Quote Originally Posted by Tommo1965 View Post
..... makes me think the something is in the water for a mid level body...so Ill wait until the dust settles hopefully Ill be better informed on the newer bodies and see if the D700 still is the way to go...even if the newer bodies dont cut it for me hopefully there will be a heap more D700 on the market by then and prices may enable me to keep my D300s too

thanks for all the advise guys... truly helpful
If I was in this situation, I'd be inclined to do the same thing right at this point in time.
(did the same thing early last year as predictions of D700 replacement was rife).

D700 is an astounding camera, be under no illusion about that, and you will love it to bits and beyond.
If it wasn't for the fact that it didn't have video, I'd have got one myself years ago too!
But I need video, and D800's video is fine for me .. and I also want the move to Fx format, so any old video camera just won't do .. one device, many uses so to speak.

From reading the opening post tho, it seems that the D700 and 24-70 combo is going to be ideally ideal!
Only reason not to go for a D800 is for the purpose of printing! Do you print large? Have you ever captured an image and thought to yourself .. gee that'd look great in a large A2 sized print, but the intense graininess or lack of sharp detail will make it look less impressive!
If so, then you need the D800.
If you are struggling to find that perfect lens combo, then it's obvious that the 24-70 will provide the better creative spark you may be looking for.. D700 will complement that nicely... don't get another Dx body(if the D400 turns out to be Dx again).


I've been trying to conjure up ideas for a perfect camera body for my purposes:
D400 uses old D3s sensor, with proper HD video(@ 1920x1080) and up to 60fps, although 30fps is really all I'll ever use most of the time as I'm not into slow mo video.
It'd do 6fps, as you don't want it to delve too far into D4 performance levels.
I'd have two card slots, and hopefully one of which has to be either CF or XQD(not both SD!!).

The sensor exists, and has been paid for already in terms of manufacturing and hardware costs.. so it should cost Nikon nothing in terms of producing these sensors.
This could make for a low cost Sony A800 style sub $2K full frame camera body .. initial RRP would be $1999, which of course would drop over time.

A more perfect camera I can't really think of ..... in reality that is! .. we all have our 100Mp, 25fps, ISO1million, Fx sensored dream camera, but I'm exploring something that could be made based on currently known quantities.

One thing I really don't need(or even want) is 36Mp, and 50Mb raw files .. and trying to compress that much info into a file that is in keeping with AP rules!

it's hard enough now to compress a 25Mb raw file into a 250kb jpg and maintain a good level of quality.
Quality slider is going to have a hard time at the usual location of 80% ... and will have to get used to something more like 40%!!!