I was having dinner with a photographer friend of mine and we started discussing what we liked and disliked about our current photographic “kit bags”.

My photography took a serious turn in the early 90’s when I started traveling extensively through Asia and to a lesser extent through Europe. I made the decision then to jump camp from Canon to Nikon. I did so by building out my camera bag centered around the Nikon F4s. Over the years, I definitely pushed that camera to most of it’s operational limits - tropical rain forest humidity and heat, pounding in boats and off-road trucks, thin air altitudes, and long stints in bone chilling cold. Within reason, the camera and accessories never let me down. I’m not a professional photographer but I’m very happy with the results I have achieved over the years.

A number of years ago I switched to a digital SLR. I have upgraded once (in 2002). Two things have struck me about the switch. First, my preference in color balance has not changed. I still strive for the tone of Ektar 25 film. That film was my standard for nearly everything I shot … just as long as I could provide enough light to deal with the extremely low ASA. While most of my photographer friends were trying to push me to shoot positives, I liked the flexibility and somewhat more forgiving dynamic range of the Ektar. The second observation was that, while I shot somewhat more frames with digital, I still leveraged many of my “film” behaviors such as bracketing for the critical “once in a lifetime” shots. And, while rolls and rolls of film were no longer needed, I now had sticks and sticks of batteries. So from a “bulk” point of view, my bag did not get any lighter or smaller.

I would never attempt to prescribe one digital camera over another - that would be paramount to discussing “money, religion, or politics” - the mirepoix of taboo topics. I will suggest that getting the right camera requires an understanding of what you want to do with it and what are your preferences.

I will soon debate upgrading once more. I am very happy with my current equipment with one exception. I shoot a lot of sports and action subjects. I find the subjects are faster than the shutter speed on my current camera. The recent generation of digital SLRs (2006/2007) have made significant improvements in speed. I may end up changing vendors but I will stick with the Nikon format. My lens investment is enough to keep me from jumping ship again. As a matter of fact, the lenses have been one of the greatest assets. I am still shooting with the same lenses I had in 1993. The only additions have been a very wide angle (15-30mm) and a super long lens (500mm). The wide angle was a necessity given my “standard” for nature and scenery was a 20mm fixed lens and with the 1.5x multiplier of digital SLRs (at least those that are not full-frame) I needed a 15mm to get close to my favorite old lens. The 500mm was to tackle the tough sports shots where I could not (or should not) get close enough to the subject matter. I’d love a good VR lens and I may break down and replace my trusty 80-200mm f2.8 at some point but that lens “upgrade” is more than the price of the new camera so it will require a bit more justification.