I have sold both of my Nikon D100 cameras (they went VERY fast... one in a about one hour and the other in less than 2 days) so next year all weddings will be shot with new cameras!Two Nikon D200 cameras will be the replacements and the current Fuji S3 Pro will remain in service. It's going to be an awesome combination. I was a little sad to see the two D100's go as they had shot so many weddings and events over the past couple of years. But in digital, advancements in technology have made it necessary to have a constant upgrade policy for professional photographers who shoot digital.
The new D200's will increase speed in shooting as well as give the opportunity for a "cleaner" file. You'll be able to enlarge your photos without fear of pixelization and noise. Low-light capabilities of the new D200 is also vastly improved.
Nikon expects the D200 to be available in limited quantity by the end of December. As a Nikon Professional Services (NPS) member, Nikon has assured me that I will be among the first to receive one of these cameras. NPS membership is open only to full-time professional photographers. I'll take a few months to familarize myself with all the new functions before shooting the first wedding of the new 2006 season. And by the time of the first wedding, a second D200 will of course be purchased as well.
The photo below shows the D200 with the optional MB-D200 vertical grip / extra battery holder. Both of my cameras will be outfitted with this option (I had a similar setup with the older D100 / MB-D100 combo.)
Nikon pros have been waiting about 3 years for Nikon to introduce a camera worthy to replace the D100. Even with the newer "consumer" oriented D70, D70s and D50 cameras, many pros opted to keep shooting with the D100. Why? Better build quality, more reliability and the vertical grip option (not available from Nikon for the D70 and D50.) Eventually, third party vendors offered a solution for the vertical grip for the D70 and D70s cameras. Not as perfect as the Nikon version for the D100, but it works.
Why not shoot with the big Nikon D2x cameras? Well, for starters, they are just too heavy for wedding photographers to use! Every ounce adds up when you carry three cameras and professional lenses all day long at a wedding. The D200 is lighter, but is still built with a magnesium inner frame for strength. In addition, the file size of the D2x is huge, which means a longer time for post production Photoshop work. This added time to work with hundreds of files means a higher cost for weddings. The most logical and economical choice for weddings is obviously the D200 for those who use Nikon gear for weddings.
The excellent Fuji S3 Pro camera will remain for 2006 weddings. To date, this camera offers the best dynamic range of any digital camera on the market. Designed almost perfectly for wedding and portrait photographers, the S3 Pro creates images that are very hard to beat. Often said to have a "film-like" quality to its images, the S3 Pro has awesome color capabilites and the ability to produce very nice images even in very low light. So dark churches really create no problems for the S3 Pro. And very bright outdoor weddings will greatly benefit from the S3 Pro.
Another nice thing about the Fuji S3 Pro is that it uses all the lenses that fit Nikon cameras! Nikon's glass has a long-standing reputation for excellence and Fuji was very smart to use it. Actually, Nikon manufactures the S3 Pro camera for Fuji, so the qualilty of Nikon really runs just as deep in the Fuji professional cameras! The S3 Pro is based on a Nikon designed body that was essentially redesigned by Fuji engineers. The image sensor inside the S3 Pro is 100% Fuji and only available in Fuji cameras. It is this sensor that has gotten all the acclaim for having wide dynamic range which is a quality often attributed to film-based camera systems. This is why many have said the S3 Pro has the most film-like quality to its images.
The combination of the two D100 cameras and S3 Pro camera worked very well for me. The new D200 cameras with the S3 Pro will be just awesome for 2006! I can't wait for the new season to start so I can play with my new toys!
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