Unfortunately I haven’t won the lottery between my last Wishlist post and now and my horse at the Grand National led all the way only to tire two fences from home, therefore it is time for Wishlist Number 2 rather than Real Shopping Basket Number 2. In the last post I told you which wide angle lenses would be top of my list, this post is about which camera body I would purchase.

As mentioned previously I currently own a Nikon D80 DSLR and a Nikon FE film SLR. I have no need at all to replace my FE but my D80 while good enough for most things has two main limitations from my point of view:

1. It is unacceptably noisy at anything above ISO 800. I do a lot of night time and indoor shots and compared to more modern cameras the D80’s noise is just not good enough for me.
2. While it does have an internal focusing motor and so can use lenses which don’t have a motor themselves the D80 won’t meter with non-AF lenses. I love the build quality of many older lenses and they are far cheaper than new lenses, I also don’t have a problem manually focusing lenses (since I have to do that on my FE anyway).

Ideally I would be able to use all my lenses on my DSLR and my FE which of course means that any replacement body must be a Nikon. So which would I go for? Here are the contenders.

Nikon D4

Whether the D4 is really Nikon’s best DSLR is debatable but there is no denying that it is a fine piece of equipment and is built to last.

Nikon D800

The D800 is supposed to be the D4’s little brother however in many ways it has a better spec than than D4. It may not have quite the same build quality as the D4 but I am sure I would have no complaints.

So which of these two would I buy if money was no object? It really is a difficult decision, the D800 is more advanced in many ways but I really am a sucker for build quality, I also think that cameras with separate grips look a bit clunky so I would have to go for the D4.

I know this post is about what I would really wish for but being a bit more realistic if money was limited then I would still be over the moon to get my hands on a Nikon D700.

It is more than good enough for my needs, doesn’t have video capabilities cluttering it up, and is half the price of the D800.