Photographic Equipment

 Articles, Tools
Aug 052011
 

I use Nikon DX (APS-C format) cameras and the following lenses.

  • AF-S 300 mm f/4 ED-IF (superb sharpness, contrast and bokeh; close focussing at 1.45 m, which makes this telephoto also a fine close-up lens)
  • AF 85 mm f/1.4 D (superb sharpness and contrast, and a bokeh champion)
  • AF 12-24 mm f/4 G DX ED-IF zoom (excellent sharpness at 24 mm, decent at 12 mm)
  • AF 10.5 mm f/2.8 G DX ED (full-frame fisheye, very sharp, small, and quite useful at f/2.8 for handheld available light shots indoors)
  • AF-S 18-200 mm VR f/3.5 – 5.6 G DX ED-IF zoom (only used occasionally, when I want to travel light, taking only this very good all-rounder – poor bokeh, though – and the 10.5 mm)

A Nikon D3000 with the 18-55 mm kit lens serves as a daily companion; a D90 and D7000 are mostly used on tripod for landscape work.

I have considered full-frame Nikon FX cameras, of course, but the greater weight, size, and cost are not justified by the modest increase in usability and maximum print size they would provide.
 
Luckily I don’t have to run a fiercely competitive photography business and the image quality delivered by the consumer cameras I use now is higher than that of the top pro (and insanely expensive) cameras of only a few years ago.
 
For almost two centuries photographers have been making great pictures with relatively primitive equipment, compared to what I use now. So, today’s consumer cameras are definitely good enough for the photos I still hope to make.
 

For image processing I use a Windows computer with the following software.

   
beauty is of the mind - we see what we want to see