Why didn’t anyone tell me…

One day I should do a D2x love and hate list. Remind me about that.

Today can be that day. I love a lot of things about my Nikon D2x, but there are a couple things I could wish were different. And just to be different, I’m going to set about it in Con-Pro order, because I’d rather get the worst out of the way.

Con

Auto ISO should have both an upper and lower boundary, and include EVERY ISO option, not just the factory’s favorites. The noise in the HI-x ISOs are nuts, but if I think it’s an acceptable risk and it saves the shot, then so be it. But at least give me the option.

The d-pad on the rear of the camera feels more flimsy than I like. The locking ring should lock the control in the same way the D1x did – push plastic under it so I can tell it’s locked. And selecting the middle click on that control is nearly impossible without accidentally triggering a direction.

I wish the “Func” button on the front was easier to tell from that other button that I never use. It used to be the only button there and it was far more friendly to find. Maybe I’m just not retraining well.

Noise at high ISOs is nuts. I know you’ve fixed this on the D3. But still.

I was taking pictures of the moon during the eclipse. Noise cancellation seems to rob the sky of all color. What the heck is that about?

Nikon, your mac software is a joke. Please just include Aperture or Lightroom in the future. That’s what we’ve all wanted anyway. And this isn’t limited to Nikon RipOffNX or whatever it’s being called these days. Nikon Scan crashes quite regularly with no explanation at all. Nikon View is an abomination and should be dismembered and buried at sea. Send a couple engineers over to Apple and a couple over to Adobe and feed them the information they need, and for crying out loud leave software to people that know software.

Please, we’re begging you, put a plate between the sensor and the outside whenever the lens release catch is opened. Guess when the sensor is most vulnerable to “dust”. Guess what makes it most easy to protect that valueable resource. Come on.

The CF door is harder to open than on the D1x series. Don’t ask me how, but it always takes me two tries to open it. Maybe this is on purpose, but I liked it the easier way.

1.5x multiplier is annoying for wide angle work, and if I get to the D3, I’m going to be furious at my collection of now “low resolution” DX lenses. Unless I keep the D2x for just panorama work, which is a possibility that strikes fear into my retirement plans.

I want an easier way to “return to these settings whenever I power off.” A power-on default custom set (Custom A shooting settings, Custom A other settings).

The flash is much better than on the D1x where I mostly set it to manual/aperture mode and let it fly, hoping for the best. But keep on it, I’m sure you’ll get it in one or two more iterations. I’m really much happier with Aperture mode on the D2x than anything at all on the D1x, which really was a frustrating camera to flash with.

Meter White Balance down to 2000 kelvin please. Have you NOT dealt with real incandescent lights before?

Pro

Now that that little rant is out of the way, let me get on to the things I love about it.

Everything.

The colors show wonderfully when you understand what you’ve been doing wrong all these years.

The full-auto matrix metering is spectacular for 85-90% of all pictures you take. There are occasional issues with super-high contrast shots (usually more than 4 stops difference), where it generally will meter to the highs instead of the lows, but that’s a nitpick. It does wonderfully.

The top speed of the shutter is wonderful.

Long-exposures with noise cancellation are greater than I could have hoped for, especailly after what the D1 series did with them.

The extended periods of waiting on the buffer to write out to disk from my D1x days are long gone.

9 frames a second is an insane feeling, and it’s great to have when you need it.

The prints can be astonishingly huge. Bigger than I could ever think to actually make. Seriously, if you print at 300dpi (pretty normal for my stuff), that’s 14.3″ by 9.5″, uncropped. And if you’re doing large prints (24″x18″ and up), 300dpi is overkill anyway (for me) – 150dpi on that and you’re not stretching on a 30″x20″ canvas. I’ve only ever ordered one of those, and that was on the D1x, not even the D2x. And it still looks pretty good.

It FEELS like a serious camera. It’s not a toy, even though you can set it to “Toy Mode” and still get the most amazing snapshots.

The battery life is amazing. I had the terrible D1x battery issues, and that really was the death of that camera. You just couldn’t count on it. So when I ordered my D2x, I included 3 batteries. Had I known that they fixed EVERYTHING, I would have only picked up two. But I think of it this way – I’m probably good for a week of shooting on 3. I wish I could say the same for my AA supply for the flashes and Hyperdrive.