My Camera Equipment
OK,
so a few folks have asked about the camera equipment I shoot with so
I thought I'd post a little info on my gear. Let me preface all of the
information contained on this page by saying that this is the equipment
I like for my style of shooting. You may or may not like or need what
I use, and vice versa.
I shoot digital exclusively now a days. I used
to own 35mm film bodies (mostly Minolta), but hate going to the photo
lab and getting film developed. I also enjoy the fact that I can try just
about anything I want, and there is no extra cost to see the outcome(you
pay for the ability to do that with the price of the camera body instead
of film). I am able to produce great printed images up to 13" X 19"
with these cameras with very little image degredation.
Nikon D2H- Click
here to go to the Nikon Website with all of the specs of this camera
I recently went out on a
limb and picked one of these bad boys. With all of the Sport Shooting
that I've been doing over the past few years, I really wanted to get my
hands on one of these to make my life easier. This camera has created
a firestorm of controversy with PhotoJournalists and Sports photographers.
There is little arguement that the D2H is one of the fastest, finest handling
cameras on the planet.....there are differing opinions on the overall
image quality.
I've found that my images look great, if properly exposed. Underexposed
images have a tendencey to exhibit ugly noise.
Overall, I am very happy with this camera body. The build quality, speed,
features,etc. of this camera are second to none.....this is a world class
professional camera body!!
Nikon
17-55mm f/2.8DX AF-S G Zoom- This is my 'wide angle' lens. It is designed specifically for digital camera bodies with the APS sized sensor. It is a very new lens being released in March of 2004. I've used this lens a little bit, taking it with me on a long weekend.....it is awesome on my D2h. The focus is blazing fast, and the photos are very sharp and well saturated. Overall I am very excited about this lens....despite it's weight, I think it is going to become my favorite everyday lens.
Nikon
24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor- I've had this lens for a while now (for about 6 months). I have a love/hate relationship with this lens. I absolutely love the focal range.....it covers an excellent range. I hate the fact that it is slow, and kind of soft wide open. I thought this would become my favorite lens taking the place of the 24-85mm f3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S lens it replaced, but it never has become the lens I hoped it would be.
Nikon
70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor- This is my sports and
wildlife lens. Plain and simple, it's awesome!! It gives great color
rendition, fast auto focusing, balances nicely on the D12h, and is sharp
as a tack even wide open. I love this lens!!! It to has the VR feature
to help eliminate shaking when handheld. I often mate this up with my
TC-14E 1.4X teleconvertor for even farther reach. It still produces
very sharp images with the convertor on.
Nikon
300mm f/4 ED-IF AF-S Nikkor- This is another lens that I use for
sports and wildlife. This is a GREAT lens. It's fast, easy to handle,
and takes great shots. I picked this up used off of eBay for about 75%
of the price of a new one and am very happy I did.
Nikon 500mm f/4 ED-IF AF-S Nikkor- This is another lens that I use for sports and wildlife. This is a GREAT lens. The auto focus on my D2h is blazing fast. The images are razor sharp, and well saturated. The biggest problem (if you can call it a problem) is the size of this lens.....it's HUGE!!!!! It weighs in at just over 10 lbs. this is not a carry around everyday lens. But man, when you see the pictures from it, you can't deny that it's worth carrying it around.
Nikon
TC-14E II 1.4x AF-S, AF-I Teleconverter- This is a 1.4x convertor
that I use on the 70-200VR lens to make it a 98-280 f/4. It works very
well for me.
Nikon
50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor- Hey, everyone has to have one of these right?
It's a great lens, that takes very sharp pictures. I don't use it that
much, but everytime I do I can't believe how great the pictures are
from such an inexpensive lens.
Tamron
SP AF90mm F/2.8 1:1 Macro- This is my main lens for macro photography.
I use it to take flower, insect, butterfly etc. shots. It works very
well, and produces nice sharp images.
2 - Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlights-
This is Nikon's top of the line Speedlight (Flash). Its' great, it has
a lot of features, and is very powerful. iTTL and Wireless!!!!!
This is kind of boring stuff, but I thought
I'd add it just the same. The D2h takes Compact Flash memory (CF).
I currently use an IBM 1GB Microdrive, and Lexar Pro WA memory cards.
I like using the Lexar/Sandisk cards the best as they are faster than
the microdrive, and use less power.
Currently I have: 1- 1GB IBM Microdrive,
1- 1GB Lexar 32X Pro WA CF Card, 3- 512MB Lexar 40X Pro WA CF Cards,
and 4 - Sandisk Ultra II 512MB CF Cards
Epson
2200- This is one of Epson's finest printers. It uses the new 7 color
UltraChrome Inks. It prints up to 13" X 19", and up to 2800dpi.
What really matters is that the images printed from this printer are absolutely
stunning. Unless you are right on top of the print, you'll never know
it came from a computer printer. I love this printer.
Colorvision
Spyder with Optical- This little darling keeps my Sony monitor properly
profiled so that the colors I see on the monitor are the actual colors
that will be printed on the printer. A properly profiled monitor is very
important to obtaining the proper color results in photography.
Nikon
Coolscan 4000ED- I recently picked up this Nikon Scanner. It is
SWEET.....this bad boy does an awesome job of scanning negatives and
slides.
There you have it. That's a brief look at
the gear I use. Please keep in mind that camera equipment is NOT the
most important part of photography. These are merely tools used to make
photos. The shot I consider my best (you can see it here)
was captured using a MF Minolta X-700 and a CHEAP tokina lens.......but
it has unbelieveable impact.
You'll
also notice that all of the above information is subjective and kind
of bland......it's meant to be that way. I am not trying give you all
of the technical information about my equipment, but rather share with
you my thoughts on it in my dealings with it. If you want sharpness
tests, or technical data, visit the Nikon Website, or go take pictures
of brick walls to test the sharpness yourself. I am merely trying to
give a feel for what I have, what I use it for, and what my opinion
of it is.
Lastly
choose equipment based on your needs, not what someone else thinks is
great, or works for them. If you like their works, and your style is similar
to theirs, you may well give weight to their equipment choices, otherwise,
pick equipment that compliments and enhances your style.
