Photography wish-list

Putting this down here just so it gets recorded somewhere - I can revisit this from time-to-time and see if I need to make revisions (which is very much likely :D)

Camera wish-list

I currently own a Nikon D40. I bought it in April 2009 - just nearing a year in the field. Its a great camera

to start with, in the SLR world. I've managed to take lots of nice pictures and its light-weight - no fuss carrying it around. Its now off the store shelves, but the new ones replacing this particular model are no better, if not worse than my D40. So, in short, I love it. 

But...



Some of the short-comings of this camera, as I experience while shooting pictures are:

1. Only 3 AF points - this is a great handicap IMO. It slows me down quite a bit in some situations. Imagine having to frame a shot differently just to align one of the AF-points to the point of interest in the frame, AF-lock it and then re-frame the shot! It can get annoying at times 
2. Most picture controls are in-menu and not in more accessible forms like buttons/dials - Changing ISO, metering, AF-area - these are some of the most frequently changed settings even between shots. These are all in-menu settings only - meaning, I have to take my eyes off the view-finder, navigate a couple on menu screens and change the setting - again, slows me down. 
3. No exposure bracketing - Again, slows me down. Have to change the exposure compensation between shots instead of relying on bracketing to take a series of differently exposure-compensated shots 
4. Lack of in-built focus motor - Puts onus on the lens having a motor of its own for me to be able to auto-focus. Nowadays it may not be that much of a drawback since most new lenses do have focus motors in them. But, take my case-in-point - a portrait lens. Choices being 50mm f/1.8, 35mm f/1.8 and 50mm f/1.4 - out of these only the latter 2 lenses have focus motors in them. The first lens does not. Turns out, that the first one is the least expensive one among the lot. I ended up buying the 35mm f/1.8 because of this limitation. 

I do not intend to give away my D40 EVEN if I buy a new camera, for it is such a gem of a piece. But here goes my wish: 

Nikon D300s - 51 AF-points (ability to choose cluster of them for any particular shot), addresses all the short-comings above and is the closest camera to the pro-FX line of Nikon.

Lens line-up

I currently have the following lenses:

1. Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6AF-S VR
2. Nikkor 55-200mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR
3. Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 AF-S

While being an adequate starter-kit covering most of the ranges (from 18mm wide to 200mm tele) there's something more I'd look for. My wish is to (someday) replace all 3 of the above lenses with the below set (an addition too!) 

1. Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR (Wider, longer, sturdier and equally sharp as the 18-55mm lens) 
2. Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6 AF-S VR (At least get to the base telephoto range for any sort of wildlife photos) 
3. Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF (No focus motor in lens, but an awesome and inexpensive prime) 
4. Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 AF-S (My interest in macro photography) 

Accessories

There are some minor things surrounding the equipment listed in the above wish-list - cable release for shutter, a more roomy and protective camera bag, etc. One thing I do want is an inexpensive speedlight. Especially for indoor photography. Even the fastest of primes are sometimes inadequate. Instead of buying expensive and faster (f/1.4 and f/1.2) lenses, I thought its better to go for an entry-level speedlight like SB-400 or SB-600.

There - that's my current wish-list. Lets see how long it takes to get these. Anyway, the point is to be able to get good pictures. Does not matter what equipment one uses :)