JustinGraham... or Justin,

Chronology is NO reason to choose a camera. Function is. I have never heard a bad comment on the D90... I had a D80 and while others were leaping on the D90 bandwagon, I passed. The only upgrades were 2 more megapixels and VIDEO. I do not shoot video and never will. So, I kept the D80 because it could do all I wanted to do over the D90. That's without spending the money for a feature I would never use.

Frankly, I think the consumer market has suffered pricewise by the R&D costs for putting video in the still camera format. Right now, the broken part of the new Canon 6D is it's failure in Video.

If you want to talk OLD... one of my favorite camera's is Olympus' very first DSLR.. the E1. It came out in mid 2003, in the controversial 4/3 sensor.

Why do I still keep one. The Kodak Sensor in that camera was one of a kind. The colors coming out of that old 5 Mp sensor are just amazing. I print images up to 13-19, and it's difficult to find a printer that can do the colors justice.

So, while it's likely that few on this forum would hang onto a ten year old, first generation DSLR, it's personal for me. Easy camera to use. Ten years of familiarity with it's menu's, controls, strengths and weaknesses.

Knowing a camera well is a vast improvement over chasing technology and never knowing what the old camera may have done, that you think you will find in the new cameral..

Did you know that "sheep" suffer more from "GAS" than most barnyard animals.

You are looking at two popular camera's. You won't fully know what either of them will do, compared to "NEWER" technology until you "wring" all they can do out of the controls and menus. That could actually take a year or more of living with the camera at your side and reading others experiences and custom settings.

If you want to know a way to get a significant head start on a new, used camera, Google:

Make model followed by the word Problems
Make model followed by the word Issues
Make model followed by the words Custom Settings

Then do the same on YouTube. Some of the best information for any camera is in video format on YouTube.

Sounds like you are aware on the Quantaray. Quantaray was a cheap house brand lens for Wolf/Kit cameras. They sold Nikon bodies with Quantarays mounted to them to get into a competitive price range.

I have three Quantarays that I ended up with to buy inexpensive Nikon N series film bodies on Craigslist. Two of the Quantarays don't focus at all... either AF or manual .... Jammed.

Your comment about not liking the D200 confuses me, since the D200 was a higher level camera than the D90. I had a D80, and the D90 was a mild upgrade to add video and from 10 Mp to 12 Mp. So, I would wonder what the move from a D200 to a D90 will resolve in camera operation.

If you are talking about Alkaline, yes the meter will read off a bit. That can be adjusted for by fudging the ISO/ASA value. I can't remember which way and how much you have to fudge. You can google for that information.

Another problem is that if you are using Alkaline batteries, they do not have the flat discharge curve that the original Mercury batteries do, and that Silver Oxide and Lithium batteries do. So, when you put them in the voltage is too high, then in a few weeks they hit the right voltage for a bit, and then they drop below that and are off in the other directions. So compensating with the ISO/ASA settings is very temporary.

There is a battery adaptor for the old Gossen Luna Pro SBC that allows the use of current silver oxide or lithium batteries, which have the flat discharge curve. However that adaptor (google Gossen Luna Pro battery adaptor) is pretty spendy.

There are also the Wein Cell MBR625 Zinc Air batteries, which have a flat discharge curve, are an appropriate 1.35 to 1.4 volts, but have a short life span. You can find them on eBay. You can get them in four packs and more.

Then there are the kludge work arounds with various button batteries and O-rings. The discontinuance years ago of the Mercury batteries is no reason to sideline and old camera or meter to use them.

There are plenty of alternates and kludge workarounds to shoot them properly.

Otherwise, you may be able to send such meters to Quality Light Metric in Hollywood (They've done meters for the movie industry for years) and have them calibrated for current batteries.

Using constantly changing Alkaline batteries is the poorest alternative out there because of the changing discharge curve.

Good luck. It is a good meter. The later SBC (silicone blue chip) model would have been better because of it's extended EV range, and it uses readily available 9 volt, or 6 volt batteries. (I seem to recall the 9 volt on the one I had)

Love the Spitfire, but far more drawn to the P51 Mustang, which was also Rolls Royce powered. They both served their countries well in WWII. Mustang is the one in blue prop spinner and trim.

Is the video important to you? If you are not going to shoot video, OK. If you plan to shoot video, The 6D is the wrong camera based on these searches of the internet.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Canon+6D+video+problems&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

In fact, there is already a service bulletin out from Canon on this.

I found these hits by googling .... Canon 6D video problems....

I never buy a new item without searching specifically for issues and then finding out how prevalent they are and how serious they are.

If I had bought a 6D, and then found this out, and if video were important, I would seriously consider returning it. If not that, I would watch for recalls, or watch for fixes from Canon.

Ranked as a great still image camera, however.

If Canon goes the route that Nikon did with the D600 by avoiding the issue, then both Canon and Nikon have failed to produce a low-cost full frame camera for the masses.

Spare "full capacity" ink cartridges. Most new printers come loaded with partial or limited ink cartridges (the conspiracy deepens), so if you buy a new printer specifically for this event, you may want to pick up about $100 of new cartridges to get through the event. Particularly if you do sell some 8x10's.

The other potential issue is to be equipped for when a particular color cartridge or color portion of a multi color catridge runs out on one color.

I'd pick up a couple of sets of cartridges for the existing printer and do 4X6's

As Robin Williams once said to a Heckler in one of his stand up shows after destroying the guy....

"Sir, we are not laughing AT you, We're laughing NEAR you"!!

My suspicion if I understand what you posted is that you cannot do monochrome in RAW (it is merely a suspicion) so the accompanying jpeg would be color. Since RAW is an image captured unmolested, without processing by the camera, it seems Monochrome would not be possible when the camera is set for RAW.

Others may post that this is incorrect, if they will?

[quote=mdorn]

I agree with point #7 - if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Let someone else do the beta testing for you, and consider buying after the first service pack is released.

Cut this from ZD Net:

Recommendation summary

All of these pertain to decisions made before January 31, 2013. Prices become more expensive after that. Here's a short summary of what I recommend:

[color=blue]


5) If you're running Windows 3.x, 95, 98, or Me: Seek professional help.[/quote]

I would agree with this... and not technical help.... Mental Health help!

28,000 members yes, but at any given point in time the members signed in run around 200 to 300 members. So, I suspect there are a few thousand members still listed who have gone somewhere else.

I'm always surprised by this, because it's a lot like voting statistics.

Then, of the 2-300 who are logged in, the question is how many of those are repeatedly logged in, and also how many of those are simply reading posts and not asking questions, or posting.

Personally, I don't think the 28000 number is any kind of realistic consideration. Somebody, logs in, thinks they should register, do so, and never come back.

It might be interesting to see how many are left if the data base was checked for a number who had actually logged in for the last 90 days.

In any event, thinking in the larger sense, than just from our own perspective is a nice way to look at posts and comments.

Beside the conventional discussion about image quality/sharpness from Primes compared to Zooms, another point of discussion involves frequency of lens changes and the environments where those changes are made.

Frequent lens changing and dusty environments expose the sensor to "more dust in the camera" opportunities. Care in lens changes can resolve this issue somewhat.

I think there is also some consideration equalizing the playing field between high quality currently manufactured zoom compared to 50 year old primes. That's often an apples to oranges discussion.

Testing should precede expenditures. I have accumulated quite a bit of old glass (primes), to the extent of a lot of money invested. Yet when I fuss with Manual Focus and the lens change (adaptors and such) equation, I mostly end up shooting new higher quality Zooms.

I'm hesitant to respond, but I suspect you have a bad 18-55. If the 75-300 focuses faster, something must be wrong. The Canon 75-300 in three reviews... one from Rockwell... Was rated as a very slow AF lens. In fact, the successor Canon lens... 70-300 was ranked as much faster than the 75-300.

The information I'm using is from Ken Rockwell, and I do every lens I buy through his reviews. In addition comments about the 75-300 vs the 70-300 come from DPreview forums discussions.

Sorry, but I think your 18-55 is not living up to it's reviews, particularly if you find the 75-300 to be faster. Good luck on the hunt.

Well, I would say that if you rank the 18-55 IS II slow focus, you may want to have the lens evaluated for it's performance, or your expectation may be higher than most lenses could perform up to.

The Canon 18-55 lens you got with your T4i is rated as an excellent lens, and one of the fastest focus lenses in the market.

That said, another factor in the large number of lenses you own, is that if you were actually going to employ even half of them, you may constantly be changing lenses in operation of the camera, thereby exposing your sensor more to the elements than is good for it. Granted, I think the T4i has a dust shake feature, excessive lens changing is both a wear factor on the mount and exposure to the element.

I'd stick with the 18-55, since it's likely as fast to focus as anything else you can buy. Then, I'd sell all that other stuff, and gather up enough money for an L lens that goes to 200mm, and then get Canon's 1.4 or 2.0 extender. Extenders now are not as bad as they were years ago. They are very acceptable.

Just some suggestions to ponder. Wish you well. Good luck on the hunt.

Considering the camera, if I were going to optimize it for the purposes you mentioned, I would keep the 18-55, forget about old legacy lenses. I'd first get the L 24-105 f4, and then start working toward the L 70-200 f2.8. Good used condition on those two could possibly be under $2000. Further good news is that those are both EF lenses meaning they would fit Full Frame Canon if you go there. You can't do that if you stay with EF-S mounts.

I have to say, I watched about 3 Webinars from X-rite on Sekonic meters both in studio and outdoors (one portrait outside and one landscape). Given by a professional using a Canon with all the goodies.

I have a whole new respect for external light meters in terms of the proper use, and the results. Wish I had seen those demo's many years ago.