· Part I: Why Nikon?
Back when I was only a child in Guatemala, my father used to take me for long weekends to film documentaries with the Arri SR II and a camera bag. He always brought a Nikon F4 with a heavy bag full of glass. I never understood why he took so long behind the devices until I got my hands on this baby...
I've been hooked on photography since I was 10 years and evolved with every new camera I could get my hands on. They used to be plastic and cheap, my photos where also typical family and "wow look at the dog" type of photos. But one day in1997 everything changed at once, I turned 16 and got a Nikon F3 as a gift. The camera was great...
It had a different feel to it, the body was heavy and robust. It had so many buttons and options that I had to take it seriously, I immediately started asking how everything worked and it took me some time to get used and not scared of it. This camera changed my point of view, now I had no excuses not to take great photos.
So I started taking them and got used to the superb Nikkor glass. To this day I keep my first lens, a 35-135 3.5-4 Macro Zoom that you can see on my equipment.
Then I migrated to a F4, then an F5 which I love and keep for very little use.
I tried my stepmothers Canon EOS 1 and immediately saw that it had a much superior auto-focus system, but the glass was milky in comparison with Nikkor, I tried a Pentax and it was clunky, I tried my mothers Minolta that had a Nikon mount and saw that the glass made the difference.
Then many years passed and I never bought a new photo camera. I was studying to become a cinematographer and camera operator and video cameras where so expensive and very bad at everything. I didn't think of buying a camera until Red announced the Red Scarlet and I immediately started to save money. If what Red was saying was right I would be able to use my Zeiss Mk. I S16mm kit with it and it would be glorious.
Two years later, after following every post on Reduser forum and telling everyone I knew how great it would be, Red finally launched their Scarlet camera and it was a disappointment, never meant to be a 2/3" sensor, just a downgraded version of the Epic, the price soared on top of that. I was left with my illusion destroyed and no camera that I would or could buy.
The Canon 5D Mk. II was in full explosion back then and the 7D was working well, so I thought of giving them a try. I bought a converter for my Nikkor glass and worked with the 7D and Arri Alexa on a project for Camper. The results where very satisfactory and I started to think seriously of buying a DSLR for myself.
I looked for a second hand Canon 5D Mk. II, since Nikon DSLR cameras where many steps behind in video recording, and was close to buying one when I learned that the Mk. III was about to be announced. So I decided to wait and without knowing it, I struck gold. At the same time Nikon announced its counterpart. The D800...
Everything I had wished.
On Part II, I will discuss why I chose the Nikon D800 over the Canon 5D Mk. III and why I chose this setup...
buenisimo!!!!!
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