The Compact DSLR System: Part 2

Every time I think of a compact camera "system", I think of this thing. Introduced in 1978 into a world where the mystique of James Bond had yet to be diluted. After the first few of the film series, there was always the inevitable interlude with "Q" where he would briefly go through the new gadgets for that particular episode. Over the years, there have been assorted knives, cameras, guns, explosives, and specialized vehicles. They all seem to be delivered in some sort of specially fitted case. Maybe that explains my obsession with cases! Anyway; I digress. It's really the completeness of the "system" that I want to discuss in this part of my Compact DSLR System series. 

As amazing as today's DSLRs are, they still can't do everything by themselves.... not if you want them to be any good at it! I must say though, compared to the days of yore, there is quite a lot in there: automated frame advance (no need for a winder/motor drive), pop-up flash, kit zoom, and all manner of other abilities that used to take some random gizmo that needed to be bought. All that being said though, if you want to get the most out of your camera, you do need to assemble a "kit" of sorts, even today.

So, let's look at my kit. I think we can dispense with any further discussion on how I derived at using the Nikon D40. All of you will be able to come up with your camera based on your needs and financial commitments. Let's start at the len(es) then. My intention is to be able to go from a "normal" wide out to a rather long telephoto. For my needs, that would be a 35mm camera equivalent of 28mm to 300mm which translates to be 18-200mm in APS-C (or DX), which is 14-150mm if you are doing 4/3rds or m4/3rds. For me, the base lens will be the Tamron 28-50mm zoom which gives me a range of 42-75mm eq. I can throw in the 70-150mm Vivitar made by Kiron which has a matched multiplier giving me 105-450mm depending on whether I have the MM on or off. My alternative is to use the Tamron 300mm f/5.6 prime lens instead. What about wide? I have my 18-70mm AF-S Nikon for that. 

Funny story about this lens. After spending a weekend with the new Tamron 28-50mm zoom, I started wondering what I'd have to give up if I wanted a little more reach. This led me to the 24mm focal length which would be about equal to a 35mm wide-angle. While researching that idea, I found that Nikon had/has (?) in AF-S of 24-85mm AF-S in their line-up. It looked to be not too expensive at between $70 and $125. So I started looking at it's physical size to make sure it wasn't going to overpower the D40. I found that the filter diameter was 67mm....... hey wait-a-minute!?! That set off alarm bells in my head! It sounded all-fully familiar! Yeah; that lens is virtually identical in size and weight to my 18-70mm AF-S Nikkor that I use for portraits mounted on the D300. The 35mm eq. is 28-105mm! Don't need to buy a lens at all! So basically, I'm done with glass. Maybe, I'll pick up an "E Series" 28mm which would function as low-light (f2.8) or a "pancake" lens. 

So basically, if I want a really small kit to take places, I can pack the 18-70mm and the 70-150mm and be done with it. Two lenses and one convertor would give me the eq. of 28-450mm coverage! Wow, that's pretty slick. If I throw the 28-50mm into the luggage, then I can mount that in case I want a very small "walk-around" lens, which is the physical size of an old "normal". There's a couple of things, yeah.

The Quantaray XLF-50 (Sunpak RD2000), I picked up last month. Very small, not a bunch more powerful than the pop-up, but can be bounced and has a diffuser panel.

And there's the bag. I'm going to use a tiny little Timbuk2 "messenger" style bag, that'll hold the camera, the flash and at least one other lens, along with batteries, memory cards etc. It's great since it completely doesn't look like a camera bag, folds flat, when I need it to, and cost $6 at Goodwill. And that, folks, is pretty much all there is to my compact DSLR system.

So, now that we're done (of course I'll do more later), let's total up. Starting point was the $175, that I sold the D50 for, then of course, the D40 with the 18-55mm "kit" lens was bought for the same amount. Zero sum at this point. The lens sold for $99, and it cost me $10 to ship it, bringing that transaction to $89, which puts me in the plus range. The 28-50mm Tamron was $39.99, which makes the "package" cost to me to be about $135. I had previously bought the flash to go with the D50 so there was no $$ involved with it. So, even if you put the Tamron 300mm ($15), AND the forthcoming 85-210mm ($18) into the equation, on top of the eBay transaction fee from selling the "kit" zoom of $8, I'm still a few bucks in the plus range! I got all this all for the price of the willingness to focus.

A More Fantastic Plastic-Fantastic

If it hasn't become apparent to you by now, I'll be more specific. I'm in the process of trading out my backup/secondary camera from a D50 to a D40. You might ask yourself, why even bother to trade what is essentially the same sensor into a different (albeit smaller/lighter) body? After all, it's not a major difference in size, NO difference in resolution, little if any difference in capability. 

You don't need to look very closely at these images to see the difference in mass. Although the dimensional differences are not terribly significant, the difference, "in the hand" is telling, but difficult to describe. I started thinking this after holding and playing around with my brother's D40x. One of the original reasons for the decision to go with the D50 was that my primary lens is the 18-200 VR Nikkor that is rather large and didn't balance very well on the D40. I found though that I virtually never use it on the D50, it's really my primary lens and lives pretty much exclusively on the D300. 

Actually it's this lens that's the deciding factor. It's my 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 Nikkor. How this lens doesn't get more love is beyond me. It's sharp, doesn't have anywhere near the distortion of the 18-200. It's compact, and pretty darned fast. Maybe it's that there's no VR, or that weird compressed zoom area between about 30-45mm (eq), but it's the DX/APS-C equivalent of roughly a 28-105mm walk-around lens..... and it doesn't overpower the compact D40. 

I'm not saying that it wouldn't look great with a "pancake"; just look! It makes that Pentax K10 look positively HUGE. But I doubt that I could A) afford that 45mm Nikkor-P, and B) it's probably not how I'd be using it most of the time. It's going to take the place of both the D50 and the Panasonic GF-1. So it's typically going to have one of two or three lenses mounted on it depending on it's role at the time. When I'm out shooting portraiture, it'll most likely have my "chipped" 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor mounted and become the "low-light/available-light" camera secondary camera that already has the lens mounted, which eliminates the need to change lenses in the field. In a weird way, one of the strengths of this camera is the 6Mp sensor, meaning very-few/very-large sensors on the same physical size give it excellent light gathering abilities. 

And as you can see; making it, virtually, the perfect companion to the full-boat loaded D300. Kinda like the contract killer's .22 pistol compared to a machine gun!

And of course, it's other most likely use would be the walk-around camera when the D300 isn't necessary or welcome. This body is small enough to take the place of the mirrorless GF-1, while at the same time big enough for me to feel comfortable using. In this configuration, it would probably mount the 18-70mm or something even smaller, such a chip-converted 28mm which would give it a very usable 42mm eq. focal length. 

 

When combined with the Quantaray XLF-50 (SunPak RD2000) that I picked up recently, gives a very compact little, "do everything" kit. One of the things that swayed me toward the little Quantaray was the rotating shoe that can hide out of the way when not in use. That along with the $40 price-tag and Nikon iTTL compatibility might have something to do with it as well!

Don't get me wrong. The original "plastic-fantastic" was a great idea (and a really nice camera). I really loved having the GF-1 as well and it did a great job for it's suited purpose. So, how I'm going to choose to see this change as an upgrade. On top of which, I eliminate one entire system and having to keep two different manufacturer's ways of doing things. Plastic-Fantastic/Travel Camera 2.0

If Someone Will Shed A Little Light.....

You guys are probably thinking that all I've been doing lately is work on my shop and it's power tools. Actually, that's not quite the case. As I've previously discussed, my brother somewhat "out of the blue" sent me some cameras, and lens adapters. Then really out of the blue, sent me a couple of Wide-Angle/Fisheye adapters Nikon made for their fixed-lens cameras. One in particular, the FC-E9 which gives the cameras a 35mm equivalent of an 8mm Fisheye lens is really astounding! Here you see it mounted on the rather smallish CoolPix 8400, but it's really big mounted on the CP 8800! Anyway, as much fun as it's been playing with these things.... and let me tell ya, they are a HUGE hit with the 7 and 10 year old crowd, what I'm really doing is trying to get these cameras integrated into my digital photography life. So far, the 8400 with it's somewhat more compact body and 28mm (35 eq) lens is winning this little battle. 

 

As I become more and more reliant on it as my "around-the-house" camera, one thing is very apparent. I really don't like that flash! Not only is it weak, it's also poorly located.

Of course, I could always go with this solution.... maybe not. That's Nikon's SB-600 i-TLL flash mounted on the CP8800 there. Trust me, you really don't want to see the "head-on" view of this. It ain't pretty. And with the hotshoe of the CP8400 in the corner, it would be even more ungainly on that camera. Oh, yeah.... that's the smaller of my two i-TLL flashes. It would be a LOT worse with the significantly bigger SB-800! I could go with the smaller and almost balanced SB-50 on there, but that flash doesn't take advantage of the newer i-TLL flash system that's not only baked into my DSLRs, but the 8800/8400 as well. What to do?

The answer is this little guy. Variously known as the Sunpak RD2000 or Quantaray XLF-50, it's small, light, and it bounces. Why not the little Nikon SB-400? Well, there is that $35-50 difference (although the Nikon is more powerful), but I also have a little secret. As most photographers are aware, Quantaray is a "house brand" of the Ritz chain of camera stores. They sell all manner of stuff using that brand, but the actual product is made by someone else, such as Sigma for many lenses, and in this case Sunpak for this flash. However, that's not the important part. It's been well publicized that Ritz isn't doing very well, and that they've gone through several rounds of store closings. What it mean is that their distribution centers often have to dump stock and these things will appear on the "secondary markets" such as eBay at a steeply discounted price. In this case, the XLF-50 can be pretty regularly bought at $50 or so. That's somewhat less than half the price of a SB-400.

I'm very OK with using a generic at that price-point!

Oh, and did I forget to mention that this flash actually bounces, vs. merely rotating the reflector like the SB-400?

Did I also forget to mention that the hotshoe foot rotates completely inside the flash body to make it that much more compact and easy to carry.... say in a pocket? No, it's not very powerful with a guide number of 20, but that's at ISO 100, which means you can pick up 2 more stops buy simply shooting at 400. On the plus side, it only takes 2 AA batteries and is quite the lightweight at 100g w/o batteries. Come to think of it; this thing is so compact, it might also make an excellent companion no only to my stable of CoolPix cameras, but to the D50 and most intriguingly the Panasonic GF-1 as well!?!