Think I might be ready to sell the D90 and keep the GF1

[jojo90]

Hi,

I've had a D90 with the following for perhaps a year now:
Nikon 50mm f1.4
Nikon 35mm f1.8
Nikon 17-55 f2.8
Nikon 55-200 VR (standard one)
SB-600 strobe

There isn't really anything 'typical' that I take pictures of. Just anything I think might make for an interesting photograph however I do like my bokeh .

Looking through my images I don't feel there are very many that I couldn't have taken with the GF1. In fact some of my recent favourite images are with instagram and my iPhone 4!

Travelling is one thing I love to do and the D90 was initially bought for a trip to Thailand. Generally speaking the 35mm f1.8 is my default choice. The 50mm is nice but a little too tight. The 55-200 is rarely used and the 17-55 is easily my favourite lens in terms of IQ but quite heavy to take around and about all the time.

The Nikon lenses do have a certain 'quality' to them in the way they render the image. I'm not talking about sharpness but the general feel of an image. I'm not sure of the GF1 20mm f1.7 has that or not as I've not properly put it through it's paces.

The D90 + 35mm + SB-600 goes everywhere with me in Thailand from the beach to mopeds to bars and nightclubs. I wouldn't really take it out much in England unless I was there to specifically take photographs. My S90 is however always with me and has the battle scars to prove it .

Anyway onto the GF1 & 20mm f1.7. I picked this up 3 months ago and it's a lovely little camera and almost a match for the D90/35mm. I say almost simply because I can blow out the background that little bit more with the D90 versus the GF1. In other respects the GF1 is better than the D90. It's smaller, lighter, the screen is nicer, the video output does not have shutter roll, I *love* the live view colour options especially high contrast B&W, the aperture preview actually works, the LCD guides help me compose pictures more effectively, and it looks cooler . The downside is ISO performance which is to be somewhat expected from a smaller sensor.

There are other advantages to the GF1 as well in that it does not attract much attention from your subject.

I can afford to keep the GF1 and the D90 however I suspect the GF1 will get far more use. The reason I'm thinking of selling the D90 is to invest in some lenses for the GF1. I should have mentioned that I also have the 14-45 lens however this has not seem much use as I prefer my primes for available light photography. I am however thinking of selling the 14-45 and buying a 14-140 for my next trip. The 25mm f0.95 is the other lens I'm thinking of adding to the GF1 along with a TTL flash (lighting is naturally more important than lenses).

Any reason why I shouldn't sell the D90 ?

 

[smartidog]

Well JoJo, the fact that you are posing the question may say that you should keep hold of the d90 for a while, or is a long time since you last made use of it anyway. If you have used it recently and are not sure if you want to get rid of it, pack it away and see if after a while you want to go back to it. It sounds reading between the lines that the GF1 may not quite tick all of the boxes?
All this from someone who is considering an upgrade.....perhaps to a d90............let me know, I may be interested depending on shutter count, price cond etc, but firstly make sure that you are really through with it!

 

[woof woof]

Just a quick word on GF1 ISO performance.

I'm not going to claim that it's as good in this respect as an APS-C but mostly I just leave mine on auto ISO and forget it. I find that in anything other than darkness whole images look fine and don't even need noise reduction. There are some very respectable high ISO shots that have had noise reduction done on them in the Panasonic G Series thread. I think we probably worry a bit too much about noise, certainly with whole images.

Good luck with the decision.