looking to set up in business

I only have a cropped sensor D300 but I want to look in to doing landscape and informal portraits both in Black and White, and with a few decent lenses I'm wondering i both areas could be shot well with a D610 and or a D800 with god lenses

Yes to the D800 and D610 but you can also do a lot of shooting with a D300, it remains a very capable camera body, always start with good glass.

scottfreckle said:

I only have a cropped sensor D300 but I want to look in to doing landscape and informal portraits both in Black and White, and with a few decent lenses I'm wondering i both areas could be shot well with a D610 and or a D800 with god lenses

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The camera is as good as you are. People have come out with amazing images from all sorts of equipment. If you are going to invest in good lenses please get only the FX ones, as they will not only be of use when you shift to FX, but most of them are pretty good in the centre.

I personally prefer the D610 over D800/810, as the files are smaller and it has two SD slots instead of one SD and one CF. I would wait till D620 (or its equivalent) comes with Expeed4 processor and no low pass filter. In the mean time explore AIS wide angle lenses. They are quite reasonably priced, and for landscape you do not need fast lenses, but ones with good linearity and edge to edge sharpness at F8 or above.

aroy said:

The camera is as good as you are. .

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Partly true buddy.

scottfreckle said:

I only have a cropped sensor D300 but I want to look in to doing landscape and informal portraits both in Black and White, and with a few decent lenses I'm wondering i both areas could be shot well with a D610 and or a D800 with god lenses

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camera isnt critical for you. lenses will be night and day with results. a new camera wont do what you need and thats taking it a notch up. save your money and put it to pro glass. glass and a good eye will set your work apart in this "me too! " world of photography.

btw, whats informal portraits? that a photo session when you tell the clients "dont look at my camera, pretend im not here, look to the side" hahaha

love wedding photogs who say, yea we dont do posed shots..one big fat BULL**** LIE! everyone does posed pictures.

Yes I was aware it's the glass that's most important, but I assumed that to be in it professionally you needed an fx sensor. I do love my D300 but i find with a lot of my 'informal portraits' I am just not getting pin sharp on the eyes, I only have a nifty fifty (D) version and bog standard 18-105 dx vr so well aware I will need different lenses. By informal portraits i mean taking them in their work place or where they enjoy their hobby or like to relax, really I just mean out of the studio

scottfreckle said:

Yes I was aware it's the glass that's most important, but I assumed that to be in it professionally you needed an fx sensor. I do love my D300 but i find with a lot of my 'informal portraits' I am just not getting pin sharp on the eyes, I only have a nifty fifty (D) version and bog standard 18-105 dx vr so well aware I will need different lenses. By informal portraits i mean taking them in their work place or where they enjoy their hobby or like to relax, really I just mean out of the studio

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Getting sharp images has very little to do with the body. It is lenses and technique. Do check the AF accuracy of your lense.
. Just mount the camera on a tripod.
. Place a scale at an incline - the bottom towards you and the top away from you.
. Level the camera so that it is horizontal.
. Change the level of the tripod so that the camera points to the centre of the scale (approximately)
. Choose the larges aperture - F1.8 if it is 50mm F1.8, F1.4 if it is a 50mm F1.4.
. Choose the centre AF point. Note the graduation mark.
. Shoot.
. Now on your computer check whether the graduation you focused at is the sharpest. If AF is off the sharpest focus will be either at the top - back focus or at the bottom - front focus.

In case the focus is not spot on, use the menus to fine tune the lense.

As far as getting professional grade images, again FX has very little to do with it. Many professionals are using DX bodies.