Two23
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I was using 20mm f2.8 AFD, 28mm f1.8 AFD, 50mm f1.8 AFD, 85mm f1.8 AFD. These just weren't very well suited to what I was doing. First off, it's often dusty/snowy when I photo and I had problems with dust getting on sensor during lens changes. Second was I missing shots because I had to change lenses. Third, these are older lenses with older coatings and design. I had problems with CA on all of them. The 85mm f1.8 was the worst lens I've ever owned for flare/ghosting, and that was a big factor for me. The 20mm f2.8 was just soft until stopped down. Just as cameras have improved over the past 20 years, so have lenses. At one time so-called primes were clearly better than zooms. That's no longer true. With new coatings, ED elements, computer design, the latest state of art pro zooms are out performing the old lenses. Add to that VR, AFS. For me, I don't see the point of buying an expensive state of art camera and then going cheap on lenses. It's sort of like buying a Chevy Corvette and putting $20 tires on it. The lens is the single most critical link to any photo SYSTEM. It is the lens that determines what you can photo, and where.
I have doubts that a lens that is mediocre on DX will improve on FX. Two reasons. First, on DX only the center portion of the lens is used, and that's always the sharpest part. Second reason is that we are fast approaching the time when modern digital sensors are out-resolving those old lenses designed for relatively low resolution film.
Nikon really doesn't have the lens selection yet to fully support their newer cameras. Your choice is either the "holy trinity" of 14-24mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 70-200mm f2.8 VR, or try to cobble together a hodge podge of cheaper lenses in the hope that they are at least mediocre. The previous generation of pro zooms--17-35mm f2.8, 28-80mm f2.8, 80-200mm f2.8 AFS do seem to still be performing well on modern cameras There isn't a great cost savings on them though. (Some pro grade third party lenses are definitely worth looking at.) What Nikon badlly needs are the f4 VR zooms like Canon has. It just baffles me that they don't have them. Clearly, not everyone needs f2.8, but the newer coatings and design are clearly better. I'm just not seeing the point of buying a camera for its high ISO performance, and then crippling it with consumer grade f5.6 zooms either.
What it always comes down to for me is, if I spend the money what do I get? I just can't justify a relatively small increase in image quality for the thousands of dollars it will cost. Luckily, the prices of cameras do nothing but drop drop drop. I take advantage of that and buy a used/refurb one after someone else had taken the thousand dollar hit. I tend to analyze things by looking at the cost vs. the benefit. If I had paid $2,500 for D700, $1,800 each for 24-70mm f2.8 + 14-24mm f2.8, that would cost me about $6,100! Worth it? No way. Instead, my strategy is to wait and take advantage of somebody else taking the loss on the camera. When a used D700 hits $1,600 (and is certainly will) I can then sell my pro f2.8 DX zooms and buy D700 + 24-70mm f2.8 + 14-24mm f2.8 for maybe $3,700, net. For that, it becomes a bit more palatable. All the while I'm waiting, I'm using Nikon's best lenses to take my shots.
I've been around awhile, and people on message boards have always hyped whatever the latest "hot" camera was. At one time the D1 was the "hot" camera, with 2.74mp. Just nine years ago it was $5,000. Today it's worth a tenth of that--$400 on eBay. If you had bought the f2.8 pro zooms at the same time, they have substantially appreciated in value, and are still good on the D700. Cameras are disposable and in the long run don't matter all that much. Good lenses and tripods you keep. Remember my first paragraph, where I was complaining about the older Nikon lenses I tried? I sold each one for slightly more than I had paid the year before.
Kent in SD
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Also the D300 viewfinder is 100% magnification compared to 70% on the D3 so the apparent difference in size is slight. I use D3 and D300 side by side.
