D200

New toy… I know I have talked before about which camera bodies to use. For what I do in photography I have been very happy with my Nikon D200. Yes there are other dream cameras out there such as the D3x. Honestly though I don’t need something that big, or expensive. The D200 has what I need. Yes the iso sensitivity of D3 is great… and always needed, but dishing out 4-8,000 dollars for a camera is a bit much for right now. We are in a recession. So back to the D200, recently I purchased a second D200 body from Best Buy. I am an avid B&H customer and will always support them ( I actually ordered the MB-200 Grip and two more CF cards from them), but Best Buy had an amazing deal on this discontinued camera… ON SALE $599!!! I bought my camera for around 1700. Again yes it would be nice to have the new D300 or all those others, however this way I don’t have to start learning a new camera, and I already have all the batteries adapters, and other accessories for the D200. It was a win situation.

So why do you need more than one camera? OH, such an easy question to answer.

1. Backup!! You never want to be on a shoot and have something go wrong with the camera. Sensor gets dirty beyond cleaning in the field, Dropped camera, shutter miss firing or locks up. Its just nice to know you got a spare.

2. Multiple lenses. I am constantly changing lenses. Especially when shooting sports. I can leave my 80-200 2.8 on one body, and have the 17-35 2.8 on the other. Shoot as riders are coming down the stretch and then switch to the other body for the wide shot as they pass. It helps. Years ago this is what I would do when shooting the Callaway Steeple Chase Races. 400mm on one body, 28mm on the other. (Back in the college days where I had a professor with all the gear… good times)

3. Looks… There are lots of technical reasons for it… but hey you just look cool. Not really carrying two bodies does get cumbersome. Next I need to get a vest and fanny packs!!! I just will try to talk my cute fiancee into carrying some gear, she can be my “caddy”. On another post I will show you whats in my “bag”. There are a lot of other big name photographers who have way better gear… but you can see what I use. (Check out Zack Arias last post on his bag)

I am just really excited to know I have both bodies in my bag. It makes me happy to see UPS again.

Brandon.