What do you know you have out-grown your camera?

How far do you go with taking photographs with one camera before you feel you have outgrown that cameras capabilities?

For example my first camera was a good 2 meg pixel Kodak p/s camera, as a tryout into digital photography. It still takes excellent photos but I found that it had its limitations as in "reach" etc

So I progressed to a Nikon D70s, again an excellent camera, as most are nowadays, but I found I was getting hampered by having to go into the menu settings too much to get the results I was after.

So I went on to my present Nikon D200 again a great camera but until the upgrade had difficulty with light and heavy on battery power.

Next move more than likely will be the D300 of which I have heard is a great improvement over the D200.

So going back to my original question, when do you feel you have outgrown your camera?

Bazza

I went from a D40 to a D300 for pretty much the same reason you switched to the D200 Bazza, I wanted more access to the controls without going through the menu's. Also the finer control that the higher spec camera gave me, I prob made the jump too early but think dropping myself in the deep end meant I learnt a lot pretty quick.

When you feel another camera offers you the features you want that your current one doesn't?

Stan
That was a hell of a jump but well worth it, when I bought my d200 the D300 wasn't on the market. By the way check on the Nikon site for the latest version if you havn,t done so already, free upgrade via the internet.

Bazza

I wouldn't say I had 'outgrown' my Nikon DSLR but I 'upgraded' to my 40D because I liked some of things my Nikon didn't have.

The twin controls of the scroll wheel & main dial make everything so easy, the magesium alloy body rather than plastic, weather seals, dust reduction, live view, bigger LCD and the old chestnut - more megapixels. The 6.5 frames per sec was a selling point too.

I don't think I need any more although there are some people who will always want to upgrade to new models whenever they come out. I would improve my lenses though.

Full frame will be something that I will no doubt move to in the future though.

Having used a D100, D200 and D300 there is no doubt the D300 is 'the best' but all of these cameras are unlikely to limiting on anyones imagination or creativity. I've looked back over some of my D70s and D200 stuff and both are capable of nice, vivid images. If you were looking to change Bazza I'd at least wait until the D400 which can't be far off, or look at a D700. I moved up for similar reasons to Phil but I did also think the D70s was limiting on 6MP resolution for cropping and the sensor was likely better on a D300. Part of it also was because I blamed my tools and not the workman for not executing the pictures I wanted. (The D200 was only personal issue whilst I was away and not mine).

If you don't mind me saying, I think the biggest boost you could probably get right now is to invest in Photoshop Elements (7). If I remember rightly I think you once said you don't particularly post-process. However you could draw so much more out of pictures from the camera. I only say this as friendly opinion, but what the camera does is only half what is achievable. The D200 and all your kit are capable of very professional results and will tackle just about anything. I have staff who are still using D100's professionally. I don't profess to be any good at Photoshop, simply I know 'playing' with the picture later makes a massive difference. I wish I was more proficient.

Enjoy your D200!

I'm still looking for the DSLR that can give better results and handles as well as my EOS 3

Seriously though I usually miss out on at least one upgrade. So I went from the 20D to the 40D because there were tangible improvements over the 20D. Missed out the 30D because the differences from the 20D weren't great enough.

With the upgrade from the 5D to the MkII I did not fancy waiting another 3 years to upgrade (5 series are not upgraded so often) and there were some interesting improvements.

If you think there are sufficient improvements to upgrade, do so.

But don't forget the glass. You may be better of buying a better lens than a new body. It's a balancing act, body & lens. Whichever is the weakest will be your bottleneck to better images.

And in my Case the most limiting factor is my skills

Steve