lnbolch
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Senior Member
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Posts: 2,329
Re: Depends on your need/situation
Kavin Treemaethawee
wrote:
I do a lot image cropping, I guess more pixel could give me more chance to get good image.
my print would be vary from A4 up to 120cm in width in landscape orientation(rarely), my fav size is 12"
A gentle suggestion that more pixels might not make much difference. Consider why you have to crop. Generally, it is because you are not close enough to your subject. Secondly, because you are using too short a focal length.
Even Nikon's worst lens is still very good. With a cropped 12" print, no matter what lens you use, if your technique is good enough to warrant a D700, you would have to go to ridiculous crops to actually produce poor images. I have within reach, an 8½×11 shot at DX resolution—5.1MP—that is indistinguishable in image quality from full frame. I could crop it much further before noticeable change in quality.
Why are pictures soft? Most often due to camera movement, since the focusing with the D700 is almost violently quick and accurate. It really takes some terrible technique or awful shooting conditions to actually shoot an out of focus image under normal circumstances. Make a habit of the shutter half-press to lock the focus on the subject. A bit of anticipation makes a whole lot of difference, no matter how quickly the camera responds.
A pretty good rule of thumb for hand-holding is that the minimum shutter speed should be no less than 1/focal length. VR does forgive a bit but has no effect upon subject movement. When shooting action, of course you need to set your shutter speed high enough to deal with it. The D700 has an incredible range of sensitivity, so even under nasty conditions, you can afford to crank up the ISO to produce whatever shutter speed you need.
This is just basic photography, nothing fancy. If you can not get quality with the D700, a new camera will not help. It is not at all unusual among camera buyers to make the mistake of thinking that the camera is some magic device.
I think the best plan based upon return on investment is a thorough reading of the manual, practicing the content of each page, coupled to reviewing the basics of photographic technique—understanding shutter-speed, aperture, focal length, depth of field and so on. You will save yourself a bunch of money, improve your images greatly, along with gaining much pride and satisfaction in your work.
The better you know your tools, the more you can do with them when it comes to actually making photographs. Once you are fluent, the fun really begins, since you know exactly what to do to get the results you want.
The best time to practice is when you have absolutely nothing to shoot. Then you can concentrate completely upon camera/processing technique without the stress of having to capture actual "keeper" photographs. Just delete the test images when you are done if you wish, once you have absorbed the information they yield. Trying to learn during a shoot is almost impossible. What you learn in practicing, is what you bring into a shoot.
Believe me, actual working photographers spend a lot of their non-working hours doing exactly this—and it is a process that never ends. It is as much a part of the job as is a musician who is in the studio practicing daily, even without an immediate concert. It is a time when you can try anything, and hopefully fail, so you will learn from whatever did not work. Then you find a way to fix it. There is great joy in learning, and everything you learn means you are getting much more value for the investment in your time and tools.