Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Photography

Waterloo & City Line train at Bank
Originally uploaded by Mike Knell.

My original plan for the End-to-End walk later this year was to shoot video en route and post small clips and stills to the web. After my long walk last Sunday, I looked at the photos I'd taken with my stills-capable camcorder. They were okay, but the drawbacks of the video-oriented optics were apparent in a fair amount of visible colour fringing and other minor ickiness. This is understandable if you're just snapping the odd still along with some video, but when I also realised that I never shot any video at all last Sunday I decided to rethink my strategy.

There are other factors as well - video heads and tape, for instance, don't necessarily stand up well to the kind of damp environment they'd be exposed to along the way. At the end of it all, you have a pile of videotapes which need to be edited up into something usable. And ultimately, landscapes aren't really very videogenic anyway.

So I decided to sell the camcorder on eBay (it should reach close to its original price - it's a new model and almost unused) and buy a nice stills camera instead. To be precise, I bought a Nikon D70 digital SLR with an 18-70mm (that's more like 28-105 in 35mm speak) AF Nikkor lens. It arrived today (handily, as today's my birthday!) and it really is a lovely piece of kit - and the deal's made all the sweeter by the fact that Nikon UK are offering a £100 rebate on that particular outfit at the moment. Combined with the sale of the camcorder, it's more or less a no-cost upgrade - this is very nice, as I've been spending money on things like tents and sleeping bags over the last month or so and buying a new camera would have been something of an unjustifiable luxury otherwise. Interestingly, the price of the D70 has dropped over the last few months mostly due to the introduction of a slightly updated model (the D70s) and the somewhat more basic D50. With Nikon UK's cashback offer taken into account, a D70 plus 18-70mm can currently be had for less than the price of a D50 with the shorter 18-55mm zoom - a good deal all around. Amazon are even selling it with a free case thrown in.

I'm deliriously happy with it so far. The handling is utterly lovely (I learned to take photos using SLRs as a kid, so reflexes just feel right to me) and for the kind of low-light stuff I do (yes, I take photos of the London Underground. You have a problem with this?) it's a big improvement on my 8700. The larger CCD and more light-grabbing optics mean it's more sensitive in the dim subterranean conditions, which means less noise and less opportunity for camera shake. A reflex viewfinder, continuous AF and more or less instant response from the shutter release make a big difference when shooting moving objects, too. I may pick up a somewhat faster prime lens (the zoom is f3.5-4.5) for low-light work, such as the plain ol' Nikkor f1.8 50mm, but not yet.

There are things for which the 8700 will still be more suitable - it's smaller and lighter than the D70, for starters - but for everything else, after half a day of manic picture-taking I'm happy to proclaim that the D70 looks set to become a bona fide classic. The only downer at the moment is that I can't test it on a long walk yet, due to my having some nasty blisters from last Sunday's adventures which mean that I haven't been able to run or walk long distances since then. I'm hoping they'll clear up by August.