So it was about time to replace my old Nikon D70 which I’ve been using for about 2 years now and to be honest, I’ve learnt so much from having a lesser powerful and inexpensive camera to play with. I regularly see the people with money going ahead and buying the most expensive camera they can find in the belief that it will make them take amazing photos, in some parts it’s true, they will obtain a super sharp and crisp image with the right lens combination, but at the end of the day they have no real idea how to achieve the best results and maximise the cameras potential.

I practiced many different techniques with my D70 and got the most out of it that I could, I think I created a handful of amazing images with it over the last 2 years, and considering I paid £250 for it off eBay it is still going strong despite my trigger happiness with it.

After a fair amount of research and taking into consideration most of my accessories and practice was with Nikon products I decided to stick with them as I don’t really see a massive difference between all the top branded D-SLR cameras anyway. I went for the D800 with it being full frame, 40 mega pixels and as a bonus it shoots 1080p at 30fps and 720p and 60fps which will come in handy for a few of my vehicular related projects.

I went for a Nikon AF-S 24-70mm/2.8G ED lens as I cosidered it to be a good all round solution for me until I can afford any of the other FX type lenses and it always had good reviews wherever I looked at buying it.

My first impressions of the camera are its initial weight, compared with the fairly light and flimsy feeling D70 it feels so well engineered and substantial, really great to hold and the weight helps to keep it steady when shooting close up subjects. The video looks great too, with the low f-stop at f/2.8 you can get some really nice dof and employ some creative focusing tricks too.

In all honesty I haven’t had much time to experiment with it yet even though I’ve owned it for nearly 2 weeks, the weather hasn’t been very great in the UK, no suprise there really. I promise to get out and shoot more in 2012. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.