Photojournalism and the D30

[Russ]

Are there any photojournalists out there that are using the D30. Staff photographers at the paper that I do freelance work for use all nikon equipment. I am a canon user and am wondering if the canon matches up with the nikon. Not that I am going to change but Im just curious as the performance of the D30 with photojournalism.

[rojoyinc]

Each system has it's strengths and weaknesses.
The older Nikon has smaller image size.
The newer Nikon has bigger image size.
Nikon has larger buffer and faster burst (if you need that).
Canon images contain less noise (proven in tests)
and are superior looking (my opinion).
Nikons are sharper (due to more in camera sharpening)
I like softer images (I can make sharper in Pshop) if desired.

So it depends on what features you feel you need.
For Sports - the Nikons would be better. For portraiture I much prefer the D30. (that is what I do)
I don't know what features a photo-journalist needs.
Compare features and price and look for the features you feel are important to you.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

You could check out the forums at www.robgalbraith.com. They are intended for photojournalists, although there are many interlopers - like me :-) - who are members. They also have a specific D30 forum.

Regards,

Roger

[pauljmurphy@ntlworld.com]

Hi,

I work as a part-time freelance photographer for a local newspaper and have just recently upgraded to a Canon D30. Althought it has only been a short time I can honestly say that this camera is going to make a huge difference to my work.

I have not used the Nikon and can only refer to the Canon, but basically I cannot fault the images. When I first used it though I was shocked at the the preview, I really thought that there was something wrong with my lens or my technique. I couldn't have been further from the truth. When I eventually got the images home and used PS 5.5 and got the unsharp mask working I nearly fell off my seat. The images practically jumped out at me.

I have shot some local sport using this camera and found it to be adequate for the job, however a little slow on the focussing side. However, I have since set my camera with one of the custom functions to lock the focus at the touch of the * button. I will be keen to see how this operates in action shots. The results I did get however were very clear and sharp and I was delighted with them. I even had to shoot at 1600 iso at one point because the light was so poor, I was well pleased with them even though they were noisy - but acceptable.

If you can afford the Nikon with nikon lenses then you are very lucky, but I doubt your images will be significantly better to justify the extra. If I had that kind of money I would have the D30 kitted out with everything. Beleive me, you will get your money back in no time with the Canon - you will not regret it.

Paul Murphy.

[Pekka]

russ wrote:
Are there any photojournalists out there that are using the D30. Staff photographers at the paper that I do freelance work for use all nikon equipment. I am a canon user and am wondering if the canon matches up with the nikon. Not that I am going to change but Im just curious as the performance of the D30 with photojournalism.

I've done now two music festival assignments (house photographer for festival) in summer and D30 made the job really fun. In concerts (mostly classical) you often have to use ISO 800 with f/2.8 but the lenses for such a work in Canon catalog are of highest quality (I used mostly 50mm f/1.4 and 70-200 f/2.8L) and noise is no issue when exposure is on the bright side. If you use low aperture quality lenses you have no problems with autofocus speed.

You can check out an outdated press page for one of the events: http://studio-on-the.net/itec/ (no big photos there any more so all links to larger photos are broken), which shows some better shots from 3 days I was there.

Some shots from ITEC are there in half size on my gallery http://photography-on-the.net/D30/thumbs.php . Among the gallery shots there are also other assignment results like http://photography-on-the.net/D30/photo.php?photo=63&size=1 which is a festival rehearsal shot.

Pekka

[gunders]

The sad thing is that a lot of photojournalists here in my country - Norway - have changed their equipment into Nikon because Canon until now havn't had a good proffesionell D camera. The old Kodak-based Eos 520 is to old.
the D30 doesn't work well enough for e.g. sports

Anyway, there is quite a few who use the D30 for news - like myselves. But I 'm a journalist who shoots pictures and not a photograher.

(In my paper the photographers no cry when the Eos 1D is released. Because the all have brand new Nikon D1 and D1H...)