My goals for this project were simple:

• Spend less than $30.
• Spend less than 8 hours building it (even taking pictures, I spent only 4).
• Produce something I wouldn’t be embarrassed to use in front of clients.
• Produce something that EASILY folds flat for storage and transport.

Simple!

The finished soft-box.

Broken down and packaged for travel.

Ok, so neither of these cameras is new. They are both decidedly old news at this point. However, the D700 is new to me and even 2 years after release, it is a killer camera (maybe that is why Nikon hasn’t replaced it yet). Inspired by “Crazy Comparison Day” at stevehuffphoto.com, I decided to do a slightly less insane comparison. I’ve owned the D5000 for about a year. It is my first DSLR and really the first land camera I’ve ever used seriously. I’ve run it through about 70K exposures at this point in a variety of situations. Before the nitty gritty, I just want to say, this little camera is great. It is tough and has all the basic options to take great pictures without cramping your style. You get all that in a body that is tiny and very light. You can’t beat it for carry-ability or for compactness. Now, for its (the featherweight) fight with the D700 (the heavy weight)…