ytwong wrote:
Makten wrote
The D700 is not only heavy and large; I find it very difficult to focus manually. Especially with lenses like the Planar that gives a good amount of focus shift. I find it interesting that many people in Nikon forum would say D3/D4 size and weight are just right, D700 being bare minimium (and I'm a minority there) but people here in Alt forum like small cameras.
Back to the D700 focusing... I think focus shift applies too all cameras, unless you use stop down focusing? Anyway, I think D700 manual focusing is ok (I have the DK-17M) but I got better keeper rate with D600.
Weight totally depends what your shooting , lens on the camera etc. A D3 feels much better when using a big telephoto than a smaller camera as it balances out and gives better grip. Same goes for when using a speedlight, fast zoom like 24-70 f2.8. Sure a bigger camera is heavier overall, but having a large built in grip just makes it handle better than a tiny camera. Nothing gives me a hand cramp worse than trying to shoot a wedding with a small camera with speedlight on it because the thing just wants to torque out of my hand all day and I'm trying to hold it with just 2 fingers. ouch.
On the other hand, nothing is worse than carrying a big DSLR around on vacation all day because the darn thing feels like a total brick by the end of the day, especially when your not really even taking that many photos. I've carrying 20-30lbs of gear around, in taxi's, restaurants, shopping etc and it just is a huge PITA.
DSLR's are for doing work, compact cameras are for shooting on trips etc for me now but everyone is different in what works for them. See plenty walking around sight seeing with DSLR's still.
Regarding focus shift, yes it can be an issue with all cameras if you focus wide open, but with most live view cam's or DSLR's you can also stop the lens down and focus at your given aperture which helps, but really is it a lens issue, not a camera issue. Design of the lens can cause a focal shift.