I have D3. I love its output, but it is not suitable for outdoor photography especially to mountains unless you have porters carrying your other stuffs. Now with Leica D-Lux 4 point & shoot (P&S), I managed to capture landscapes I could have missed when using heavy DSLR. However P&S is P&S regardless whether its Leica or not. I am not able to feel the pleasure when using it.

(I know someone will laugh at me when he read this…) I guess Leica M8.2 with Summilux 25mm f1.4 ASPH could satisfy the crave for light travel camera. But Leica M8 is not a full frame. So 25mm is not wide enough for landscape photography. The new Summilux-M 21mm is another story. Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21 f4 ASPH (USD7000) is definitely a great lens…..

What other much cheaper options I have? It should be a Nikon system as I will never switch to Canon for economy reason. Panasonic or Sony? Nope…same reason. Nikon D700? Don’t know why…..I have no desire for that full-frame. Therefore I guess I stick to my D200….with Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 as my travelling landscape adventure photography trip. If D700 price falls to about RM5K, I might consider.

For those who believe you could carry D3 during travel, I dare you to follow me to Rinjani come June, with no porter to carry your camera bags or tripod. And I want to see how much pictures you manage to snap along the way because carrying D3 is one thing. Shooting with D3 while trekking up more than 2KM vertically-high mountain is a different story.

Update:
I am not the only one thinking about downsizing…..