The Nikon D700

So I've had the D700/24-70 for a couple of days now. Haven't done any jobs with it yet; just been putting it through its paces shooting things around the house. This weekend I'll be taking it on three different shoots, so I'm looking forward to that.

Justice is coming.

The Canon gear has all been shipped out with the exception of the 17-55 lens while a hold on the sale gets straightened out. Not sure what the deal there is as the buyer seems legit (and the money is in fact in my PayPal account, but "frozen" until they receive the lens), so I'm holding off on shipping it until I get an all clear. Other than that I'm keeping an eye out to make sure all the buyers are happy and leave positive feedback so I know the Canon sales are wrapped up.

I've also purchased an SB-900 flash and an SB-600 flash. For now I'm holding off on a second SB-600 given my budget constraints (a necessity caused by the decision to get the more expensive D700 and not the D300s). That's fine as I still have the Vivitar 285 as an alternate flash (activated in my wireless flash set up by the RadioPopper Jr), not to mention the fact that the D700 has a pop up flash to act as the trigger...which really means I have up to three different off-camera light sources already.

Finally I'm preparing to order a Tamron 70-200 2.8 lens to be my telezoom, and a refurbished D90 to be my backup/second body. Again, the more expensive D700 is causing me to cut corners on my backup camera--no D300s--but the D90 is a fine camera in its own right that can get me through a shoot if the D700 suffers a hamstring injury or something. I'm eyeballing reviews of the new D7000—seems it might be having the same sharpness issues the Canon 7D experienced on its release; maybe they really are pushing the bounds of physics by insisting on cramming too many pixels into a crop sensor; maybe 12 MPs really is the optimal number for those—plus waiting for a body only to finally be in stock, which I'm hearing won't be for at least a month (which takes us into the holiday season, so who knows; could be after the new year before it's widely available). If I decide to get the D7000 to be the backup, I'll sell the D90 (even though I'd have only owned it for a month or two; I ran the numbers and it'll still be cheaper than renting for any significant length of time.

UPDATE: The refurbished D90 has been placed on order for overnight delivery. I'm holding off on the Tamron for now; I might rent a different second lens for this weekend instead.

UPDATE 2: Just reserved a Nikon 17-35 2.8 lens for a two week rental at Rentglass.com. This should be very interesting to get a feel for that lens on the D700. The 17-40 on the Canon side was great on the 5DM2; I imagine this will make for some incredible interior photos over the next couple of weeks.

UPDATE 3: Got the refurb D90 delivered today. TINY compared to the D700. It might become more useful than I'm anticipating for that very reason; it's lighter. The D700 with the 24-70 and SB-900 are heavier than the 5DM2/24-79/580EXII combo. No more one handed shooting with a beer in the other hand.