So in my new home here in Arizona I found a well-stocked camera store just a mile from the plant. Went there, and to my surprise they had plenty of Nikon D100's in stock. So I thought I'd give it a spin.
First thing I noticed was that Nikon puts the lens release button on the wrong side of the camera. Sales guy says they've been doing it that way for years. Sheesh - good way to make ya drop a lens! Next thing I noticed was the slow autofocus. Sure, I was only using a genuine Nikon 300/4 brand new lens, so maybe it lacks some hypersonic something or other. Nevertheless, my antique 1996 PZ1p focuses noticeably faster than the brand new year 2002 Nikon D100. Later I read this camera has something called CAM900 AF, which is slower than the CAM1300 AF on their better film cameras. Let's see - you're gonna charge a grand more than your film camera, then give your customers slower AF? Sounds like something straight out of the Pentax marketing book. Shame on you, Nikon - crippling an expensive camera with second-rate AF when you could have done better. Then I noticed the Nikon D100 has only 1/180 flash sync. Rats again. Another hard pill to swallow when thinking of buying a two grand camera. If I needed to downgrade to 1/180 flash sync, I could always buy an MZ-S, fer crying out loud! But in it's favor, the D100 is a pretty good looking camera, because it looks almost exactly like a PZ1p. It's just got a little more heft on the bottom and a few extra buttons. At least they got the shape and grip right. Even has a nice PZ1p-style thumb wheel to change aperture - just my cup of tea. Like I said, I tried out the Nikon 300/4. It nearly whirred out of my hand - the dang focus collar spins crazily if you have the lens in MF and the body shooting AF! Whoof! They should put a warning label on that thing! So my small foray into DSLR-land was a little revealing. It let me know I would have to be crazy to spend two grand for a DSLR from Nikon, at least until they get their feature set straight. Even then I'd have to learn to live with that idiot lens release location and those ugly barbecue-grill-paint black lenses. Oh, and I also got to test out the Sigma 50-500 lens. It's about the size and weight of my Tokina 300/2.8 - in other words, it's just plain huge and heavy. Just imagine lugging around the weight of a 300/2.8 to take a photo at 50mm! Guess this one is influenced by the longevity of the Canon 35-350 L. Here's a hint, Sigma - send this puppy to Weight Watchers. Give me a good ol' Pentax 300/4.5 instead any day. Enough rambling on the digital front. I told my wife I could wait another few months on a Pentax DSLR, if such an animal every materializes. Even if the feature set is no better than the competition, at least with Pentax I'll get a lens release button on the right side of the camera!!! -- John Mustarde www.photolin.com
