There are 4 cameras so far in the Nikon Digital SLR line up
I am currently using the Nikon D300 and loving it. Images later on.

The first I purchased in February 2002, a brand new 6 Megapixel Nikon D100 from Diamonds Camera & Video Adelaide.

Naturally this was a giant step up from the Nikon Coolpix cameras as it allowed standard SLR photography techniques and shutter lag was now non existent.

I purchased the new Nikon SB-80 DX Speedlight flash unit for $900 and the optional battery grip for $520 at the same time. The SB 80 DX suited the D100 with the new DTTL flash exposure control.

It would be obsolete by 2004, when Nikon introduced the even more advanced iTTL on the new digital SLR camera range.

Camera compact flash memory was getting cheaper and a Sandisc 256 Meg Ultra II memory card cost me $120.00 in November 2003, and was now a common size, and I started working with the RAW (NEF) image format at times.

I ordered from Diamonds Camera the newly developed Nikon DX 12 - 24 f4 IF ED wide angle lens at the time of this new camera purchase and after a bit of a time had passed, I finally had one in June 2002. This is a fantastic lens and retails for around the $2,000 mark.

I use this lens most of the time for my Interior photography work and it is also a great lens for landscapes. I don't shoot it wide open and usually shoot around f8 and between 1/3 and 2/3 underexposed to preserve the highlights.

Maxwell's Tip: The underexposure technique for digital photography is particularly useful on very bright summer days. Best results for landscape photography are achieved on days with big puffy white clouds in the sky I have found.

October 2004 I purchased the 6 Megapixel Nikon D70 as a kit from Diamonds Camera & Video for $2,200 complete with the Nikon DX 18 - 70mm AFS Lens.











I purchased a Sandisk Compact Flash 512 meg Ultra II memory card for around the $130.00 mark in October 2004.

All was quiet on the camera purchases front, however in October 2005 I became aware a new Nikon D200 SLR was due out in late December or early January 2006, it was then released on Nikon's website.

November 2005 I purchased a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight flash again from Diamonds Camera & Video in Adelaide. It's a very advanced flash unit and is part of Nikons Creative Lighting System.

This Nikon flash unit can control up to 3 groups of similar Nikon iTTL flash units and allows for some pretty good creative lighting solutions.

December 2005, Ah Bliss, the highly anticipated Nikon 10.1 Megapixel D200 DSLR has arrived in town and is purchased from Diamonds Camera and Video. The learning begins again as the Image boundary is stretched yet again.

I was really thinking about purchasing a D2X however this camera has all the features I will ever need for the next few years at least.

Nikon Creative Lighting System is fully implemented in this camera with two control groups. It even has an interval timer!

Maxwells Tip: With some experimentation it is possible to use the older SB-28 Speedlights set up on Nikon SU 4 wireless slaves working with the newer iTTL system from Nikon. Use the FV exposure lock on either the D70 or the D200 to set the flash exposure & this will cancel the pre-flashes that will trip your slave units too early.

This also works with the Nikon SB 80DX when in wireless mode, however you must stay in TTL mode on the camera, don't use the flash commander mode.

If you are using a mixture of older Nikon flash units, and you have the current Nikon SB-800 setup in wireless slave mode, you will need to set this flash gun to SU4 slave mode on the flash gun command panel.
I then run the flash guns in manual mode and dial in the light value. You can save all this set up work by buying iTTL units either SB-800s or its smaller companion the SB- 600. If you have a D2x or D2h, you will need one SB-800 to be the commander unit. Nikon's D50, D70, D70s, D200, and the new D3 & D300 all have a built in flash that is suitable.
If you select manual flash mode in the flash shooting menu on the Nikon D200 it will also cancel the preflashes.

I've also just purchased a 2 gig Sandisc Ultra II Compact Flash card for around $300 and intend to shoot all of the time in Comp Raw mode. The RAW files in Comp mode are about 8-9 Meg in file size and open up in Photoshop at about 54 meg. This will give me about 240 images before I will need change a memory card . The RAW software is still evolving.

The JPEG fine mode is still good for general photography work and provides a lot simpler work flow.

Well that's my camera story, and what's it cost along the way I hear you ask, plenty, but it was all worth it. If you are interested it took about 40 hours to build these 4 camera story pages. All the image set ups, drop shadows etc have been done by myself.

You can write to me if you feel the need at director@maxwellswebmedia.com I read all of my email and generally take a few days to reply.