Professional Resources for Photographers

I came across an amazing video that I just have to share with you all.

It really hits home in the grand scheme of things and is a MUST SEE, especially for everyone who has a camera in their hands.

Here is another one that is equally as motivational! I am at a loss for words.

WOW! Thanks to Zack Arias for putting this piece together and sharing it with the photography community.

Here is a quick little video that I put together showing you how to assign your favorite Photoshop actions to Function keyboard keys.

The faster you can get your images to do what you want them to, the better! When you have less clicking and moving around then you are optimizing your time to the fullest.

Thanks for watching and enjoy!

I let my close friend and amazing photographer, Chris Zak, borrow my 600mm f/4 lens that I got on loan from NPS and he has put together an awesome review for today’s Tech Review Tuesday article. He will be more of a familiar face around the inLIGHTin’ed Workshops so be sure to comment and make him feel at home! His review is very in-depth and informative.

BTW I love the format that he created for the review… Very clean and organized. Don’t you think?

Nikkor AF-S 600mm f/4D IF-ED II Review
By Christopher Zak
August 25, 2009

Introduction:

This past weekend my family and I headed out to Cape Cod for some relaxation.   While my wife’s idea of relaxation is to settle down with a good book, I tend to enjoy a good hike or drive in quest of a great photo opportunity.   I especially was looking forward to this trip since I was able to get my hands on a Nikkor 600mm lens for the journey.  Visions of close-up wildlife ran through my head the entire drive down to the cape.  I must confess that my primary objective was to simply get some hands-on time with this lens – actually capturing wildlife images would be a secondary consideration.  With an Alaskan trip planned for next summer, I really wanted to evaluate the 600mm lens to see if rental or purchase would make sense.  I must say, what I learned will definitely affect how I approach next summer’s Alaskan journey.  Hopefully my comments will help you in your gear selection as well.

Before we move on, it is important to note that this lens is not the newer ($10,000) 600mm VR lens currently being sold by Nikon.  It is the prior generation lens that can be found on eBay for half the price of the VR version. 

Image 1 – Nikkor 600mm lens and case

Features & Specifications:

No equipment review would be complete without the requisite technical specifications.  Since the specs for this lens can be found elsewhere, I will simply outline some of the major features that I found important. 

• f/4 (the largest fixed aperture you will find on a lens with this focal length)
• Silent wave motor for quiet high-speed autofocus
• Ability to focus down to 5.6m (5.4m in manual focus)
• 9 rounded diaphragm blades that provide blur for out-of-focus elements
• M/A mode to quickly switch between autofocus and manual focus operation
• Auto-focus range limiting switch to improve auto-focusing speed
• 4,750 grams – (think heavy!)
• 430.5mm long – (think long!)
• Rotatable tripod collar (the only acceptable way to tripod mount this lens/camera combination)
• Rear slip-in filter housing (for circular polarizer filter sold separately)

A more complete list of specifications can be found at: http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/telephoto/af-s_600mmf_4d_if_2/index.htm

First Impressions:

Before I even laid my eyes (and hands) on the lens, I was impressed with the moderately-sized Anvil-style case that housed the lens (see Image 1 above).  Even before opening the case I got an inkling that the lens was going to be impressive.  And impressive it was.  As soon as I opened the case, I blurted out a “wow” when my eyes saw this big boy.  This is one big lens, clearly not for the casual photographer.  As I lifted the lens out of the case, it immediately became apparent that this is one heavy lens.  I knew immediately that a tripod was in order.  The sheer size of the front glass element was quite impressive.  I felt as if I had a small telescope in my hands.

As quickly as I could, I connected the lens to my Nikon D700 and snapped a few photos.  Here’s what I immediately noticed:

1)      The minimum focusing distance of approximately 16 feet means you need separation between you and your subject.

2)      The bokeh, or quality of the blurred image, was incredible.  Out-of-focus background elements were rendered smoothly.

3)      Very sharp edge-to-edge images.

4)      My TC-17E teleconverter worked and looked good (providing 1020mm of focal length).

5)      Auto-focusing wasn’t the fastest, but use of the AF distance limiting switch helped.

6)      I preferred to manually focus the lens most of the time.

7)      I immediately wanted Vibration Reduction (VR).

So with my quick first impressions out of the way, it was time to take the lens out into the field to see how it performed (or should I say how I handled it).

Image 2 – Illustration of  bokeh
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/1600 sec. 

Hands-on Experience:

First and foremost, I cannot imagine using this lens handheld.  Its weight and size make it difficult to hand hold effectively.  So I decided to lock it down on my tripod.  Problem number one arose – my carbon fiber tripod uses a ball head equipped with a Really Right Stuff clamp.  Although the 600mm lens included a rotatable lens collar mounting foot, it didn’t fit my RRS clamp.  So for me to use this on my tripod, I had to pull out an older style clamp and swap it out on my tripod head.  While this wasn’t the end of the world, it was a pain every time I wanted to change lenses because I needed to swap tripod clamps.  Lesson learned – remember to purchase the necessary RRS lens collar foot replacement if you buy or rent one of these lenses.  I’m glad I figured this out now rather than on my upcoming Alaska trip.

My next issue arose as soon as I locked the lens down on the tripod.  Lens movement.  As I mentioned, I have a light-weight carbon fiber tripod that I carry with me when I travel.  Simply stated, this tripod failed to provide the support that this lens requires.  Even when this lens was mounted on a more beefy tripod, there was still some movement/vibration.  This is where I found myself wishing for vibration reduction technology.  Had this lens been equipped with VR, my problem would have been solved.  Since it wasn’t, I found that I needed to wait for the lens to stop vibrating and use a high shutter speed to get crisp images.  Since even the slightest amount of wind caused some lens movement, I probably never really got this lens to stop moving.  The problem I have with using really high shutter speeds is that I like to keep my ISO settings as low as possible.  Once I put a teleconverter on the lens and sucked up two more stops of light, I pretty much was ensured of having to raise my ISO settings to be able to shoot with high shutter speeds.  While this wasn’t the end of the world (since the D700 has great high ISO capabilities), it wasn’t ideal for me.  Yes, a more stable tripod would have helped to a degree, but to me the real answer was vibration reduction.  So, needless to say, I will only consider long focal length lenses that have VR from this point forward.  And, if I’m using a lens of this size, I will bite the bullet and carry a heavier sturdier tripod with me.  Hey, if I’m going to lug this beast around, what’s another 4 pounds in tripod weight?  Oh, one last thing here, to keep the camera stead when triggering the shutter, I always used a wired remote trigger.  Whenever possible, I also engaged mirror lockup.

Image 3 – Night photo of the moon
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 3200, f/6.7, 1/6400 sec.

Image 5 – Same image as Image 3 above but cropped to 200%.  Notice the crater visibility.

Now I don’t want to sound too critical of the lens (it’s sweet), but I do want to share my issues.  My next problem came with locating subjects in the lens.  This of course is strictly a user operator issue and not a fault of the lens.  But, I did find myself having to search around to get the lens targeted on my subject.  The lens is so powerful (especially when coupled with a teleconverter), that it sometimes took me a few seconds to find the object I was planning on shooting.  This became problematic when I was trying to take photos of a bird that kept moving (to purposely evade my photo taking efforts).  Unfortunately, the bird’s movements were quicker than my ability to relocate and track the bird in the viewfinder.  So, ultimately, the bird won – I gave up – he didn’t get photographed.  So what lesson did I learn?  Well two.  First, more work with the lens would make me better at using it.  Second, that I would typically use this lens for photographing less robust creatures.  For example, I can see locking this lens down on a tripod aimed at a bird house.  Then, I could simply click the shutter when a bird entered the frame.  Similarly, it would work well for photographing slow-moving or stationary bears eating salmon out of a river.  I can’t envision me using this to shoot Nascar races or football games.  At least not without some serious practice time.  Oh, by the way, it takes some time to un-box the lens, attach the lens hood, mount it to your camera and tripod, and find and focus on your shooting subject.  So consider this if you are planning on doing some run-and-gun photography.  You might be better served with a 70-200mm or 200-400mm lens that is more suitable to handholding or monopod mounting.  

Image 6 – Shot from a distance of approx. 3700 feet away.
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/4000 sec. 

 
Because this lens is an AF-S style lens, it accepts any of the Nikon teleconverters (1.4x, 1.7x and 2.0x).  Only the 1.4x will preserve the ability to autofocus the lens since the 1.7x and 2.0x suck up too much light and exceed the f/5.6 aperture required for the autofocus to be effective.  This didn’t turn out to be much of a problem for me since I preferred to manually focus any way.  But, the autofocus did work well when given adequate light and time.  I guess I can’t really call the autofocus slow, but the range limiting focus switch did improve focusing speed when used.  Hey, it’s 600mm – I’m not expecting lighting fast focusing.  
 

Image 7  – Image of an osprey atop a utility pole shot from ground level approx. 100 ft. away.
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 800, f/11, 1/500 sec.

Image 8  – Cropped Image of an osprey atop a utility pole shot from ground level approx. 100 ft. away.
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 800, f/11, 1/500 sec. 

If you plan to travel with this lens, you really need to consider its size and weight.  Most airlines will probably nail you with an additional bag charge if you send it through with the baggage.  This lens simply won’t fit in most camera bags/back packs.  The lens and case weighed in at 24 lbs.  I personally would consider shipping it to my destination via UPS or FedEx.  Also, once on location, you need to remember that you need to transport the lens out to your shooting location.  If you’re alone, it’s probably going to be an issue on long hikes.  Personally, I found carrying all my gear and this lens to be acceptable for short distances, but  not too desirable when I had to hike a distance.  Keep this in mind before setting out on a hike through the desert!  Working out of the back of your car shouldn’t be an issue.

Things I liked.  Well, the lens is really sharp.  Especially for a 600mm.  In optics, you get what you pay for, and with this lens you’re getting top-notch clarity.  The build quality of the lens was also substantial.  The lens felt solid and not cheap.  Even the case it comes in is well built.  Autofocus switches were large, well marked, and conveniently located.  The lens hood was easy to secure with a single screw and flipped around nicely for packaging.    The way out-of-focus backgrounds were rendered was outstanding.  It is easy to get object-to-background separation with this lens.  Aside from the addition of VR, there’s not much more I would want from this lens. 

Image 9  – Image of a water lilly
Shot with Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with Nikon TC-17E teleconverter.  ISO 800, f/6.7, 1/1250 sec.
 

Image 10  – Same as image 9 above but cropped to 100%

Image 11  – Same as image 9 above but cropped to 200%
 

Summary:

So, would I buy this lens? No.  I wouldn’t consider this (or any other super telephoto) lens without integrated vibration reduction (VR) now that it exists.  That said, if cash wasn’t a consideration, I would absolutely buy the newer VR version of this lens for those once-in-a-while shots.  The one problem that I continued to notice while using this lens was that even the slightest movements (caused by the wind) required me to use high shutter speeds to get the sharpness I wanted.  VR would certainly have helped in this area.  Since VR technology exists, and works well, I absolutely would spend the money to purchase a lens so equipped. 

Now, since cash is obviously a consideration for me, and since I am not a professional nature (or bird) photographer, I would probably opt for a VR-equipped high power zoom lens (that I can occasionally handhold) instead.  I think the versatility of variable focal length, combined with reasonable long reach capability would serve me better.  Couple this with the fact that a lens like the Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 VR is 1475 grams lighter than the 600mm, it would probably make a better traveling companion for me and would work better on a monopod.  While I would sacrifice some focal distance, I feel that the other gains in flexibility and cost savings will be beneficial for my shooting style (think my kids sporting events and nature photography).  Since I plan to use my Nikon teleconverters, I will of course need to stay with an AF-S lens (since they don’t work with other lenses).  For those few times where I will really need the reach of the 600mm, I will rent a lens.  I can’t imagine this happening too often.

So in summary a great lens (especially if VR equipped), sharp with great bokeh, big and heavy, expensive, and tripod-dependent.

Hello fellow inLIGHTin’ed Ones!

Long time no see. How has everyone been lately?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am always thinking and brainstorming… For example, I should be editing a wedding right now. Instead, I have finally came up with where I want to direct my inLIGHTin Workshops. Before I get going, these are all good things! I am in no way, shape or form stopping these workshops so you can let out that sigh of relief now haha ;P

Now in my head I always seen a ‘loop-hole’ in my workshops so to speak… I basically held up a sign that said, “come to me if you want to know anything and everything about photography…” That was ideally what my one-on-one workshops did. You came to me with what you wanted to learn and I taught it. However, in my 5 year plan, I planned on doing more speaking engagements, group workshops and team learning (both locally and on a national level)… How can I get to that point when I only affect one photographer at a time? Also, do I want to be known as the guy who is like the Bob Villa of photography or do I want to be known for being an expert in my strengths and passions? Why give you an overall general knowledge base of things when I can hone into the nitty gritty and provide you with more concentrated content. These are the questions that I have been racking my brain on and here is my answer!

I have a new direction for the inLIGHTin Workshops which will be effective immediately:
All future inLIGHTin Workshops will be conducted in a group environment and the topics of these workshops are now divided into four categories: Lighting, Post-Processing/Workflow, Photography 101 and Nature/Landscape Photography. These are the disciplines that I am most passionate about and love to teach. My lighting workshops cater to my passion for portrait photography. The nature/landscape workshops combine my love for traveling, sight seeing and fine art landscapes. Post-processing and workflow lets out the inner geek in myself and the photography 101 courses will be my way of giving back to the industry. We all started off somewhere so these Photography 101 workshops will get my students more comfortable with their cameras and hopefully help them to acquire a new found love and passion for photography.

Take a look at the following link for more information on what these workshops entail: http://www.inlightinworkshop.com/about/

I will most definitely still offer one-on-one workshops but they will come at a premium and on a more limited basis. Please contact me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com for more information.

I also hope to start taping these workshops and am looking to partner up with a videographer to help this vision become a reality. If you miss the workshop then you can always have access to it via these videos.

All in all, I have big, big plans for The inLIGHTin Workshop and I thank you for being on-board! If you are interested in hosting an inLIGHTin Workshop in your neck of the woods then please email me at Mike(at)inLIGHTinWorkshop dot com .

These workshops have always and will still be 110% about YOU. Therefore, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments so please comment on the blog below and let me know your feedback.

Thanks for reading and for all your support!
Michael

Nothing is more important than backing up your data. Unfortunately, this is something that gets pushed to the wayside so we can get a new camera or lens gets. What good is all that camera equipment if we lose all the images taken with it???

It all boils down to storage… Here are some helpful suggestions on how you can preserve your images for years to come:
1.) Do not format your memory cards until you have backed them up. It is important to have yourself “at least” two copies before formatting your memory card!

2.) Invest in quality not quantity. It is easy to see a hard drive for $80 and want to pick it up. However, be sure to do your research and make sure that these hard drives are reliable. We wouldn’t want to get into a car that wasn’t reliable and take it for a drive across country now would we? Same goes for your hard drives.

3.) Go for speed. Look for hard drives in the 7200rpm or faster range. Also ensure that your external hard drives have various input jack options. These 250 gb rugged external hard drives by LaCie are portable and can withstand a good beating. Trust me, I have tried and they are still kicking!

4.) Things are always better in pairs! Do your research on data redundancy and set yourself up a nice RAID system. The basic nuts and bolts of RAID is that you can have your hard drive mirrored meaning that one could crap out and you will have an exact replica to takes its place. Furthermore, you can put a new hard drive in the old one’s place and have the RAID mirroring kick right back in. LaCie also makes amazing products for redundancy. This particular model is the LaCie 5 Big Network NAS file server and it can expand to offer you up to 7.5 Terabytes of data!!!

Front:

Back:

5.) Upgrade your CDs and DVDs from the Walmart brand to archival grade. The cheap DVDs have an average shelf life of like 5 years. Go with the more expensive, but more reliable, archival disks. These last well over 90 years and are more scratch resistant.

6.) Keep a backup off-site. Take one of your hard drives or keep a running record of DVDs and send them over to your mother-in-laws house. Just keep them somewhere safe and away from where you keep your other hard drives. This goes with the saying about having all your eggs in one basket. Heaven forbid you had a fire or a natural disaster hit your house… Having an off site backup ensures that you have one copy somewhere else that is hopefully going to be out of harms way.

One can get pretty overboard with backups so be sure to do your research and follow a backup regiment that will suit your needs and fit in with your already existing workflow. Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow when my good friend, Christopher Zak, shares his review on the Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens!

I wanted to go over my recent inLIGHTin Workshop for today’s Friday Night Lights segment.

I gave an inLIGHTin Workshop to about a dozen photographers over at the iPrintFromHome.com Headquarters over on Niagara Falls Blvd. For those local to Buffalo… did you know that we have an awesome photo lab right in our backyard?

So we started at 6pm and went a little over three hours! This workshop was all about lighting. We talked about everything from free and available light, to continuous light, speedlights (on and off camera) and ended up on studio strobes… There was A LOT of content and could have easily spent an entire day talking about things…

I had a great time and wanted to thank everyone for attending. I hope to see you at other workshops of mine and as always, call or email whenever if you have any questions guys!

Here are some pics from the workshop that my assistant, Martha, shot during the workshop:

Thanks to the George and Sarah over at the iPrintFromHome.com family for letting us use their space.

What better time to review the Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 VR when a new one has been announced right?

Basically, I just wanted to let you know that this lens is still going to be used by myself and I do not have immediate plans to upgrade to the new 70-200mm with VRII…

Here are the differences real quick between the old model and the new one:
1.) Price! I paid around $1,800 last year from my 70-200mm while the new one appears that it will be going for around $2,400.
2.)VR vs. VR II: You basically get an extra stop of light with this newer version VR. The old one states that you can handhold the lens and get an additional three stops out of it while the new one is rated for four stops.
3.) Lens Coating & Design: The new VRII lens has the nano-crystal coating and sports a new design to boot.
4.) Minimum focusing distance has been dropped from 5 feet to 4.5 feet or so.
5.) The VRII lens is about a quarter inch shorter than its predecessor. However, it is approx. 2.5 oz. heavier.
6.) Sharpness: The new VRII is supposed to have better edge to edge sharpness on the new VRII lens.
7.) AF: Faster focusing with the A/M, M/A and M options.

So if you think that the extra $600 will help out your photography then put an order in for one of the new VRII versions… Otherwise, wait it out and continue to rock it’s predecessor.

I personally love my current lens. The important things are that it is fast to acquire focus, it is sharp (even at f/2.8) and it is comfortable in the hands. Need I say more? This lens has some amazing bokeh (that is the term given to the aesthetic quality of the blurred out background in your image when using a shallow depth of field)

I chose to do this review actually because I have been using this lens for more and more of my work as the days go on. My full frame D700 rocks with this lens. I did find that DX crop cameras give me a little too much zoom (approx. 105-300mm focal lengths after considering the crop factor) for my wedding and portrait needs. This lens coupled with a 2x teleconverter on my D300 DX camera gives me an effective 600mm f/5.6 (you lose a stop of light with each x in the teleconverter so my f/2.8 bumps up to f/5.6) Not too shabby! So all in all, I can use this lens with either a DX or FX body and for various photography assignments.

The image quality of this lens really excels when shooting wide open. Here are some sample pics from a job that I just did where the 70-200mm was used at f/2.8:

 

This lens is a staple for Nikon shooters. There are a couple other “necessary” lenses in Nikon’s lineup that you should have with you. The 24-70mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4 would have to be the other two that I can come up with. Enjoy and check back tomorrow for some awesome workflow techniques!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hello all,
Sorry I have been a little lax in posting the past couple days. I am right in the heart of wedding and portrait season and have been swamped with photo shoots and whatnot.

So I was with my assistant on Saturday shooting a wedding and it dawned on me that our digital SLR’s have come a REAL long way! She has herself a Pentax DSLR and she was having a real tough time with it during the reception which reminded me of how spoiled my D700 has gotten me. Some might think of them as just bells and whistles but I think that many of these can be really helpful… That is IF you know how to use them! I mean heck, Program mode could be considered the best feature that camera’s have since it does everything for you pretty much… Do you think DaVinci hand drew his lines or used a ruler? Know what I mean? We are given these tools so we need to utilize them to make our life easier.

Here are some features that I am particularly fond of and use often. Some are new, some are old and some have totally different names that you just need to link up with the lingo that your camera uses. My experience is with Nikon so that is what I am going to roll with.

1.) Av Mode: It really rocks. I know what my shutter speed should be, it is just that one isn’t always fast enough to get to that proper setting in time to capture “the moment”. I have lost some good pics by being too slow. When I do weddings and portraits, I am really only concerned with setting my aperture and ISO. I want to set it and forget it so Av mode is where it’s at for me. Now Av Mode is not the say-all-be-all and that is where item #2 comes in handy.

2.) Exposure Compensation: If your shots in Av Mode, are too bright or too dark then you need to rock the Exposure Compensation to tell the camera that you want your images to be darker or lighter than what it thinks is a good exposure. Too bright, tell the EC to dial it down by -1.0 or to brighten it up by +1.0. Digital is awesome so you can do a test shot and do the proper EC based upon the histogram and image preview… Check out #3 for a better indication on if your images are over exposed. This works for all the modes except for Manual mode… Using EC in Manual mode does give you a quick way to control your speedlights TTL flash compensation however! More on that in another article though.

3.) Highlight Warning: This feature is great for a quick indication letting you know if your image is blown out and over exposed. Little “blinkies” will fade in and out in the areas that are blown out.

4.) Auto-ISO: I know I want my shots to be above 1/60″ to ensure that I am showing the least camera shake and motion blur from the subject. Auto ISO gives asks for you to set a minimum shutter speed that your camera should not go under… I set mine for 1/80″ to be safe. You also get to choose a lowest and highest ISO that you want to use… This works for all the modes except for Manual mode. So how it works is that as soon as your camera sees that it needs more light and has to go under your lowest shutter speed, it just kicks up the ISO for you to get the shot… Cool huh? My D700 has a minimum of ISO 200 and a maximum of ISO 6400… Why? Because those high ISO files look darned good! I do disable auto ISO when shooting with a flash however… It throws things out of whack for me and it is too much dependencies on one another for my liking.

5.) Custom Menu / Button Assignment: Nothing is worse than having a bunch of buttons that you never use. Instead, I can allocate useful features to otherwise useless buttons on my D700… I have the buttons doing cool stuff like Virtual Horizon, Access Top Item of my Custom Menu (which is set to show my Commander Mode stuff for CLS flash work) and stuff like that.

6.) 3D Matrix Metering: I don’t ‘use’ this much but can see it being REAL helpful for sports shooters. All you really have to do is set the AF point and keep tracking in Continuous AF and you will actually see the AF point move (showing that the AF is following) with your subject as they cross your frame! You should probably enable the 51 AF points and definitely need to use the dynamic AF control.

So those are really cool features that I use and abuse. I would really just suggest cracking open your user manual and search for those little gems that may help out when you out the next time shooting.

Thanks for reading. Check back tomorrow for Tech Review Tuesday! Until then…

I have been a photographer for over 12 years now. To some, that’s how long they have been shooting film alone! However, even though I am only 26 years old, I’ve made my way through the ranks and have been blessed to actually have shot with film, developed it in the darkroom and even wound my own film! With that being said, I’ve used and acquired a lot of camera equipment. And by a lot, I mean A LOT!

Technology is changing so fast that it can be easy to get caught in this “age of obsolescence” where new tech comes out every month. Combine that with forums and internet chatter about the new gear just in case you weren’t enticed enough to get it already. In all honesty, itt is like “keeping up with the Jonses” except on a national level.

So where am I going with this? Photography is expensive… But good news! Today’s cameras are allowing your money to go further. How so? Easy…

Way back in 2001, I had a Nikon D100. This camera was a workhorse. BUT, it sucked at low light. AF acquisition was okay and good luck with noise after ISO 800… Nothing like today’s cameras. So way back in 2001, that D100 ran me a good $1600 or so. I paired that up with a Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 variable aperture zoom lens and that was my setup for quite some time… As you can imagine, I needed a speedlight for a lot of my work in order to have enough light since the lens was definitely not the fastest in Nikon’s fleet.

I managed but it was tough! All in all, that was my gear for 2-3 years. A Nikon D100, SB-800 Speedlight and a 28-105mm zoom lens. All that totaled about $3000 back in 2001. So what can we get for $3000 today?

The money is the same but the features and equipment of today far surpasses what I had to use back then!

Basically all D-SLRs allow you to take control of the following: Shutter speed, aperture and ISO controls. These three items are the basis for photography. The shutter speed and aperture hasn’t changed. However, recent ISO improvements in the current array of cameras have been huge for photographers! My Nikon D700 (D3 too) can get me to ISO 26,500!!! That is madness. Remember me complaining about files coming out of my D100 that were taken at ISO 800? I can now handhold my camera in darker conditions, without a flash I might add, and get superior images than before. What does this mean for today’s photographers? First off, we can save a boat load of money by choosing those slower, variable aperture lenses!

Here are two lenses:
The first is my Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 and the other is my old Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5.

Images courtesy of www.KenRockwell.com

So that 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 ran me around $350 back in the day. What is the price of the 24-70mm f/2.8?? About $1800! That is quite the difference in price… What could you do with that $1500 in savings?

Now let me first start off this comparison by saying that the 24-70mm is one of my favorite lenses. It is sharp at every aperture and could be my one and only lens. I love it! If you have the money to pick one up then I would highly suggest making it your first lens purchase! This article is written for those just starting out or who may be wanting to take the jump to digital so keep that in mind as you are reading this!

So the main difference in specs is the fast fixed f/2.8 vs. the slower, variable aperture f/3.5-f/4.5 lens.

f/2.8 to f/4 is a reduction of 1 stop of light… This is a fact. The difference between the two lenses is a loss of 1.3 stops of light. Long story shot… Big friggen’ deal! 1.3 stops of light is nothing in this day and age. Another big perk is that a lot of these cheaper “kit lenses” as they are also called is the fact that they are now coming with VR built in. Canon calls this IS and others have their own unique name. VR stands for Vibration Reduction. Essentially, there is a floating element inside the lens that moves when enabled and helps correct for camera shake at slower shutter speeds. VR lenses essentially can give you three to four extra stops of light by being able to shoot at slower shutter speeds. Pretty cool huh? Just make a mental note that VR capabilities fix camera shake that is caused on the photographer’s end. It helps correct shake from hand holding the camera and shaking or a wobbly tripod. If you are shooting at 1/25″ second then don’t expect your moving SUBJECT to be still… The camera will still pick up blur from your subjects moving so keep that in mind!

Now the 28-105mm lens seems to be extinct but there are other amazing lenses out there that are ripe for the taking. Many of these newer lenses have the VR option too which is pretty sweet. As a matter of fact, I wrote this article and it encouraged me to pick up the Nikkor 80-400mm f/4-5.6D VR lens. But more on that later…

So here are some Nikon lenses that are in the $300 price range and rock.
Nikon 50mm f/1.8D Prime Lens: $130 (Look maw, f/1.8! Wow. This really means hello low light photography!)
Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 IF AF-S DX VR: $219
Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR ED: $360
Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 ED AF-S DX: $170

What do all those letters mean in the lens name?
ED = Extra-low Dispersion. This came about around 1960-1975′ish and it is a better quality glass that is used for the lens elements. It is harder and helps correct for chromatic aberration (green and magenta color fringes around the edges of your subject).
IF = Internal Focusing. This means that when the auto-focus is activated, the glass elements move inside the lens. This means that the lenses have a shorter focusing distance and can help the lens focus quicker.
DX = the short hand name for the sensor in crop cameras like the D40, D90 and D300 DSLRs (to name a few). When a lens has this in it’s name that means that it is optimized for crop cameras. This is because the lenses have smaller image circles to pair up with the smaller sensors. If you were to put a DX lens on an FX body then the result would be a big loss in resolution. Don’t get me wrong, FX camera bodies would work with these lenses. It is just that my 12mp full frame D700 would end up giving me 6mp images and would basically do the DX cropping for me.
FX = the short hand name for full frame sensors like the ones found in the D700, D3 and D3x DSLRs. Lenses do not have this in their name. It is more of a camera abbreviation.
PC = Perspective Control. This is another name for tilt-shift lenses. These are specialty lenses designed primarily for architectural photography.
Older lenses may have the abbreviations: NIC, SIC or RF to them. I wouldn’t get too caught up with these. If you are buying new equipment, then stick with the newer tech.

So we covered lenses, now it’s time to dive into camera bodies. I would suggest a Nikon D300 ($1500) or the newly announced D300s ($1800). Typically, camera’s that have an ‘X’ appended to their name (i.e. the Nikon D40 vs. the D40x and the Nikon D3 vs the D3x) means that there is a resolution improvement. The D40 was around 6mp while the D40x was in the 10mp range and the D3 is a 12mp camera while the D3x is a whopping 24mp! When you see an ‘S’ appended to the model then that more or less means that the camera has feature upgrades. (i.e. the Nikon D2X vs. D2Xs and the Nikon D300 vs. the D300s)This includes, adding more menu options, video mode, screen size and other various bells and whistles of the like. When a camera has a DX format sensor, that means that it is not the same size as 35mm film. Instead, the sensor is smaller. It is cheaper to make (due to less silicon) and has something called a crop factor (aka lens multiplier) to it. Think about it… If you drew a picture on a large piece of paper and then put smaller tracking paper over it and copied whatever you could then you would only be able to trace a portion of the drawing. The tracing would appear to be A ZOOMED IN version of your original drawing. So if you have a 50mm lens on both a DX and FX camera… The image coming out of the DX camera would appear to be zoomed in. Nikon and other camera companies do the conversion math for you and came up with like 1.3, 1.5 or 1.6x crop factors. All you need to know is that when you throw a lens on your DX camera, just multiply whatever your current focal length is by the crop factor. Let’s do one for an example: I have my D300 with a 1.5x crop factor and mount a Nikkor 70-200mm lens on it. What zoom range do I REALLY have?

70mm X 1.5x = 105mm
200mm X 1.5x = 300mm

So I get more zoom out of that lens with my D300 than I would with my full frame D700. Got it? Good. Back to the topic at hand now…

The D300 has the ability to shoot at ISO 6400… If you wanted to spend more money and drop $2500 on a D700, not only will you get a full frame sensor, but the ability to shoot up to ISO 25,600! If you think back to my D100 which got up to ISO 1600 (without looking like complete garbage) then the D300 will give you an extra 2 stops of light (while the low noise in the image still looking good) or up to 4 stops of light with the D700. Worse case scenario, throw your image into a software plug-in like Neat Image or Noise Ninja to fix the noise in the pics.

In conclusion, you don’t have to drop $30k on slew of camera equipment. You can if you want but you can still have fun and take great pics with a $3,000 setup. Can you purchase cameras that are cheaper? Sure… There are DSLRs in the $500 price range. In my experience though, I found that if you spend that little bit extra and get yourself into the $1500 price range then you will have yourself a very nice camera that won’t be missing an important feature or two and will last you a lot longer. I found that people who start off with the $500 camera’s end up moving up to the $1500 cameras and then take a loss when trying to sell their old one… Just spend the extra money because it will come back and bite you in the butt later on. Lenses; You can get away with a $300-$500 lens no sweat.

So this article was really inspiring to me. Inspiring to cost me money at least. I recently purchased the Nikon D300 (non S version) and paired it up with that 80-400mm VR lens I mentioned earlier. This combo is just killer and can do a lot of damage (in a good way)! This camera/lens combo ran me about $3,000. The perfectionist/snob in me required myself to pick up a MB-10 battery grip for the D300 and RRS (Really Right Stuff) brackets and mounts for the camera and lens. For me, I like having the battery pack and the RRS stuff makes tripod shooting super steady and tight and gives me the sharpest images possible.

This article hit me when I had the Nikon 600mm f/4 lens arrive at my doorstep. I am a NPS member and had one shipped to me as a loaner. It was heavy, bulky and costs upwards of $10,000!!! Sure it was sharper than sharp and was extremely cool to use but good luck taking it with you on an airplane or for hikes. Heck anywhere outside of your house for that matter

I have been eyeing up a crop camera for some time. The D300 is a staple and is a very nice camera so I went with that. I was toying with the 80-400mm f/4-5.6 lens and the 200-400mm f/4 lens (about a $5,000 price difference) when it hit me… GET THE D300 AND 80-400mm LENS AND SAVE $2,000!!!

With the D300 and the 80-400mm, my effective focal lengths are 120-600mm f/4-5.6! Not too shabby. The VR will help with camera shake at those effective focal lengths which is a huge help. I saved myself (and my back) probably 20lbs of camera gear and I have the same focal length… Sure I can’t use teleconverters and I lose a stop of light being at f/5.6 and all but who thought there wouldn’t be a catch somewhere in this?

I knew that going into the purchase. For me, $3,000 is worth the expense for how often I go out shooting birds and wildlife while not taking a huge $10,000 hit for a lens that will REALLY see no use…

I am not dogging the 600mm lens in any way. I am just being realistic with my shooting and weighing in the pros and cons to both. I would say that the 200-40mm f/4 lens is probably the best option for travel, quality and price over the 600mm lens.

Hopefully this article will at least open your eyes up and maybe even save you a few dollars in the process.
Thanks for reading and check out my new articles next week!

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