Can you shoot Stock with D30??

[Louis S]

Is there enough quality in the D30 image to use it for shooting stock photos? Or are these digital SLRS still below par?

Thanks.

[Neil_Turner]

Stock for whom? For newspapers, TV stills, websites and anyone with tight deadlines the images are superb. For high quality glossy magazines with long deadlines you will nearly always lose out to a decent transparency. These cameras have their uses, and I love shooting digitally but the market is still saying "NOT QUITE" to your question.

Neil
http://www.dg28.com

[Gary_Voth]

I have a number of friends who are stock shooters, and the word is that the agencies (now mostly Corbis and Getty) still prefer original transparencies. If you submit digital, they typically want at least 50Mb+ files, which means scans of at least 4000-5000 dpi. Until very recently, you needed an expensive drum scanner to get this level of detail. I understand they will output digital to film for many buyers who have not converted over yet.

Most stock shooters are working with Velvia, E100VS and other slower, fine-grained film. I think the general consenus is that these emulsions are superior to the current crop of digital SLRs (although I know at least one photographer who claims prints from D30 RAW files are better than those from scans of Provia F made using a $10,000 Imacon scanner).

Next year's crop of pro digital SLRs may start to change things though. Rumour is both Canon and Nikon are developing 6Mp cameras with imaging sensors that will cover the full 35mm frame size.