I'm usually pretty conservative about camera upgrades as well, but I can see why people have a problem. If I've waited through an upgrade cycle, I'm likely to go out and buy the next model pretty quickly after it comes out. If I depend on Aperture for my work, as many do, I need it to handle the new camera.

I can't see why Apple can't work with Nikon and Canon, at the very least, to make sure they are ready when the cameras come out.

I'm still on my first DSLR body - EOS 400D. It'll do me until either I've saved enough for the 5D MkII, or Canon sees sense and lowers the price to something sensible here in the UK.

I always intend to moving up to full frame - in fact, I wanted a full frame model right from the start, but couldn't justfiy it for a hobbyist's camera. Canon's UK pricing is, frankly, a joke as far as I'm concerned. It would serve them right if I decided to ditch the entire ecosystem and go to another maker. =o(

For me, roughly 2 years, roughly in tune with the body release.

Agree with you in waiting a few months, and that the whining of early-adopters is boringly predictable. Their complaining should be directed not at Apple but at Nikon and Canon for changing their raw format with every model - and for not providing DNG as an option.

But I also think you let Apple off too easily - they need to understand that their customers will buy the latest cameras and that Apple will have to dance to the camera makers' tune. Support for new raw formats needs to come as quickly at least as Adobe manage to deliver it.

I have my Canon 30D for almost 18 months and what I really want is to buy more glass.
I think that my next step is buying a FF camera :-)

I agree with Gio. That is the sole reason Adobe came up with DNG. I think Apple and Adobe should bundle their forces into DNG.

For a number of years I have updated the main camera once a year, and still have not found what I am looking for.

With 5DII coming in I would like to see the raw support in Aperture, yesterday. With all the pixels as I some times I need, takes space and reduce the speed of the computer - I would like Aperture to support the smaller raw files as well. Tha lack of support of all raw for 5DII, is a reason to look for another application than Aperture.

I think that a lot has to do with people addicted to new goodies, you see it with TV's, stereo's, PC's, Mac's. It's an addiction to pick up the latest and greatest and opening that box, even if differences are slight. I have to say i have the same with Mac's (currently having a Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, but I am not a pro :-) and I used to have with other electronic gadgets as well. Personally, i switched from a Canon 300D to a 20D. Last summer I was able to get a Nikon D200 and D300 including 3 lenses as a wedding present and I went for it, sold my Canon gear and precious L lenses. I was absolutely surprised how much better this Nikon camera is, couldn't care less about Life View or some of the other features, the quality is just a step forward (maybe that's just Nikon) and control seems more logical. It reminds me of switching PC to Mac in 2000.

I tend to be an early bird. I change cameras about every 3-4 years. I am currently shooting a Nikon D700 and D300 as a backup.

I complained when I got my D300 and Aperture went almost 5 months before supporting it. My main concern was that Adobe Raw supported it much earlier. When I got my D700, I used Adobe DNG Converter and I was happy with that. I will not get a camera that Aperture will not support the Raw files. So, I guess I wait until the RUSH of buying is over and then get the camera.

I am VERY happy with my D700 and its High ISO performance. I will not be getting a D3x due to the price. I would rather invest in lenses at this point.

Kevin Hawkins

My D300, D700, and D60 are the cameras I've been waiting for. Finally, I can get down to the joy of making photographs instead of constantly thinking of upgrading my cameras. I could not be happier with the images these three camera allow me to make. I foresee keeping these cameras and being content owning them for several years.

*shrug* I come at this from a different angle, apple is to slow and to closed. If they where willing to be more open and partner with the camera manufactures there is no reason at all that support could not be day one, and lets face some of the update delays (especially for tethered support) have been really really awful. As to how often aver two to three years but that can put on nasty off cycle with aperture.

I would say people would be more patient if the compeitotrs of Apple would also be slow in supporting new cameras. But it is the competitors who put the pressure on aperture. They support the new cameras only days after their appearance. This was the case with Nikon D300 as well as the Nikon D700.
Apple has access to the raw data as well as their competitors. Why the time difference? Is Apple not ineterested in their customers?
Instead of giving immediate or close to immediate support to the pro customers Apple is keeping them waiting every time a new camera comes out.
I have been personally insulted by fellow photgraphers for using the latest technology available. I should be waiting for Apple to support my new camera and shut up. As is Apple were some kind of God.

Depends. When Nikon announced the D3 and then the D700 it was a no brainer. They were light years ahead of anything Canon had and were purchased as soon as they were available. No regrets at all. However the D3x is another thing. For the Landscape/Studio pro, there will be a quantum jump in IQ. But what a price! I will wait this one out, but only for financial reasons. Early adopters always pay a huge price, literally. I would not be surprised to see a fall of at least £1,000 in the first 12 months.

Of more interest to me is an Aperture upgrade. Lightroom now has compelling reasons to use it for now. The local adjustment tools I now find essential and over the last couple of months have rarely ventured into Aperture. My visits to Photoshop have also reduced dramatically. I prefer using Aperture, but for now the better tool (for me) is Lightroom. Come on Apple, give us a major upgrade. Worryingly, things are all quiet on the Western Front, and I wonder if Apple will continue to invoke serious development funding into Aperture. I hope the future is rosey but I just have a bad feeling.............

I've never owned a DSLR before, but when the D90 was released I bought it and yes, I was annoyed that the Apples support for D90 wasn't there when I started using my D90. Especially when Adobe already supported the D90.

One thing that Apple could do to improve the waiting experience is to support changing original. Until Camera Raw 2.3 came I hade to convert my raw images to DNG with Adobes free converter. When the support finally came I wanted to replace the DNG files with the original NEF files and still maintain the metadata, adjustments etc. But AFAIK Aperture does not support changing original from DNG to NEF. So I hade to re-import them all.

Of course, in a perfect world it Nikon would produce DNG right in the camera.

I'm the same. In fact I've decided I'm now going to have a one model back rule to avoid the rapid depreciation and the high price tag. The technology is now to the point I can't see upgrading to the current model. I'm currently shooting a D2X and plan on waiting for a D4 to come out before I buy a used D3. I would have to make a lot of images which sell to equal the price of a new D3 or D3X.

I jumped into the DSLR game with the 300D in 2004 and updated to a 30D last year. That's it.

To me, money is more wisely spent on top notch lens equipment instead of the brand-new, shiny can-do-all body.

And I'm just an amateur. Seeing so many pro's going to the lastest and greatest bodies so early and then complaining about their broken workflow because of slow RAW adoption by Apple boggles my mind. As long as people in this business are acting like this, it is really easy to figure out why they have problems earning money in it.

My first digital camera - a crap Fuji - was in 1997, and since then I've had a Canon powershot (okay), Pentax *istD, and now Pentax K20D. So that's 11/4 = 2.5 years.

Unless photography is your job, not your hobby, I can't imagine why you would buy the latest and greatest. Chill out. Rather than obsess over gear, dust off your lenses, and go take some pictures.

"Seeing so many pro's going to the latest and greatest bodies so early and then complaining about their broken workflow because of slow RAW adoption by Apple boggles my mind."

If Adobe were no faster than Apple, you might have a point. In any case, every so often a new camera does give a pro a significant advantage (eg recent high ISO noise performance on Nikon), and it's up to Apple to put the effort into supporting new formats.