Some months before that I sold my D700 after 3 years of use and a couple of months using it side by side with my D7000. D7000 proved to be good enough to replace my D700 while being a much more silent camera and while expecting a D800 release. I adore the D7000 IQ at iso 100 and I can live with the difference in IQ at everything at iso320+ in the advance of D700. You can read my findings of D700 vs D7000 nearly day by day here: http://www.fotografie.fr/fotoforum/view ... =33&t=1140
Under while D4 made its apparition and –TMHO-, D4 specs are enough to upgrade from D3s...
Here are my reasons why:
- D4 is a significantly less loud cam than D3s with a possibility of a completely silent mode, even though if it’s only 2 Mp. I posted some links to videos where you can check D4 sound in diffrerent modes here: http://www.fotografie.fr/fotoforum/view ... =33&t=1451
- AF improvement from F5.6 to F8 means that a considerable number of lenses and lens/TC combos will work or work better (read faster) than on D3 and D700. In this link(http://www.fotografie.fr/fotoforum/view ... =577#p2075) you find a list of lenses that are compatible with TC-20EIII. Some of them can only be used without AF and among those you will see the 105 AF-S VR and the 200-400 AF-S VR. A 210 mm macro lens with good AF is a dream (yes, I mostly use AF while shooting macro) and turning the 200-400 into a useable 400-800mm for sports and nature photography lens sounds fantastic.
Take care: I did not have the opportunity to try IF my expectations with 105 AF-S + TC-20EIII and 200-400 AF-S + TC-20EIII in relation to AF are reality, but I am convicted it will be so. - Also important is the very improved Live View mode vs D3 and D700, another reason why I like my D7000 better than my D700. I guess that the D4 live view mode is at least as good as the D7000 live View mode, and probably again better...
- In auto-iso mode the minimum shutter speed adjusts accordingly to the lens focal length, simply a big improvement for auto-iso shooting
- Another important thing is Nikon’s claim of improved DR. After been using the DR luxury D7000 delivers at base iso I would not want anything less anymore...
- Further more I find the illuminated buttons a big improvement even though this should have been already a long time.
- "Real" iso 100 with its positive influence on DR against iso 200 for D3/D3S and D700... Iso 100 should provide cleaner files as well...
- Modified portrait grip with copy of the buttons in horizontal grip (as I read in Thom Hogans’s D4 preview).
- Considerably improved movie mode. Not really important for myself while D3s video was OK for me but I will for sure enjoy it.
- The improved metering with face recognition is also something I think the importance will become only clear after taking advantage of it...
- For sure there is more exciting, which I will be able to test and learn day by day, from the end of February on...
Finally I was torn between jumping to D4 or wait for D800... Taking into account that I changed my D3 for a D700 for reasons of weight, size an PUFlash this might happen again, although much less obvious while D3 and D700 had exactly the same IQ at all isos while with D4 and D800 I expect this to be totally different...
