
4. wait 10 mins or so (and don't jog the drive too much)
5. remove card from FT and store safely - err, you did remember step 3, didn't you...?

BTW one reason I prefer Canon to Nikon is that you can shoot on a Nikon with the CF door open :). DON'T try this with a Canon - not only will it not work, you will lose all the buffered files if you open the door while it's writing.

Hi Johnathan and Andrew,

I take on board both points of view here thanks very much for the comments. When I come to buy my Digital Kit in July I have included a Nikon D80 as a Backup Body and 2x1 Gig Cards and 2x2 Gig Cards.

As regards to my main Camera Body I am toying between the Fuji S5 Pro and the Nikon D200. When it comes closer to the time of actually buying the kit I will hopefully be able to have a play with both the S5 and D200 and decide then which one I like best.

The lenses that I have short listed are the Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 EX DC Lens and the Sigma 50-150mm F/2.8 EX DC HSM Lens with the required Skylight Filters to protect the Glass.

I will also need a good bag to carry my Digital Kit in. What bags would you recommend? The Flashgun that I am looking at buying is the Nikon SB800 Speedlight.

Michael
a couple of further points
1. CF cards - a 2gig card on the D200 gives 120shots on RAW - am looking at a 4gig card as my main card
2. Camera Bags, very personal - i've used a rucksack, but now use a Tarmac Pro 8 shoulder bag - far easier to use on your shoulder whilst shoting weddings and other mobile shoots.

Check our brand memory cards from mymemory.co.uk - they are 133 speed, which is the same as Sandisk 3, but at a far far cheaper price - hows bout £28 for a 4gig card

Drew

Oooo this i getting interesting. I love spending other people's money ;)

Couple of random points.

I've shot with a lot of Nikon kit (at various times I've owned 6 different Nikon DSLR models). The difference between the controls of cameras aren't huge but they do exist (the flash mode button keeps moving). My ideal setup would probably be a D2X and D200 BUT I paid the extra and shoot with two D2X-s because they are identical. If I was buying the kit again I might buy two D200s (or a D200 and S5 depending on the final S5 firmware) but I wouldn't shoot a D200 and D80 because (1) the controls are somewhat different and (2) they take different shape memory. But then it doesn't take a lot to confuse me :)

Don't believe the numbers on cheap cards. I bought a couple of 8GB "150x" cards. They are about 3 times slower than a SanDisk Extreme III I timed them and to drain a full buffer on a D2X takes an Extreme III 28 seconds - on a cheapie that on paper is faster it takes 94s And yes, I know timing memory cards is pretty sad. I don't know if I trust them or not yet.

Like Andrew says - bags are very personal things. I don't like a rucksack for weddings (creases the Hugo Boss...) - I've got a Tamrac CyberPro Roller - but I just got somebody to carry my gear for me :)) More expensive than a good bag but a lot easier.

Dear Johnathan & Andrew,

Thanks again for some very interesting and I must say informative tips. I have used a D70 Digital Camera while I was attending University for my BA. I did like the D70 a lot then. I also know that a few month later the D70 was upgraded to the D70s. Although I did not and have not used a D70s. I have no idea what was different about it. I have also borrowed a friends Olympus DL500, I think that was the model, but which ever model it was it had 5 Megapixals.

My ideal kit would be a Nikon D2x. (Incidently what is the difference between the D2x and the D2xs?) But I'm not sure whether my budget will stretch to the D2x/s. Second hand, they are still quite pricey.

I have seen a few on Ebay priced between £1500-£2000, but spending that amount of money on ebay frankly frightens the hell out of me. In the past I have bought a couple of things off ebay and I have been very happy with my purchases.

I bought my Nikon 50mm F1.8 Lens off ebay and it's brilliant, I have also bought a Nikon 75mm F2.8 Enlarger lens for my Medium Format work at University, again that is brilliant. Those couple of photographic items were only £35 & £25 respectively. But spending the money that I am looking at spending makes me very nervous. As I would want some kind of Guarantee or Warranty with my purchases.

As regards to Flash Cards. I am unaware of the amount of images the different sized storage cards can store, or which are best and most suitable for Wedding Photography.

Especially when it comes to the best sized cards to use and type of files when it comes to the clients Enlargements. Hence my picking of brains to people like you two experienced Digital Photographers. Any advice and guidance will be greatly appreciated.

You know what they say, fore-warned is for-armed, as I do not want the salesman to feed me with a lot of information which will not be suitable for my needs just so he can make a sale. I await your response with bated breath.

Re the D70/ D70s and D2X / D2Xs thing - the difference is very little. The s version has lots of useful upgrades (focus performance, noise reudction, buffering, ISO values) but as far as possible these can be applied to the "non s" via a free firmware upgrade. The s has a slightly larger screen.

Re the cards....a D200 an uncompressed raw file is about 15MB and a fine jpeg is about 4. On the D2X is shoot compressed raws and they work out about 10MB per file.

In jpeg expect about 200 shots per GB and raw 100 - 120 (or 60ish uncompressed). Raw vs jpeg vs compressed raw is a whole other thread...;)

It then comes down to how many pictures you take. Some pros will shoot 100 pics at a wedding and some will shoot 10,000. Whatever you do I would advise taking at least twice as much memory as you calculate you'll need. I had to open my "reserve pack" at a recent wedding and it made me very nervous.

Thanks for the advice Johnathan,

Being a Wedding Photographer yourself. What size card do you use, and which type of card is the best? From what I have seen when looking around there's a lot to choose from. Will the S5 Pro use a different Card to the D200? Will a D200 use the same card as a D80?

From all the information that you and Andrew have given me over the last couple of days. When I do come to buy my Digital Kit it seems that I will be better off buying 2 Camera Bodies of the same model DSLR. Am I right with that assumption?

The lenses listed in an earlier posting that I am looking at buying for my Digital Kit are designed for the DSLR. I also know that all my other lenses will work on the DSLR Body. What I get a little confused about is the 1.5mm Focal Length difference between a lens on the DSLR and the Lens on an SLR.

When I shoot with my film camera's I tend to crop quite tightly in my Camera Viewfinder. I have been told that I have to be aware of the 1.5mm Focal Length difference in the viewfinder and to allow more room in my viewfinder when shooting. Does the same rule apply to Digital Lenses as the Normal 35mm Lenses?

Michael
D200 and S5 both use CF cards - the D80 uses SD cards so thats the first point - if you want to swap cards stick with cameras that take the same memory.

As for the focal length question - I shoot the same as with film. But, what you need to remember is
eg 17-35mm lens becomes - 24-52mm on digital, 200mm lens becomes a 300mm on digital - so lenses are not as wide as with film. This is not always a problem, depending on what you are shooting. Distance shots are helped with the 1.5x focal length so in theory you can do with a small lens.
Check out my photos on http://community.webshots.com/user/drewrawcliffe - most of the landscapes taken on 17-35mm sigma and the airplanes on 70-200 with a 2x convertor.

Hope this helps
Drew

Thanks for that info Andrew.

I'm begining to get a much clearer understanding of shooting digital. I will definately check out the website that you have mentioned and post my comments afterwards. Check out some of my work on my website at: www.mjphotography.co.uk My website has recently been updated with some of my recent weddings.

I have tried uploading some of my work hear but due to some server probs my images were lost in space. Will try again later.